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      04-11-2007, 08:19 PM   #1
ed-320d
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Has anyone been to BMW Driver Training?

I am considering the professional driving course, but find that the BMW course is rather expensive. Has anyone been to one? is it worth the $600+?

Maybe we can organise a group booking / as well group meeting.
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      04-11-2007, 08:26 PM   #2
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If you are a member of the BMW Car club of Queensland they currently are offering around 15% discounts to members. The car club in the past has run good driver training courses at various locations around SE Qld for substantially lower costs than the official BMW Driver Training but you use your own car. The last one I went to at Warwick was great fun.
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      04-11-2007, 10:08 PM   #3
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Never been to a BMW driver training day but I did one with Porsche about 5 years ago. It was te best day of my life. $950 at the time but never once have I looked back on it. Had to sign a waiver that the cars wern't going to be driven over 145klm/h but someone forgot to tell the instructors that obviously.

It was at the MT Cotton centre here in Brisbane. Day was divided into 3 sections, skid area where they poured diesal on the ground and wet it (very entertaining trying to control a car at 40 - 60Klm / hour). Then there was the mountain track where only 3 cars were going around as fast as you wanted too. I had a Carrera 4S to 224Klm/h before I had to stomp on the brakes. Steven Richards and Tomas Mezzera were the instructors for this section - both mad!!!!). The last section was teaching to use ABS properly and let me tell you I learnt a lot that day. That was accompanied with an obstacal course.

Lunch was included as well as Porsche glammor models suppling softdrinks and water all day. At the end of the day, the conclusion was the Boxter was just as much fun and better value than the Carrera. The brakes were smoking as we came in to change drivers but they never gave up. The cars had no more than 4000 k's. Want to by a demo anyone ???

I'd do the BMW one if they let us drive the M3's
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      04-11-2007, 10:46 PM   #4
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I've done the Level 1 BMW course as well as a few others like Murcotts.
I think you will find you need to do one of the lower level BMW courses before they will accept you for the professional course.

Even Level 1 was quite fun, driving 325s shared with another course participant. It was conducted at Eastern Creek and in the final track sessions the more experienced drivers were permitted speeds up to about 180km/hr, which felt pretty close to the max the 325s were capable of on that circuit anyway. Aside from this, the highlight was a ride around the trcak as passenger in an M3 driven totally ballistically by one of the course instructors.
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      04-11-2007, 10:51 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vgr02 View Post

I'd do the BMW one if they let us drive the M3's
They do, in Level 2 courses and above.
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      04-12-2007, 01:56 AM   #6
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Why not go to an Ian Luff or the like driver training day? $250 odd is much better valve for money.
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      04-12-2007, 02:51 AM   #7
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I have had the opportunity to go to several. Essential up to the level before the 2 day Fascination Course. I found them to alot of fun and quite educational.

I didn't actually have to do the First level course, as I went on a specific M owners course which essentially meant that the next course I did was the Level 2. When I did the Level 2, you spent the day in M3's, and there was 2 people per car for the day, which meant that you got alot of track time. Essentially you start the day with about an hours worth of theory, and then they take you out onto the track to go through the basics - steering, braking, braking/steering with ABS from several different speeds etc. After that you spend some times hot lapping. The afternoon was then spent learning how to powerslide the car without Traction control. And then more time lapping the track.

If given the opportunity hop in the car with one of the trainers (Geoff Braham if he's there) and get them to take you on a full attack run of the track with traction control off! This was quite eye opening.

I would recommend it, but it is relatively expensive. But you do get do drive BMW's fast around a track...
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      04-12-2007, 07:56 PM   #8
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Same from me. I did the level 1 course at Eastern Creek and it was a great day out. I even use the awesome steering technique they taught us, to this day!

