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Bavarian Heritage Invitational 2026
Presented by Delaware Valley and New Jersey Chapters of BMW Car Club of America

Saturday, October 17, 2026
10:00 AM to 2:00 PM
New Jersey Motorsports Park, Millville NJ

Bavarian Heritage Invitational, one of the most ambitious events that DelVal has undertaken in quite some time is built to be a way for you to showcase the car you love in a low key competitive event without the stress of "Concours" level preparation.

We have intentionally steered clear of "Concours" in describing our event. Yes, we are going to give the show car a thorough look - we want to see how nice it really is! But we will not be looking under it, under the trunk floor, using any white gloves or Q-tips in the judging. Give your car a really good cleaning inside and out, like you do when you really want to make an impression and then let it speak to our judges! In addition to looking at the exterior, interior, engine compartment and trunk, they will be looking at the overall impression that it makes, either as a preserved or restored to original car, or as a modified car. During the judging, we will invite you to start the car so we can hear its voice and we'll ask you to tell the story of your car.

We'll award trophies for best original and best modified car in each of four BMW eras:

- Pre-Neue Klasse cars up to model year 1966
- Neue Klasse cars built from 1967 to 1991
- Millennial Cars, 3rd and 4th Generation, built from 1992 to 2006
- Contemporary Cars, built after 2007

We will also award three additional trophies looking across all four classes to award:

- The best car with an owner under age 30 years
- The Sponsors Trophy for the favorite car as chosen by our sponsors
- The award for "Best Story" as presented by Autobiography App

Just want to bring your cool car and not be involved in the judging? No problem, just register for the display-only car corral. We will have a separate display area for corral cars and we will try to park like "e", "f" and "g" car together.

Just want to come hang out to check out the cars, register as a spectator and enjoy a beautiful fall afternoon!

All BMW CCA members receive a 10% discount at registration have your member number ready when you register!

Frequently Asked Questions

1) How do I know if my car will be judged as an original car or as a modified car?

Cars will be judged as original when they are as factory built by BMW with no more than the following modifications, which will be allowed in the original classification:
- Aftermarket wheels/Tires, but with factory suspension set up
- Aftermarket exhausts
- Aftermarket Steering Wheels
Cars with more than these modifications will be judged in the Modified classification

2) My car has Dinan, Hartge or other tuner packages which were sold through some BMW dealers, what classification will it be judged in?

Cars with these modifications will be judged as original if the package is limited to the three exceptions allowed for original class cars. Cars with body-work, aerodynamic, suspension and engine mods will be considered modified cars.

3) I see that I can earn bonus points and that there will be an award made for "Best Story". How will these stories be gathered?

Each show car entry will end up with an account on the Autobiography app (ABA), one of our event sponsors who have developed an on-line platform that invites car enthusiasts to set up their own virtual "garage" for their cars. The garage is set up to enable you to enter the VIN or license plate for your car, which results in a look-up that will provide the basic build data for your car. You can then add photographs, a narrative story about your car, the detail of the mods done on the car. Basically you can create an entire origin story for your car. ABA will be looking through the garages for each show car and will award a trophy for the car that in their judgement has the most compelling story! So plan to spend some time building your car in the ABA garage. The judging team will also be asking owners a few questions about their cars during the time they are evaluating each car. This input will also be considered for bonus points for the main awards.

4) How should I prepare my car for the judging?

We have tried to make this event low stress and that includes the preparation of the judged cars. We are suggesting that you do a thorough exterior and interior cleaning of your car. This would be a great time to clean the extra items that might be floating around your car's interior in the various storage bins and cubbys. Clean the spilled soda from the cup holder and carpet, put away the charging cables and radar detectors - try to get the car looking like it looked the day it was newly delivered or completed! Try to get to as close to empty as possible with the trunk. We are not asking for all the contents to be removed, but less is better when the judges look in the rear compartment of your vehicle. We won't asking for you to open the trunk or hatch floor or side compartments, we'll just look at the inside as it appears when you open the trunk lid or rear hatch. Engine compartment should be free of obvious grime, dust and unfinished projects. A good wipe-down cleaning can make a big difference in how the engine area looks! Finally, the judges will ask you to start the engine and listen to it at idle. No reving unless asked by the judges! The judges will watch you start and look for any unexpected lights on the dash. The goal is for the judges to get an overall sense of you car as part of the "presentation" portion of their judging.

5) What if I just want to show my car and not have it judged?

We have you covered, just register for the display only car corral instead of the judged field! We will place your car in a special parking area and we will try to group similar cars in the same general areas. We expect a lot of very cool cars to be with us at this event!