BMW Driving Experience Powered by M at NurburgRing

[arobase]

NOTE: I posted this here as I own a 135 M Sport and did not see a specific forum for posts of this sort. Apologies if it should be posted elsewhere.

So last week I was lucky enough to attend BMW training at the Nurburgring. Here is my story...

Day 0 Theory Training before dinner

Spent an hour in theory training. Good stuff. Some of it I already knew. But some new stuff to learn as always.

Dinner was uneventful. Good chatting with instructor.

Turns out he is a suspension engineer and works on Future Projects. Every one started quizzing him on the new M3. His only answers were as follows:

"It will have 4 wheels, an engine and more power!"

No big surprises there. Dinner talk revolved around getting to know each other further and tomorrows training.

Beers after dinner at Lindner bar. German beer good!

Day 1 Training

Total of 80 people in class broken into 10 groups of 8.
We are all in 2012 BMW M3 coupes. Instructor recommends following settings: Power button optional. EDC stage 1. M button On. Leave DSC on.
We train in a Lead/Follow method. We each swap out following our instructor through the sections. So each driver gets to drive each section and ride each section at least 4 times.

4 training sections in the morning. See attached map. The sections I am noting are not completely accurate to where we started and finished each time, but rough estimates from my memory as I did not make detailed notes during training, was too focused.

We lucked out and started our first section at the Tourist start gate. So before lunch we covered the following sections:
1. We start at km 0/21 and stop just past Tiergarten
2. We then covered through Flugpatz
3. Then Fuchsrohre before lunch

We then refilled our cars and had lunch.
After lunch 1 more section
4. Covered through Kallenhard

We then spent the last hour of the day doing full laps of the Nordschleife. We each did 3 laps. Way fast and fun. This track is LONG. Looking at maps and just reading that it is almost 13 miles long with 1000 feet of elevation changes does not fully inform you of the effort involved of driving this track. Just wow!

Great dinner with instructor and group again.

Day 2 Training

4 more sections of training.
1. First section through km 10 between Ex-Muhle and Bergwerk.
2. Then onto Kesselchen
3. Finally we reach the Caracciola-Karussell (see vids and pics)
4. Last section is long and ends at Schwalbenschwanz

Neither of these vids accurately demonstrates the speeds at which these cars were moving by the way. Felt faster onboard.

We skipped the last 2 sections of track as there was not enough time. From Km 19 through the Tourist Exit.

Full laps after lunch! Gopro time!

So. I did really well on my third and final lap.

My goal was to match Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear in a jaguar diesel.

His lap, like mine was from the Bilstein bridge at the tourist entrance to the Audi bridge just before the exit.

And yes I realize that a M3 can and should destroy a Jaguar diesel sedan on the Nurburg Ring. But I have never been here before and I am not a great driver.

His time was 10 minutes as most of you know.

I did it in 9:25.37!

Top speed of 122.4 mph averaging 78 mph.

This makes me very very happy.

I will post a link to the lap video on youtube as soon as it finishes uploading. Please check back.

This is merely a summary of my trip. I could go into more detail of course but time will not allow this. My apologies.

Nothing I can write here can do either the training or the ring itself justice. There is no other track in the world like it and having a BMW instructor certainly seems to me the best way to experience this track. I cannot recommend this experience enough. Like all the BMW training I have done stateside this was a first class event.


Now a special thanks goes to Florian, our instructor from BMW, Matt Mullins who is the Chief Instructor from BMW PDC and was in our group, and James, my fellow student and driving partner whose skills greatly exceed my own and was gracious enough to assist me!

[zamboni]

Nice write up & thanks for sharing.

[Dackelone]

Nice write up. I really want to go to one of these //M schools one day.

[NYC6]

Must have been a great time. Enjoyed the pics.

[arobase]

Here is the link to the lap video as well. Warning: It is long. Enjoy!

Thanks for the feedback.

I had a great time and as Ferris Bueller says:

"It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up."

[willwin2day]

Thanks for a great week!!! It was about as good as it gets!

[arobase]

Agreed.

Look forward to seeing you and Max later this month @ RA!

[1Pirate]

Looks like an awesome time! Thanks for sharing.

I had a great time when I took the one day M school at the PDC in 2006. I'd love to do it again.