CrazyJ
12-21-2007, 12:36 PM
Awesome experience! PCD for a tiag E90 335 on 12/19. We originally picked up in Munich on 11/3:
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=243052
Arrived at the Marriot late around 10:30 PM the night before. We missed the restaurant hours but they let us order off the ED menu via room service and it was great! Room service is available until 11:00 PM. Breakfast in the morning was excellent. The whole place is top notch.
We arrived at the performance center and, boy they aren't kidding, the program starts right at 8:00 AM. First we were introduced to our excellent instructor, Donnie. 15 minutes in the classroom and we jumped in the cars. All 3 series deliveries drive E90 335s w/ sport. Also the ones we were in had premium, cold weather, and rear sunshade.
The driving segments were awesome. They encourage you to really push the car which was very compatible with my expectations ;) Every time we got out of the cars all I could smell was rubber! The instructors were really helpful while still letting you do your thing.
First was the braking exercise, which was about 1/6 a mile of acceleration, 100 feet of stopping, and 1/2 mile of crazy pedal-to-the-floor around a road course to get back to the start! Even my wife got really into it which surprised me.
Next was the slalom which is designed in a loop also. This was definitely the highlight for us both. Only rule here (that i was aware of) is you can't pass another car. Otherwise it seems anything goes, which we fully took advantage of! So much so that before the next exercise they gave us a new car because one of our tires was flat (we didn't hear an alarm-- no RFTs at PC?). The 335s were simply amazing. The DSC got slightly annoying when cutting the throttle, but I'm pretty sure we'd have ended up on the adjacent X5 off road course without it!
After a break we did the DSC exercises on the skidpad. This felt very gran turismo-esque without the DSC and the normal physics taking over. This was a very controlled exercise but gave a very night-and-day comparison of w/ and w/o control systems. I got points deducted for trying to recover from my spin and gassing it (in my gran turismo style) to swing the rear end around ;)
We next took off with X5s and did the off-road course. This was a hell of a lot of fun and really shows off a lot about the x5. We may even be x5 owners in a couple of years!
After the driving exercises we drove loaded 650s (night vision, etc) over to the zentrum museum and hung out there for an hour. I really enjoyed looking at the formula cars. They had a 1.5 liter turbocharged 4-cyl that produced ~1400 HP! Everything is right up close and easy to see.
Lunch is really good and gives you a chance to talk with the staff. These people are really nice and very dedicated to their jobs.
After lunch we did the hot lap with Donnie in an M5. WOW! This was a true race car and Donnie is an awesome driver! The drifting he did was just incredible.
Finally Jonathan showed us our car. Looked even better than it did in Munich! We had requested 'no vehicle overview' in order to get scheduled for pre-christmas, but Jonathan was still very helpful to get us everything we needed to get going: sirius activation, bmw assist activation, and phone pairing. We ran out of memory card in our camera so no pictures.
I want to thank Jonathan, Donnie, and the rest of the staff at the PC. I know it's their job, but they really seem to go out their way at both the performance center and on these boards to make everything as seamless and enjoyable as possible. They have made this into a wonderful program that every new owner should take advantage of. Hope to see you guys again sometime!
Turn up the volume on these videos to hear that beautiful 335 exhaust note:
Jennifer Slalom -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GwDmiNpYvM
Jennifer Braking -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTR3xAdaz4A
Jake Slalom -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9j7_YNydW8
Jake Braking -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plrEGHc0pZs
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=243052
Arrived at the Marriot late around 10:30 PM the night before. We missed the restaurant hours but they let us order off the ED menu via room service and it was great! Room service is available until 11:00 PM. Breakfast in the morning was excellent. The whole place is top notch.
We arrived at the performance center and, boy they aren't kidding, the program starts right at 8:00 AM. First we were introduced to our excellent instructor, Donnie. 15 minutes in the classroom and we jumped in the cars. All 3 series deliveries drive E90 335s w/ sport. Also the ones we were in had premium, cold weather, and rear sunshade.
The driving segments were awesome. They encourage you to really push the car which was very compatible with my expectations ;) Every time we got out of the cars all I could smell was rubber! The instructors were really helpful while still letting you do your thing.
First was the braking exercise, which was about 1/6 a mile of acceleration, 100 feet of stopping, and 1/2 mile of crazy pedal-to-the-floor around a road course to get back to the start! Even my wife got really into it which surprised me.
Next was the slalom which is designed in a loop also. This was definitely the highlight for us both. Only rule here (that i was aware of) is you can't pass another car. Otherwise it seems anything goes, which we fully took advantage of! So much so that before the next exercise they gave us a new car because one of our tires was flat (we didn't hear an alarm-- no RFTs at PC?). The 335s were simply amazing. The DSC got slightly annoying when cutting the throttle, but I'm pretty sure we'd have ended up on the adjacent X5 off road course without it!
After a break we did the DSC exercises on the skidpad. This felt very gran turismo-esque without the DSC and the normal physics taking over. This was a very controlled exercise but gave a very night-and-day comparison of w/ and w/o control systems. I got points deducted for trying to recover from my spin and gassing it (in my gran turismo style) to swing the rear end around ;)
We next took off with X5s and did the off-road course. This was a hell of a lot of fun and really shows off a lot about the x5. We may even be x5 owners in a couple of years!
After the driving exercises we drove loaded 650s (night vision, etc) over to the zentrum museum and hung out there for an hour. I really enjoyed looking at the formula cars. They had a 1.5 liter turbocharged 4-cyl that produced ~1400 HP! Everything is right up close and easy to see.
Lunch is really good and gives you a chance to talk with the staff. These people are really nice and very dedicated to their jobs.
After lunch we did the hot lap with Donnie in an M5. WOW! This was a true race car and Donnie is an awesome driver! The drifting he did was just incredible.
Finally Jonathan showed us our car. Looked even better than it did in Munich! We had requested 'no vehicle overview' in order to get scheduled for pre-christmas, but Jonathan was still very helpful to get us everything we needed to get going: sirius activation, bmw assist activation, and phone pairing. We ran out of memory card in our camera so no pictures.
I want to thank Jonathan, Donnie, and the rest of the staff at the PC. I know it's their job, but they really seem to go out their way at both the performance center and on these boards to make everything as seamless and enjoyable as possible. They have made this into a wonderful program that every new owner should take advantage of. Hope to see you guys again sometime!
Turn up the volume on these videos to hear that beautiful 335 exhaust note:
Jennifer Slalom -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GwDmiNpYvM
Jennifer Braking -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTR3xAdaz4A
Jake Slalom -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9j7_YNydW8
Jake Braking -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plrEGHc0pZs