As promised here is my write up from the BMW Two-day Driver’s School that I attended earlier this month in Thermal, California…
You can read about the full program here Driving School but Ive summarized my experience below to help personalize how the activities are laid out.
First off if youve done the BMW new owners track drive the Two-Day Driver’s School includes all of the same with the exception of possibly driving a few different cars on the short auto cross circuit.
I flew into the Palm Springs airport as it is a short 30 minute drive to Indio where our hotel was and only about 25 minutes past Indio to the Thermal Club where the BMW Performance Center is located.
If you have the opportunity to take the class with a friend or spouse I highly recommend it as you are paired up with another driver for both days. I did this with a friend of mine who Ive known since high school and he was equally interested/excited about the course and we were both able to help “coach” each other a bit more by providing additional feedback on hand placement, lines and timing for some of the activities. It also helped to have someone that matched your enthusiasm for being willing to step outside the comfort zone and discuss pros and cons of the day.
Our class had three instructors 1 head instructor Rick and two assistant instructors Rob and Cam.
Our group was 13 people so we had 3 cars in one group and 4 cars in the other group. Each car had 2 people with the exception of 1 car that had 1 person. This allowed for a fairly personal and smal group experience as you get more repetition and thus more feedback from your instructors. Our cars were m240i and m340i. I strongly would encourage the use of seat memory for each of the drivers as you shift back and forth often and this can quickly get you back to the position you want to be in. Also the faster everyone is ready to roll and people are paying attention and focusing on the activity the more cycles you can get through.
Depending upon the activity you are working with either 1 or 2 of the instructors. As you read through the following summary know that while we were doing 1 activity on a given day the other group was doing the other activity e.g. when we were on the timed lap the other group was on the skid pad.
Day 1 activities listed in order for our group were a cone slalom followed by ABS panic breaking up to 45 miles an hour in a straight line followed by the emergency lane change activity then the skid pad and finally the timed auto cross.
Day 2 activities listed in order for our group were a second cone solemn activity that we would later do as a time challenge followed by Interstate braking at 70 miles an hour on a turn, then the new owners track drive on the short auto cross course followed by the new owner X5 off road course. We wrapped up the day with the timed cone challenge and ended on the skid pad. Both days included a 45 minute lunch break and plenty of water breaks between activities.
I was able to use my GoPro for all the activities and found the visor mount to be better then the suction cup mount given the movement between cars. If you are bringing a GoPro or similar I went through 3 batteries (as I would swap batteries when they had about 20 mins left) and was able to hold everything on a 256 GB card when shooting at 4K for both myself and my friend.
Here is the breakdown of the activities by day:
Day 1 began around 8:15 AM with a bit more classroom basics than I would have liked but I acknowledge that everyone needs to be at the same level going into the activities. The curriculum is largely BMW agnostic but there are various nuances that they do use to highlight BMW specific capabilities or nuances such as star marked tires so know that youll get a little bit of sales mixed in with their instruction but it really is minimal and there were at least a few people in the group that had no idea about the star marked tires so it obviously is providing value to some.
Cone slalom was largely straightforward and it focused you on looking ahead and not on the cones and being aware of the spacing of your vehicle as well as your hand placement It also familiarized you with the vehicles handling and its sizing. For me coming from of my daily driver of a 550 My friend and
I jokingly referred to the 240 as an adult version of a go kart as we thought it was small and nimble in addition to being well suited for the activities of the weekend.
For the ABS braking activity we used the straight section of the small auto cross course that the new owner track drive uses, and we worked up to faster and faster and faster speeds getting used to how ABS works. There were plenty of individuals who had never used ABS so this was again helpful for folks if you’ve never felt it and don’t realize that when it is engaged you have to keep your foot on the pedal to keep it engaged don’t stop just because of the sounds and feeling (pulse) you feel through the pedal. The key thing to remember on this activity is that when you push the brake and you think you push the brake as hard as you can there is more room to go and you need to keep pushing to engage the ABS this becomes more and more apparent as at the final step when youre doing it at 45 miles an hour your windows are down and if you properly engage the ABS the windows will automatically roll up to keep debris from coming into the car if this were a real world event.
We then went back out to the same area of the facility where we had done that cone slalom to work on the emergency lane change. Again focus here is hand placement constant speed and use of brakes so each of the prior skills is building on each other, it was also insightful to realize what the cars are capable of when you see the size of the opening you are navigating your car through.
Next we headed to the skid pad and learned how to get the car into a skid and how to recover from the skid. This is also the only section of the course that permits you to have DSC turned off. Having DSC turned off on any other activities and the instructors catching you will result you being parked for the day. This activity also allows you to get familiar with how to use the paddle shifters for those that had not used them previously. There was also a bracket challenge here wherein you were pitted against other drivers to see who could get around the skid pad the fastest without passing the other car.
The timed auto cross was the finale of the day for our group and for me by far the most fun you have a walkthrough or rather a slow drive through of the course with tips from your instructor followed by several timed laps. In our case you had 4 or 5 and your best time was kept. What made it challenging was the ability to have to stop within the stop box versus running through the course and then gently braking after crossing the finish line So think back to the use of ABS earlier and know that youre going to be applying ABS when you come to a stop as if you were to be outside of the stop box on either side its a 2 second penalty.
We wrapped Day 1 around 4:30 PM.
Day 2 began around 8:30 AM similar to Day 1 and our first activity after a bit of classroom refresh was the more advanced cone slalom where are we focused on getting up to a consistently faster speed and rhythm.
We then went into the 70 – 0 MPH braking activity using the long section of the timed auto cross course from yesterday and the tightest corner at the end. The take away here was when using ABS brakes keep the wheel straight and then turn at the very end even though you are entering a turn and the natural instinct is to want to brake and steer simultaneously. Reason being is do not turn earlier as your car can actually stop sooner if the wheels are just straight as the ABS and DSC isn’t having to handle another force e.g. lateral at the same time. We then did the new owners track drive and you can read my prior post on that in this forum here https://g60.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh….php?t=2210313
We then did a double lane change up to about 45 miles an hour which I found also to be straightforward and equally enjoyable as it gave you additional experience should you encounter some sort of debris or an animal suddenly in your path.
From here it was our timed cone activity taking into account what we learned earlier as well as setting ourselves up for turns and where the apexes are to maximize you getting back into a straight line faster. It also ended with a stop box so again use of ABS at the end will set you up for a win to make sure you don’t incur a 2 sec. penalty.
We then headed out to the skid pad for additional practice on starting a skid and coming out of it. We went both clockwise and counterclockwise around the skid pad so you could practice both. I found both ways to be about the same while there were others in the class that certainly found one way to be easier than others so definitely a skill that requires more practice. Additionally for some folks they also had them re-enable DSC so that they could understand just how much the car is doing to keep you in control.
We finished Day 2 around 445pm.
All in all a rewarding time and good jumping off point for their other classes such as the One-Day M School or Two-Day M School. Also there was a 2 Day Teen school occurring the same weekend and overhearing the teens talk they seemed to like it. I may look at enrolling my eldest child next year when they have a few more months of licensed driving experience under their belt as the feedback I heard was although it is open to kids with permits having a bit more time behind the wheel is beneficial and that additional time seems to fall naturally with having also had a license for a few months.
