Looking back on Past Featured Family
Scott And Fran Hughes – The Need For Speed
The largest BMW factory in the world is right here in Greer, SC, producing over 500,000 X-series cars last year.
Right across the road is the BMW Performance Center, where new car-buyers can take delivery of their shiny new BMW while driving a full range of BMWs on the center's test tracks -- where new owners are told with a big smile, "It's not your car and not your tires. Go for it!"
And where Cliffs members have come out as a group multiple times to challenge the track and each other in speed challenges in skid pad and timed events! Completing this "campus" of all things BMW is the BMW Car Club of America Foundation building, on 7.5 adjacent acres, which will soon also house the parent BMW Car Club of America.
The Foundation houses the second largest collection of BMW-related exhibits, memorabilia and historical information in the world, focusing on the history of the marque in the United States.
It is also the headquarters of the nationally recognized Street Survival program, dedicated to teaching teens nationwide safe driving practices designed to give them the skills to be better, safer drivers.
Featured over the last several months was the largest collection of significant BMW race cars in the world – cars that achieved record wins at famous race tracks including Sebring, Daytona, LeMans and scored national championships in the U.S.
Cars came from the Classic Collection of BMW of North America and private collections nationwide. Among the 24 featured cars were four belonging to the Hughes MotorSports Collection. Owned by Cliffs Vineyards members Scott and Fran Hughes, they included the first BMW 2002 to win a national championship, the first BMW E30 M3, the first E36 M3 MotorSports chassis, which raced in both Italy and the U.S., and a very significant 1972 3.0 CSL, which won its class at the LeMans 24 Hours in 1973 (and which Scott had the privilege of racing again at the LeMans Classic in 2012).
The Hugheses have owned BMWs since 1970, a love (and perhaps a bit of an addiction) that began after famous motorsports journalist David E. Davis of Car and Driver magazine published a piece titled "Turn Your Hymnals to Page 2002." Extolling the virtues of this then unusual small boxy car, Davis noted that the unknowing masses of car-buyers would flock to their Chevrolets and Buicks, and miss the opportunity to experience the BMW.
With three small children rapidly outgrowing their current sports car, BMW became the perfect next step and continues to "check all the boxes" on their automobile wish list today.
Scott and Fran have raced, rallied, autocrossed, toured and participated in shows and concours throughout the U.S. The abundance of great roads and scenic adventures in the Carolinas helped bring the Hugheses to the Cliff's. "Our winding six-mile driveway from Route 11 to our home in the Vineyards" is just part of the FUN!
Both have been active together in the BMW Car Club of America since 1970. They started the highly successful national BMW CCA High performance driving school program in 1974 and the Club's national racing program in 1995 where Fran has had a key administrative role since the beginning.
Scott currently serves as a Trustee of the BMW CCA Foundation. His primary focus is on growing the immensely important Street Survival teen driving program. The Foundation will conduct over 100 schools nationwide in 2018 and has trained over 15,000 teens in the program's history. As Fran says, every teen that experiences the inexpensive, one-day Street Survival program is one more we have potentially saved from a severe accident or worse. If you have a teen in your family, make sure they enroll at a school nearby. The schedule is published at www.streetsurvival.org.
The next Foundation exhibit, which starts in April, features the BMW 2002 as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of this iconic automobile. We are gathering special examples of the 2002 from all over the country. The exhibit will continue for six months or more. Learn more about it at www.bmwccafoundation.org.
In the meantime, if you are driving your favorite BMW and see an oncoming BMW flash its lights "hello," it will likely be Fran or Scott, out looking for new roads to explore.
Right across the road is the BMW Performance Center, where new car-buyers can take delivery of their shiny new BMW while driving a full range of BMWs on the center's test tracks -- where new owners are told with a big smile, "It's not your car and not your tires. Go for it!"
And where Cliffs members have come out as a group multiple times to challenge the track and each other in speed challenges in skid pad and timed events! Completing this "campus" of all things BMW is the BMW Car Club of America Foundation building, on 7.5 adjacent acres, which will soon also house the parent BMW Car Club of America.
The Foundation houses the second largest collection of BMW-related exhibits, memorabilia and historical information in the world, focusing on the history of the marque in the United States.
It is also the headquarters of the nationally recognized Street Survival program, dedicated to teaching teens nationwide safe driving practices designed to give them the skills to be better, safer drivers.
Featured over the last several months was the largest collection of significant BMW race cars in the world – cars that achieved record wins at famous race tracks including Sebring, Daytona, LeMans and scored national championships in the U.S.
Cars came from the Classic Collection of BMW of North America and private collections nationwide. Among the 24 featured cars were four belonging to the Hughes MotorSports Collection. Owned by Cliffs Vineyards members Scott and Fran Hughes, they included the first BMW 2002 to win a national championship, the first BMW E30 M3, the first E36 M3 MotorSports chassis, which raced in both Italy and the U.S., and a very significant 1972 3.0 CSL, which won its class at the LeMans 24 Hours in 1973 (and which Scott had the privilege of racing again at the LeMans Classic in 2012).
The Hugheses have owned BMWs since 1970, a love (and perhaps a bit of an addiction) that began after famous motorsports journalist David E. Davis of Car and Driver magazine published a piece titled "Turn Your Hymnals to Page 2002." Extolling the virtues of this then unusual small boxy car, Davis noted that the unknowing masses of car-buyers would flock to their Chevrolets and Buicks, and miss the opportunity to experience the BMW.
With three small children rapidly outgrowing their current sports car, BMW became the perfect next step and continues to "check all the boxes" on their automobile wish list today.
Scott and Fran have raced, rallied, autocrossed, toured and participated in shows and concours throughout the U.S. The abundance of great roads and scenic adventures in the Carolinas helped bring the Hugheses to the Cliff's. "Our winding six-mile driveway from Route 11 to our home in the Vineyards" is just part of the FUN!
Both have been active together in the BMW Car Club of America since 1970. They started the highly successful national BMW CCA High performance driving school program in 1974 and the Club's national racing program in 1995 where Fran has had a key administrative role since the beginning.
Scott currently serves as a Trustee of the BMW CCA Foundation. His primary focus is on growing the immensely important Street Survival teen driving program. The Foundation will conduct over 100 schools nationwide in 2018 and has trained over 15,000 teens in the program's history. As Fran says, every teen that experiences the inexpensive, one-day Street Survival program is one more we have potentially saved from a severe accident or worse. If you have a teen in your family, make sure they enroll at a school nearby. The schedule is published at www.streetsurvival.org.
The next Foundation exhibit, which starts in April, features the BMW 2002 as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of this iconic automobile. We are gathering special examples of the 2002 from all over the country. The exhibit will continue for six months or more. Learn more about it at www.bmwccafoundation.org.
In the meantime, if you are driving your favorite BMW and see an oncoming BMW flash its lights "hello," it will likely be Fran or Scott, out looking for new roads to explore.