Track video From WSIR

[White05X3]

First of all, I wanted to tell R6Girl that it was nice meeting you! I hope you had a great time and got all the dust washed off those beautiful wheels! That carbon black/terracota combination is striking!

So I spent the last 2 days attending the BMW CCA LA Chapter driver's school at Willow Springs International Raceway (WSIR). Now I know why they call it the fastest track in the west... hold c#*p that track is fast!!!!

WSIR is basically 9 turns with many elevation and camber changes. There is NO safe place to run off. Ordinarily that would not be such a big deal, but the speeds are SO high!!! For example, the entry into turn 8 was at about 100-105. After holding that speed around a long sweeping right for a few breaths, it is time to break hard to make a fast right through turn 9 and onto the front straight. Get the exit of turn 9 wrong, and your car meets the front of pit wall... At the end of the front straight I was hitting 115, then braking down to 80 for my turn in to turn 1. hard on the throttle to the rev limiter in 3rd gear. A quick stab of the brakes to turn in to turn 2, which is a LONG sweeping uphill right hander. The technique through this corner was to basically stay wide, holding the car right on the edge of adhesion. Once you can see the apex, nail the throttle and let the car push out to the exit. At this point, I am at the rev limiter in 3rd. Brake hard to make the very tight left UP HILL to turn 3, then full throttle to turn 4. Turns 3, 4 and 5 are part of a complex called the omega and involve a ton of elevation change. A quick stab of the brakes to make the rear end rotate a little to turn in to 4, then track left down the hill. At the bottom, hard braking and turn left into turn 5. Max throttle once you get the front turned. The next corner is pretty straignt, but crests a hill while turning. In the X3 it was full throttle all the way, grabbing 4th right after the car settled back down. Then back into turn 8 at 100+...

I was in a group of VERY fast guys in very fast cars. Pretty much everybody passed me but hey... I was in a SAV... The car was very impressive and never put a foot wrong. The DSC was on all weekend and never intervened even once. While my front left tire has seen better days in all the car performed flawlessly. I am completely thrilled with how it did. After this experience I would have no reservation about taking the X3 to the track again.

I have posted some short clips from inside the car at

http://randall-harris.com/wsir.html

Thanks for reading my post!