Why ‘The Queen of The Clownshoe’ Took All Eight Of Her BMW Z3 Clownshoes On A Road Trip

BMW has built a lot of interesting cars over the years, but few are so enigmatic as the Z3 Coupe. Better known as the Clownshoe due to its amusing proportions, the rare shooting brake has a dedicated fanbase like no other.

This year, enthusiasts came together to celebrate the model’s 25th anniversary at the 2024 Schuh Syndikat. The event hoped to set a record this year for the largest congregation of Clownshoes in one place. In turn, fans of the model pulled out all the stops to make that happen, bringing together 96 cars in one place.

Eight of those cars belonged to one woman—Valeria Giordano. I was lucky enough to interview her earlier this year to get the low-down on her amazing collection. That piece is well worth a read. This week, though, she wrote in to fill me in about her latest Clownshoe adventure.

If you’re just tuning in, Valeria has cultivated a collection of eight Clownshoes, all in different colors. She regularly shares her collection with the community. She regularly invites others to drive her cars, and she even uses them to teach people to drive stick.

Valeria lives in New Hampshire, while this year’s Schuh Syndikat was taking place in North Carolina. That’s around a 900-mile road trip. It might have been neat if Valeria took one of her cars down, but she doesn’t do things by half. Or by eighths, for that matter.

“I caravanned all my cars from New Hampshire with drivers from around the country,” she says. With the help of members from the Z Series Car Club of America (ZSCCA), arrangements were made for drivers to help pilot her entire collection down to North Carolina for the meet.

“We logged a total of 19,500 miles, used 886 gallons of gasoline, 3 quarts of oil, 2 cans of AC refrigerant and 1 quart of coolant,” she reports. Do the math and that works out to an economy of 22 miles per gallon. Not bad when you’re having fun! That total distance is no surprise, either, given a straight shot between her home base and the city of Charlotte is 900 miles in and of itself, not counting the drive days involved in the Schuh Syndikat program of activities. “The only major failure was an AC compressor pulley [that] seized, but cutting the belt off solved that problem in short order,” she explains. “Not too bad for eight cars that are 22 to 25 years old!”

There was a purpose behind this eight-car convoy. For the 25th anniversary of the model, it was hoped to arrange the biggest gathering of Clownshoes all in one place. The former record stood at 64, achieved at a meet in the UK. Valeria’s flock helped tip the scales, with the 2024 Schuh Syndikat getting a total of 96 Z3 Coupes and M Coupes assembled in one place.

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Another highlight was courtesy of BMW itself. The automaker brought out the last M Coupe ever assembled for the big event. You can see it parked up at the front of the pack, with the chequered pattern on the hood.

Valeria also collected signatures from fellow attendees. They decorated the hood of her black Clownshoe in a charming display of community.

It’s great to see the pictures of Valeria’s fleet out on the road. Her eight cars make a rolling car meet wherever they go. My personal favorite would have to be the orange one, a 2002 model with the S54 under the hood. I’m a sucker for bright colors, after all. But whatever your tastes in paint, you could probably find something to like among the cars of the Insane Clownshoe Posse.

As you might imagine, rocking up with eight cars made a splash. “I won an award for getting the most attention,” Valeria chuckles. That sounds about right; it’s hard to imagine topping Valeria’s effort without bringing ten or more cars of your own.

If you missed it back in January, it’s well worth giving our first story on Valeria a read. Her tale is one of finding one’s people through a love of special cars. Even better, it’s chock full of photos of a bunch of colorful, fast BMWs which is altogether pleasing in itself.

Ultimately, you can meet some wonderful people just by being passionate about cars and getting out there. Trading stories and having adventures is what it’s all about, and it seems the Clownshoe community knows that well!

Image credits: Valeria Giordano