I had the opportunity to attend an extremely fun event this morning at, our should I say outside of, California Speedway in Fontana. (Too bad we didn't get any track time.
) It was the BMW Performance Drive that is put on by BMWNA's Performance Driving School. It's a way to get BMW driver's into some cool experiences that will make them want to attend the schools that cost lots of money. It is also a short primer on basic high performance driving. This one was free courtesy of an invitation from my dealer.
The instructors are all racers and were very good. We were split up into three groups and took turns going through the skidpad, braking exercise, and autocross. We used E46 M3 SMG Competition Package cars for the skidpad. They had 6 of them. With DSC turned off, we sped around a wet oval and tried to put the car out so that we would learn how to handle a skid or a spin. Did I spin? Hell yes I did. :p That was the whole idea. Go hammer down into a turn and turn with wet pavement and no DSC, that's what happens. It was fun. Some people chose to ride in the back seat while others skidded/spun. I didn't feel like losing my breakfast so I watched until it was my turn. You can see the aftermath of skidding around in wet dirt. Poor cars! Those M3's were beaten The one I drove had 3800 miles on it and it looked like 380,000. Someone washed it with rocks, I think. Needless to say the tires were not in good shape. We did some laps with the DSC turned back on and it is like night and day. It's amazing how well it works. You can feel it controlling the throttle even if you're try to apply it. Electronic nannies can save your butt for sure.
We went on to M6's for hard braking. Yes, they had 4 M6's there for us to abuse. Literally, it was abusive. They kept telling us "they're not your cars" but I still held back with the M6. At least initially, then I let 'er have it. We didn't do much other than accelerate and do emergency braking and steering. It was still fun wailing on the M6. We then did the same thing in 4 "regular" 650i's. They were nice but after the M6, it felt soft and slow. Spoiled!
We then did the autocross in E92 335i's or E90 330's. There were two of each. I got an E92 335i. How did that happen?
That was fun but it was a short course and typical of autocrossing, it was a 2nd gear affair. I didn't beat on that car either. The guy I was paired up with had the tires screaming the whole time. Somehow I don't think that means you're fast.
We then autocrossed in 4 Z4 3.0's, top down. That was fun but got a little boring to be honest with you. The autocross was short and not too complicated and the skidpad had us spoiled for action.
I took a few extra pics of the Montego Blue 335 since there was previous discussion on what it really looks like. I would say it's more blue than Estoril and much brighter than any other of BMW's darker blues. It is also much lighter than Le Mans Blue and nowhere near Interlagos Blue. The pictures are fairly representative.
BMW put on a nice event. They had a short briefing for us, had coffee and muffins, etc, water and sodas at every section of the event, and gave us a nice swag bag with a BMW Performance Driving School cap, pen, very cool BMW lanyard with our plastic ID tags for the day, and literature. All in all, I could have been at work instead.
Pictures here.
Oh, and Kirkx5m was there with his supercharged 4.6is. It sounds like a friggin' muscle car!
Those who will be at WestFest IV will see and hear it.
There were several other X5's there being used as support vehicles although one instructor demonstrated the ABS on a 4.4 as he barreled towards an M6 and jammed on the binders. Whoa! :eek: