Performance BMW — September 2017

44 PERFORMANCE BMW

Only in its second year, the VanityBMW show has already established itself as a

serious event in the calendar and the 2017 gathering was a fantastic day out.

VA NI T Y BMW

I

t seems criminal that there are only

three BMW-specifi c shows in the UK

despite the scene being so strong but

until Vanity appeared last year there

had only been two so we are thankful

that someone, that being Ed Gould, was

brave enough to go ahead and set up a

new event. It couldn’t have been easy but,

after a very successful inaugural event,

Vanity returned for its second outing and

was once again held at the Beaulieu Motor

Museum in Hampshire, with over 1500

people attending.

A good location is key to a good show

and Beaulieu was an inspired choice as

it makes Vanity a day out for the whole

family, which is important for a lot of

people, and entry into the show also gets

you entry into the excellent museum

itself, so you get a lot for your money.

Of course, the main attraction was the

BMWs and over 800 cars arrived on the

day, a signifi cant increase over last year’s

numbers which is always good to hear, and

there was a fantastic mix of machinery

on show, from fully-restored classics to

fully-modded M cars and with just about

everything else you care to mention.

There were three main display areas,

with general parking taking up a large

portion of Beaulieu’s grassy grounds, a

very large club area, with no less than 16

clubs in attendance, and the show and

shine area as well. To keep things nice and

fair, as well as a large variety of trophies

for the show and shine cars, with winners

and runners-up in various categories,

Barrett Motorwerks had been asked to

sponsor and select a top fi ve from the

main display area, and there was also a

prize for best club stand plus raffl e prizes.

It wasn’t just for fun, though, with £1200

being donated to the HELP Appeal, which

meant that everyone could feel good about

themselves as well as having a good day

out fi lled with BMWs.

Enjoy the pics from this fantastic event

and make sure you put next year’s date

in your diary, that being Sunday 15 July,

because this is a show no BMW fan would

want to miss ●

Wide-body E36 got

a lot of attention

Mental

V8-powered ’02

Very tidy E36 Touring

Words: Elizabeth de Latour Photos: Jack @

PBMW217.vanity_show.ed2.indd 44 07/08/2017 08:38