I don’t often get out for organized tours with the local e30s but the drive to Sonoma Valley Airport seemed like a good opportunity to take the family some place, make real-world connections with the other e30 enthusiasts and take my car on it’s first really long trip since its m20 engine swap.

The plan laid out on R3vlimited was to meet in Cupertino at Starbucks on the corner of Wolfe and Homestead, then head north as a group.

Turn out for the 90 mile drive was smaller than hoped for – Narayan brought his family in his e39 (he wanted AC… and to protect his m3’s back seats from mistreatment by his son), Oliver Ramos brought his Alpine White m3 and his brother Jesus, Eric Berger was there (hungover from 25 year old scotch) and then of course me and my bunch. The group of 4 cars headed out around 10:00.

A — Cupertino to Sonoma via San Francisco

Traffic was heavier than I prefer, antics were kept to a minimum. Driving through San Francisco kind of sucked. Traffic was backed up approaching the Golden Gate Bridge and it was hard to keep the group together. It was a little intense for me because I haven’t had much practice with hill starting so I tried to keep my cool, avoid rolling back into Oliver’s Alpine m3 and take the whole thing as an opportunity to refine my driving skills.

B — Sonoma Valley Airport

On arrival we met up with another e30 m3 owned by Will Campbell. He seemed to know everything about the planes and visited the airport often since he lived in the area.