Oh, man - just do it! You will love every minute of it. I don't take my X5, but I was at one last year where one driver ran an E53 and she and the instructor had an absolute blast. Definitely wasn't the fastest car on the track, but I bet you'll be very pleasantly surprised how competent the vehicle is at speed.

I think it depends on your goal.

If your goal is to learn the handling limits of your X without much speed involved, I would go to club autocross where you can run the course with your X as is. There will be folks there that will show you the line or after a few cars have been on the course you can follow the black marks. You can find one close to home, it will be less expensive and generally the worst thing that will happen is you will have to buff some pylon orange off your X. Participants are usually very helpful. It is very likely you will be the only X5 there so be prepared for some--you are nuts looks.

If you goal is to go fairly fast and learn handling I would recommend a driving school where the vehicles are provided. Costs a lot more but you will get much more track time and individualized instruction and your won't have to worry about messing up or preparing your daily driver, won't even need to buy a helmet. Atlanta speedway has an exotic car event where you can drive several race worthy cars like Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini on the road course.

If you want to find out what where your pucker factor maxes out and smidgin about proper line I would go to a NASCAR racing school at the speedway. Again you will be using their vehicles and if you go to a 3 day school you can get up to 150+mph in the corners.

I wouldn't go to a road course driving school where I drove my X unless I could commit to going 3 times. From my experience it takes several schools before your X handles the you want it to, you can get rid of the rookie shortcomings, you have memorized the track so you can concentrate on the proper line and you come away feeling you know enough about your limitations and those of your X.

A NASCAR school is a good cheap option for high speed experience. If you don't mind paying a little more, Skip Barber (at Road Atlanta) will also teach you how to turn RIGHT, thus doubling your high speed driving knowledge ;)
About « Skip Barber Racing School
Options with no experience: High Performance Driving School in street cars, or the 1 or 3 day racing school in Miata Cup cars and Formula 2000 cars.

Do you really want to embarrass yourself when they have to tow your X5 back to the pits because something broke after half a lap...lol!!:rofl::bustingupIf that doesn't talk you out of it do a search on Youtube for the guy that rolled his E53 at a track day in Germany...lol!:rofl:

:iagree:

Back in the day, when I was a regular instructor at BMW CCA driver's schools, roll over's were not that uncommon. Perhaps one in every 3-4 days of school time, (each one with over 120 participants). But a lot of the drivers' schools I worked were at former Bridgehampton Race circuit, and as a track surrounded by sand, going off was often a BIG problem. I must say in 15 years of participation, I only saw one minor injury, and that was during a rollover, (the instructor/passenger grabbed the roof through the open window as the car rolled, and broke a finger).

Is this the video you are talking about? BMW E53 X5 4.6IS On Board Lap Of Nordschleife Nürburgring Bridge To Gantry 10th September 2012 - YouTube

Don't buy a BB gun, you're going to shoot your eye out.

You guys seem like you're trying to scare him out of driving on the track.
If you like to drive fast, it's 1,080,014 times safer to drive fast on the track vs. on public roads. Plus you don't have to worry about getting a speeding ticket or worse (make sure you drive exactly the speed limit TO/FROM the track though).

Among other things, check your oil level beforehand. When you autocross these things hard aeration can occur and you'll start to hear valvetrain noise. Best to call it a day if you get to that point.

No that's not the one, it was taped by a spectator, I think the link was posted here on the site. Now that guy's exhaust sounds awesome, good find on this video :thumbup:, I'd still rather track day my C5 Corvette rather than a 5000lb SUV...lol!