BMW's "Ultimate Driving Experience

BMW's "Ultimate Driving Experience"

(Auburn, WA - April 5th, 2001)

The AutoCross Relay:


BMW Brochure


The scene: After some practice laps, there in front of us is a pristine BMW 330xi with less than 25 miles on the odometer, ready for "break in" ... It's been raining for the past 30 minutes, and all the cones are back in their upright positions. 16 people (none of whom own the car) and 4 instructors divided into 2 teams. The winner of the race is determined by which team (8 people + 2 instructors) can get the car around the track 10 times, once with each person driving, in the shortest amount of time. Kinda like those 1600M relay races you ran at the track meet in high school... except you use a CAR.
Insane? Well, sorta. Fun? Did you really ask that?


Brian Exiting The Car

Brian exits the car after he has completed his lap. I'm waiting for the tag, after which I have to make a mad dash for the driver's seat.
Erik Entering The Car
That's me sprinting toward the car, trying to see if I can land in the seat with my foot on the accelerator... ok, not really. They made you sit down and put your seatbelt on before you could shift out of park. That happened very quickly, though...
Erik Driving
This is me driving (actually during a practice lap).
Turn 1
This is turn 1 (during practice laps). From the starting line, you could pretty much floor it through the turn, but as it started raining, you had to back off a little...
Entering Turn 3
You really can't see turn 2, but way back there is a mild left and then immediately afterwards is Turn 3, a long, sweeping right. This was the part of the track that made you or broke you. If you came through 2 too hot, you had to brake heavily into 3 and ended up scrubbing off too much speed or understeering through 3 and taking out some cones (that happened in a few practice laps). This is me entering Turn 3, on the brakes a little and steering right pretty hard. I ended up alright through there, but I know I could have done better with some more practice laps.
In Turn 3
If you take 3 just right, you can coast through the middle and accelerate out of the end. This is Brian in the middle Turn 3, right about where you can start accelerating toward the exit.
Turn 4
This is Brian in Turn 4 - if the ground had been dry, there would have been a lot of squealing tires...
EnteringTurn 5
This is me at the end of Turn 4 and the beginning of Turn 5. I must not have taken 4 as fast as Brian - the car's not leaning that much...
Exiting Turn 5
This is one of the other guys taking turn 5 really wide. Individual lap times stopped at the first set of green cones... probably because it you took 6 too fast and understeered, you'd end up in the tent where the rest of us were sitting.
Turn 6
This is me taking Turn 6... hard. I floored it up the straight and nailed the ABS at the last second and stopped exactly between the green cones. I think I scared the instructor who was riding shotgun... oops.

17.392
Woohoo! This is my laptime... the fastest in my run group.


The Test Drive(s):

A whole fleet of 2001 BMWs lies before you.
People in yellow BMW jackets are standing there with the keys saying, "Which one would you like to drive?"
... "ALL of them, of course!" If only we didn't have to leave so soon. I still got in a few test drives (with no BMW salesperson jabbering at me - just me and the car): X5 4.4i, 330xi, 540i Sport Wagon, Z3 2.5i, and Z33.0i. Most fun goes to the Z3 3.0i. Most ridiculously excessive goes to the 4800lb, 282HP, leather equipped small-house-on-wheels X5 4.4i ... and it even has a heated steering wheel!
Z3s
Brian and I took a pair of Z3s out to play.

Rain + Z3 - Traction Control = FUN!
Tachometer in the red
I can't claim credit for this one as I didn't have the camera at this time... driver must have been bored waiting for the light to turn green. And yes, it does sound pretty much like it does in Gran Turismo 2...

The Encore:


Brian Sideways in VR-4
Hey... I wonder how a VR-4 would handle this open parking lot? We can pretend there are lots of little orange cones... Here's Brian showing me how to 4 wheel drift sideways at 30mph in a VR-4.
Erik Sideways in VR-4
Brian, being the wonderful friend that he is, let me try that sideways stuff, too... whee!

Erik, repeat after me:
"I do not *need* a VR-4."
"It is not necessary that I have a VR-4."
"I am perfectly happy with my FWD NA base model..."



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Last Modified Fri May 23 2003 19:46:42 PDT