Was thinking of doing the level 2, but at almost twice the price $1000+, it's harder to justify. You would get about 12 laps around Eastern creek in the AM in a 325 and another in the PM in the M3s, from what I was told. In between you get practical (but fun) challenges/lessons and a good lunch.
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      04-12-2007, 09:05 PM   #9
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did the M course as well, courtesy of the car. the nsw club is organizing driver training (currently scheduled for sept) at eastern creek and the cost being thrown around is around $250 so may be good value.
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      04-12-2007, 11:17 PM   #10
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Originally Posted by eml View Post
did the M course as well, courtesy of the car. the nsw club is organizing driver training (currently scheduled for sept) at eastern creek and the cost being thrown around is around $250 so may be good value.
Jeez the M3 is a great car around the track. The hot lap around Eastern Creek was a great showcase for M technology. I particularly liked the agressive SMG gear changes :-)
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      04-15-2007, 07:22 PM   #11
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unless you have an M, don't they supply the car? i would rather go to one like i did before with my other car, cos you learn to drive YOUR car properly...
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      04-15-2007, 08:58 PM   #12
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the benefit of driving your own car on lvl 1 then driving a different car is to learn the learn the techniques of driving that will prepare you for any car. by driving your own car again and again, you might have already learnt how to do various driving techniques but since your so familiar with your own car, you wont understand its significance.
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      04-16-2007, 03:21 PM   #13
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^^ if you're a perfect driver, then more power to you
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      04-17-2007, 05:23 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by astra View Post
unless you have an M, don't they supply the car? i would rather go to one like i did before with my other car, cos you learn to drive YOUR car properly...
I'd much rather take out someone else's car for an old fashioned belting, personally i prefer to keep my car away from the redline and don't particularly want to have to replace a set of tires for one day either.
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      04-17-2007, 08:49 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BMW //MPOWER View Post
I'd much rather take out someone else's car for an old fashioned belting, personally i prefer to keep my car away from the redline and don't particularly want to have to replace a set of tires for one day either.
bmws love the redline (just about but not bouncing off it). also, i've heard a lot of reputable sources that cars frequently run near the redline (again, not bouncing off it) end up running better in the long term.

meanwhile, i also prefer not driving my car in such a way that the end result are mashed tires but driving it around the track smoothly enough not to ruin (or eat) tires but fast enough you're driving it like a bmw should be (sometimes) is therapy for both the driver and the car in these speed-limited environs of ours. the plus is that you'll learn how the car behaves at these circumstances (which is one of the primary reasons for the schools in the first place).
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      04-18-2007, 02:08 AM   #16
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You guys made it sound so good I just signed up for the August beginners class at Phillip Island
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      04-18-2007, 02:43 AM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by eml View Post
bmws love the redline (just about but not bouncing off it). also, i've heard a lot of reputable sources that cars frequently run near the redline (again, not bouncing off it) end up running better in the long term.
I remember vaguely from the user manual of my old e36 320i 6cyl, was to rev the car above 5K rpm at least once a month to make the engine breathe better. I think they removed that from the current user manual for environmental reason.
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      04-18-2007, 03:36 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rodders View Post
You guys made it sound so good I just signed up for the August beginners class at Phillip Island
Enjoy!! - I've had the fortune of doing all 3 of my drive/day training courses there. It's a great race track, with some challenging corners.
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      04-18-2007, 08:42 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BMW //MPOWER View Post
I'd much rather take out someone else's car for an old fashioned belting, personally i prefer to keep my car away from the redline and don't particularly want to have to replace a set of tires for one day either.
lol if i take my car on a course again, i will just put the standard wheels back on
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      04-19-2007, 07:25 PM   #20
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Originally Posted by ed-320d View Post
I remember vaguely from the user manual of my old e36 320i 6cyl, was to rev the car above 5K rpm at least once a month to make the engine breathe better. I think they removed that from the current user manual for environmental reason.
Once a month!? Everyone on this forum should be doing that once a day! LOL
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      04-20-2007, 07:37 AM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JameB View Post
Once a month!? Everyone on this forum should be doing that once a day! LOL
As I said I remembered vaguely so I could be once a week. But definetely it did not mentioned once a day.
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      04-27-2007, 12:43 AM   #22
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I once did a 4x4 driver course.... does that count?? Just kidding!
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