ansetou
10-31-2007, 07:35 AM
Ok, some might say the title is misleading. Well, I bought a 535xi but I was assigned a 550i at the PCD (:thumbup: smooth and powerful ride). And I'm going to give a lot of details about the experience so consider yourself warned if you don't want to ruin your surprise.
Just a note on the Marriott -- We got there pretty late on Thursday night. The restaurant was already closed at the Marriott. Good thing I called earlier to let them know so when we arrived, food was already in our room. Nice cold cuts with fresh meat. Too bad they couldn't get me some wine I asked for but that's probably just me asking for too much. And we had a good sleep as usual. Marriott's bed and pillows generally don't disappoint me.
We woke up early and got to the PCD in a shuttle bus. I think there were about 12 ppl in total in this group. We felt lucky to be on the younger side among the group. We were welcome by Donnie and Jimmy at the PCD. They started by giving us a lecture on some basic idea of how to handle a car in the turn, how BMW ABS and DSC are designed to help in extreme conditions. And I don't think my wife understood much of it which was proven when we got on the track later ;)
After the lecture we were taken out to the track. There I saw must have been like 5 or 6 M5 and M6 mixed together with other BMW model. You can imagine how excited I was being a new fan of bimmer. Well, luckily, we were not assigned a 530 wagon as my sales lady told me a couple weeks ago. My friend and I jumped into the 550i and the wifies took the 530i.
First course, ABS and hard turn. We were instructed to run 3 different speed, 40, 45, 50 mph, and trying to avoid a imaginary object in front of us by making a sharp turn while slam on the brake. The ABS was supposed to allow maneuver of the car while trying to slow it down. 40 was easy. The car actually stopped in time right before hitting. And 45 was a different story partially because the Donnie told us to brake a little closer to the curve. I really had to work my steering wheel hard but the car made that turn without a trouble. Now that I was super confident about the car, I got a little lose on my control of the speed. So at the 50-mph run, I think I hit 60 mph instead. My excuse was the headup display had some delay in displaying the right speed. So as you can imagine the car rushed through the curve and went into the grass off the track. No problem. This track is dummy-proof.
2nd course, slalom and curves. A bunch of cone were setup on a longer track. We were supposed to slow down right before the blue cones and speed up after the yellow. And there were also a line of about 8 cones setup for us to zigzag around them. A very fun course. Once again, I got over confident after the first run and got into the turn a little too fast in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th try. :b. Jimmy warned me but he was pretty cool though. I finally found the right feeling going into that curve. This is my favorite course.
3rd, drifting. j.k. But we did do some spinning on the skid pad. It's a circular track of smooth concrete covered w/ water intended to make you lost control. 1st run, we were instructed to turn off DSC and just floor the gas while turning in from out edge of the track. This caused the rear wheel-drive car to spin. Just when the car was facing back (180 turn), I was told to hit the brake and this brought the car back on to the track facing front. After doing it twice, jimmy turned on my DSC. Now he told me to do exactly the same thing and the car started to, well, driving by itself. My right foot pushed all the way down on the gas peddle but the car was controlling the speed of moving by giving less gas and applying brake on the inner 2 tires. This is amazing how smooth the BMW DSC was.
Our last activity was driving the X5. It's not my favorite since I like driving fast and that doesn't work with the off road course. But it was still fun to know how solid the X5 is when half way into the water or w/ 3 tires on the ground. 4 of us were in one spacious X5, and when trying the Hill Descent Control, I even lift my right foot in the air just to proof to my rear passengers (the wives) that it was indeed the car controlling the speed.
We were then taken to the museum that's about 1 mile away. And man we travelled in style for this short trip. My wife and I were given a black 650 with SMG. The car was fast and powerful and my wife really liked the sporty interior.
During lunch I hinted to Donnie that I still feel like missing some thing. Well, he knows exactly what I was looking for, the M5 experience. Donnie then took turns to take 2 or 3 ppl each time on to the track. This is where I realized how much difference skill can make on the speed of the car. He's driving much faster on the same track I tried earlier and it still feels very smooth. He also did some real drifting on both the dry track and the skip pad. The interesting thing was drift on the skid pad seemed so easy to him that he was laying back in his seat and just holding on the steering wheel casually at the bottom of it as if he was using cruise control.
