Driving techniques?
 

Hello all

A few days ago my wife and I decided to have some good safe fun in our X5 4.4, so we went to a big empty privately owned parking lot - and fun as it was :boogie: I was a little disapointed as well - I timed us for 7.5 secs in 0-60 runs - and while that is by no means awful - it is more than the 6.9 sec time BMW says the 4.4 can do.

We also tried to slide the car - now - the X5 is a nice AWD car, but no rally or sportscar - lets face it - the power to weight ratio in the X5 is pretty bad, so with 8.5 inch wide tires I naturally thought it would be a wasted gesture - but to my surprise (and obvious ignorance) it actually could loose grip and toss the back some when you really really wanted it to, and as such we managed to leave a considerable amount of our tires on the lot (I Wish I had brought a camera).

Now all of this brings me to a point - neither me or my wife are master-drivers, and most of the time we were trying to experiment to see what worked. Now - I can imagine that people here know a great deal more about driving than me - so - what techniques can you apply in the X5 to make it do stuff? and how do you get the best 0-60 times?

I'll start off with linking to a 2-part video on youtube.com (I havent tried these techniques in the X)

Part 1: http://youtube.com/watch?v=nrN4ciLsG...4%20techniques
Part 2: http://youtube.com/watch?v=QcIqn8tNR...4%20techniques

Drive it like you stole it :thumbup:

umm... thats the slow way around the track, can't remember how many cars i've passed on the OUTSIDE while they were trying to drift on the track and when i turn to face them as i'm side by side with them only to freak them out (and then get blacked flag for passing like that in a DE/club event but that's another story ;) )... but to each their own...

you can't learn by watching vids or reading books... gotta go to the track for some real instruction and seat time if you really want to learn...

Ya the X could be a pretty sweet drift machine...especially when it is wet...you just gatta make it do what you want! ...DID you try launching the X for quicker times?

Yup even my 2.5 liter X3 can do nice drifts.........wet or dry. When dry I have to really gun the throttle, but in the wet it loosens up easily and progressively. For optimum accel times, make sure DSC is fully off, road is flat (or downhill if u want to cheat), not too much excess weight in the car, and launch it!

Maybe u could also borrow someones suv that has more hp/torque. For instance at 4788pounds;420hp;0-60 in 4.5 the jeepsrt8gc has more torque than any of those cars in the videos. Although u have to turn off the esp and gunn it round the corner after u've steered the car just slightly in the wrong direction. Since i've had the srt8 and srt10 the x5 has just been sitting in the garage but it at least it does have more rubber left on its tires

Alot of BMW clubs hold meets at tracks and large parking lots for performance and safety driving instruction - If you do a factory p/u, you get to play with one of their X5 4.8s and get to play on the skid pad, track, and the 4x4 courses (+ factory & museum tours) - something to think about when ordering your next X.

hayaku is correct- instigating a drift is the slow way around the track. The trick is learning to drive at the limit while taking the vehicle's limitations into account. Watch a road race sometime- you can see it even in a NASCAR road race- the drift is instigated by speed, not violent movements of the throttle or steering. Smooth is fast and if smooth instigates a little drift, you are at the limit.

When I had my 4.4 I had the opportunity to push the X hard on some great back roads in northern PA and in parts of West Virginia. What I found was that I didn't have the stones to get to the limit with the 19's on it in the summer. I could get there with the 17's and winter treads. For a heavy vehicle, the X5 sticks like glue.

How do you launch an automatic? The way I did it was to just come from a standstill to flooring it.

For best results, put transmission in SD, with your left foot on the brake as firm as you can, use your right foot to rev the the engine to say........2500+ rpm (this can vary). When you've got the revs, let go of the brake and floor it!