BMW Performance Driving School

[Skuronen]

Hey all,

Just curious if anyone out there has done any of the programs at BMW Spartanburg, SC driving school. I am only about 3 hours away, so it seems like a fun weekend to do.

I was eyeing up both the 2 day car control course, or just skip ahead to the 2 day M school course. There is a decent price difference, and was curious about anyone's experience there.

For some of the these prices...I could have a new set of brakes...or half a supercharger...or...{insert favorite mod here}

Any opinions are much appreciated!

Steffen

[3002 tii]

For the price, I'd rather do a car control clinic or HPDE at a local club, much better value. The cool thing about BMW is that you get to drive their fleet but at least with the local events you get more familiar with your car.

[Karacticus]

Doing the 1 day car control school with my wife was a lot of fun.

Should you decide to do any of them, I believe the BMW CCA discount on these schools is something like 15%, so a $48 membership make a fair size dent in the price.

[Shipkiller]

I did the M course two years ago. While it is pricy, I learned things that I never learned at the HPDE's I run. Even the BMWCCA events. Plus I did not have any fear since I was in their cars....

[Skuronen]

Karaticus...great suggestion on the CCA discount...thanks.

Shipkiller...do they mostly use M3s for the course?

[Shipkiller]

Originally Posted by Skuronen

Shipkiller...do they mostly use M3s for the course?

When I was there is was mostly E90 M3's. But they still had on E86 and I was able to drive that.... No body else wanted to... The instructors ask me what I owned.... told him and he got a big smile on his face and said: "We are going to have a good time"...

http://www.bmwusa.com/standard/conte...s/default.aspx

Also, while you are there, drive across the street to the plant and walk through the Zentrum..

[epbrown]

Originally Posted by Skuronen

Shipkiller...do they mostly use M3s for the course?

They use 3 different Ms for the course. I missed the Z4M period, so my year we used the E90 M3 sedan (technical, curvy sections), E60 M5 (long straights, apex training), and M6 (drifting). The second day, we used the M6 for figure-8 drift training, and used the full course for two sections, one with the M5, one with the M3. It was a lot of fun.

A club membership discount takes hundreds off the price, with additional money off for using a BMW Financial Services credit card. Well worth the money, and they throw in a LOT of swag - t-shirts, jackets, polo shirts, hat, and the race helmet alone is worth a few hundred. The polo shirts run large, so check them first in case you need to exchange; my usual size (XL) was 2 sizes to large with those.

[gtMc]

Bringing an old thread up here rather than creating a new...

I too am looking for some opinions-I know many of you have taken these courses and some of you are also instructors. Have already taken some high perf training before, mostly skip pad stuff, high speed lane change, basic auto-xing, and some instructor led hot laps. the standard pre-requisite 101 stuff.

Am really just looking for more extensive exposure to all of the above, want to start working on heel-toe, controlled drifting and more track exposure. Looking to develop better and safer skills on the road (dont plan to drift on a road, dont worry) and to get a little more track exposure, and to push a few cars to their limits in a safe environment.

I am looking at 1 & 2 day courses, but more importantly my dilemna is:
Skip Barber up at Limerock?
M school in SC?
HPDE with local BMWCCA?

Would prefer to do one of the first two before I show up at a local HPDE. The 'all-in' costs are pretty much even between M and Skip. Anyone been to both or have an opinion on either? any other schools other than Porsche in 'Bama that I should consider?Thanks.

[mitchsf]

I got a free one day class for buying the M3. It was a lot of fun, and a great education. I'm definitely in for M School, hopefully this summer.

[kklin]

Originally Posted by gtMc

Bringing an old thread up here rather than creating a new...

I too am looking for some opinions-I know many of you have taken these courses and some of you are also instructors. Have already taken some high perf training before, mostly skip pad stuff, high speed lane change, basic auto-xing, and some instructor led hot laps. the standard pre-requisite 101 stuff.

Am really just looking for more extensive exposure to all of the above, want to start working on heel-toe, controlled drifting and more track exposure. Looking to develop better and safer skills on the road (dont plan to drift on a road, dont worry) and to get a little more track exposure, and to push a few cars to their limits in a safe environment.

I am looking at 1 & 2 day courses, but more importantly my dilemna is:
Skip Barber up at Limerock?
M school in SC?
HPDE with local BMWCCA?

Would prefer to do one of the first two before I show up at a local HPDE. The 'all-in' costs are pretty much even between M and Skip. Anyone been to both or have an opinion on either? any other schools other than Porsche in 'Bama that I should consider?Thanks.

I started many years ago with Skip Barber in Limerock in 1994 with the 2 day high performance course driving Vipers and other Dodge vehicles. After that I started autocrossing with SCCA. If I had to do it over again, to get the most value out of my money, I would have autocrossed a season and driven a HPDE before plunking down a few thousand on Skip Barber. I just didn't know about the latter two avenues back then. Perry maintains http://www.autox4u.com which has pretty comprehensive coverage for our area.

[gtMc]

thanks for the color - didnt know about autox4u.com.
Im really wanting to do an M school, have wanted to for a while and feel like I just need to get it done. Yep.