Well, it's great experience. And I want to thank both Donnie and Jim for being great hosts. Maybe next time I'll go there and take some other racing courses.
Just a note on the Marriott -- We got there pretty late on Thursday night. The restaurant was already closed at the Marriott. Good thing I called earlier to let them know so when we arrived, food was already in our room. Nice cold cuts with fresh meat. Too bad they couldn't get me some wine I asked for but that's probably just me asking for too much. And we had a good sleep as usual. Marriott's bed and pillows generally don't disappoint me.
We woke up early and got to the PCD in a shuttle bus. I think there were about 12 ppl in total in this group. We felt lucky to be on the younger side among the group. We were welcome by Donnie and Jimmy at the PCD. They started by giving us a lecture on some basic idea of how to handle a car in the turn, how BMW ABS and DSC are designed to help in extreme conditions. And I don't think my wife understood much of it which was proven when we got on the track later ;)
After the lecture we were taken out to the track. There I saw must have been like 5 or 6 M5 and M6 mixed together with other BMW model. You can imagine how excited I was being a new fan of bimmer. Well, luckily, we were not assigned a 530 wagon as my sales lady told me a couple weeks ago. My friend and I jumped into the 550i and the wifies took the 530i.
First course, ABS and hard turn. We were instructed to run 3 different speed, 40, 45, 50 mph, and trying to avoid a imaginary object in front of us by making a sharp turn while slam on the brake. The ABS was supposed to allow maneuver of the car while trying to slow it down. 40 was easy. The car actually stopped in time right before hitting. And 45 was a different story partially because the Donnie told us to brake a little closer to the curve. I really had to work my steering wheel hard but the car made that turn without a trouble. Now that I was super confident about the car, I got a little lose on my control of the speed. So at the 50-mph run, I think I hit 60 mph instead. My excuse was the headup display had some delay in displaying the right speed. So as you can imagine the car rushed through the curve and went into the grass off the track. No problem. This track is dummy-proof.
2nd course, slalom and curves. A bunch of cone were setup on a longer track. We were supposed to slow down right before the blue cones and speed up after the yellow. And there were also a line of about 8 cones setup for us to zigzag around them. A very fun course. Once again, I got over confident after the first run and got into the turn a little too fast in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th try. :b. Jimmy warned me but he was pretty cool though. I finally found the right feeling going into that curve. This is my favorite course.
3rd, drifting. j.k. But we did do some spinning on the skid pad. It's a circular track of smooth concrete covered w/ water intended to make you lost control. 1st run, we were instructed to turn off DSC and just floor the gas while turning in from out edge of the track. This caused the rear wheel-drive car to spin. Just when the car was facing back (180 turn), I was told to hit the brake and this brought the car back on to the track facing front. After doing it twice, jimmy turned on my DSC. Now he told me to do exactly the same thing and the car started to, well, driving by itself. My right foot pushed all the way down on the gas peddle but the car was controlling the speed of moving by giving less gas and applying brake on the inner 2 tires. This is amazing how smooth the BMW DSC was.
Our last activity was driving the X5. It's not my favorite since I like driving fast and that doesn't work with the off road course. But it was still fun to know how solid the X5 is when half way into the water or w/ 3 tires on the ground. 4 of us were in one spacious X5, and when trying the Hill Descent Control, I even lift my right foot in the air just to proof to my rear passengers (the wives) that it was indeed the car controlling the speed.
We were then taken to the museum that's about 1 mile away. And man we travelled in style for this short trip. My wife and I were given a black 650 with SMG. The car was fast and powerful and my wife really liked the sporty interior.
During lunch I hinted to Donnie that I still feel like missing some thing. Well, he knows exactly what I was looking for, the M5 experience. Donnie then took turns to take 2 or 3 ppl each time on to the track. This is where I realized how much difference skill can make on the speed of the car. He's driving much faster on the same track I tried earlier and it still feels very smooth. He also did some real drifting on both the dry track and the skip pad. The interesting thing was drift on the skid pad seemed so easy to him that he was laying back in his seat and just holding on the steering wheel casually at the bottom of it as if he was using cruise control.
Well, it's great experience. And I want to thank both Donnie and Jim for being great hosts. Maybe next time I'll go there and take some other racing courses.