Thought it appropriate to post a quick summary of my recent roadtrip to Greenville SC to attend the One Day M School at the BMW North America Performance Driving facility, adjacent to the Greenville Factory that builds the X5/X6 and Z4 models for the global market.
Total trip was 975 miles, from Alexandria VA to Greenvile SC; by far the longest trip I've taken in the two years I've had the car. VERY nice to get the car out of traffic and on to the open road. Primarily interstate, moderate to light traffic for the most part through VA, NC and SC. Speed limits from 55 to 70 mph.
The car ran flawlessly, truly an asphalt vacuum. The car never wants for torque, even in 6th gear overtaking is never an issue. Speed varied from posted limit to well over
with V1 in very light traffic; mileage average was 22.1 for the trip. This car gets about 13 in traffic, so if your mileage sucks in town the car is fine it just hates stoplights.
The paint on my hood took a beating. I have Xpel clearbra on lights and front portion of hood, but I collected a number of very small, powder fleck sized chips on the upper portion of the hood now; clearly sustained driving at high speed is not good for this paint...
I leave enormous space for trucks and seek to avoid them completely to best of ability; I'm even very cautious following cars - but despite this the paint took a beating. Next time, I will apply a good hard wax coating just before leaving; that may prevent some of it because its not big rocks, but very small particles at big speed making nicks... I can imagine what leading edge of hood would look like with no protection.
So M School. I did the one day course, they offer a two day course and and Advanced Course (at VIR/Richmond) also. The 1 day course offers wet skidpad time, autocross, and time on the roadcourse. There's about 1hr in AM of theory; proper racing line, over and understeer, braking, vision. Outstanding instructors - from SCCA, Sprint Cars, NASCAR, WSC - very wide range of experience.
Then out to the cars; 07 & 08 M's. SMG M5 & M6, and 6sp M3 Sedans. You drive each car once in AM and once after lunch, a total of 6 sessions. Wet skidpad, over and understeer; braking; autocross; and roadcourse. Mostly in M Dynamic mode and some skidpad is DSC off. I left DSC on for most part; they ask you too for one thing and it still lets you slide around quite a bit in most aggressive setting. I was never really wishing for more power nor did I feel like it slowed me down much.
The track is just under 2 miles, you catch about 100mph max on long straight, before braking for turn. The roadcourse is 2nd/3rd gear in M5, skidpad and autocross are 1st/2nd gear in M3 & M6.
The whole course is Magnificent, well instructed and enormous fun. I am hardly shrinking violet on street but this course was much faster than I expected - "more throttle, this is M School!" - biggest "holy crap" was braking; astonishing how fast you can scrub speed with M brakes and how late you can wait to brake hard... old news for race car drivers but not something you practice much on the street.
First few laps you have to recalibrate your "I'm gonna die" meter to stay on the go pedal.
In all, a terrific introduction to high performance driving in a safe and very professional environment. At the end they take the class out in M5's with instructors, DSC off and floored 500hp. Unbelievable and hard to explain how much faster professional race car drivers are than everybody else; you learn stuff with the car sideways at 100 for the 200th time that you don't learn going to the mall, apparently!
These guys were going faster than I thought possible and completely relaxed, like they were doing a crossword puzzle.
They also film you in the cars and mail you a DVD a few weeks after the course, with video of you in cockpit and driver point of view. Haven't seen mine yet but looking forward to it.
Highly recommended, and graduation makes you eligible for two day Advanced course at VIR in Richmond with same cars, but speeds up to limiter and plenty of lead-follow instruction. Saving my pennies...
One final note - in discussing cars at lunch with instructors, I mentioned I was driving E39 M5. Instructors stated in unison, "we really miss that car" as they apparently kept fleet of 18 for some time while in gap between 2003 and E60 M5. Nothing but great things to say about durability and performance; I could also tell they were sincere in their enthusiasm and not just telling me what I wanted to hear.
They really loved the car and said it was as near bulletproof a sedan as you could buy, they drove the crap out of them for several years and had very few failures, although to be fair the cars are well maintained as the facility is also tech training center. I asked about the clutch and they indicated they did mangle a few, but said it works just fine as long as you don't slip it; the rest of the car they found all but unbreakable.
Interesting visit, and a very enjoyable day.
Cheers,
Craig
Road Trip - M School
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