BMW Driver Training: we tested one of BMW's sports driving courses

A few days ago I had an irresistible opportunity: to participate in one of the driving courses at the BMW school. A sensational experience for everyone who “likes to drive”.

(click the photos to see them larger)

Whether you like to drive or not, taking a driving course is something that all drivers should do at least once in their life, and the sooner the better.. For this reason, BMW offers a multitude of courses: Off-road Experience, Driver Training Winter Course, Driver Training on asphalt, etc. (more information on the BMW website)

In this case the BMW Driver Training, as its name indicates focuses on “training drivers” and proposes four driving levels from the most basic to the highest: Intensive, Improvement, Sports Driving and “M” Experience. The course I attended is the third, focused on sporty driving. He had already taken some courses before (safe driving, economical driving, defensive driving) and in addition to some circuit runs I am also a 4×4 fan and I do my weekend routes. Therefore, I consider that this course suited me like a glove, allowing me to advance in the field of sports driving..

And that's exactly what the course was about: sports driving but starting from notions that are 100% applicable to real life. The thing is to learn/review certain basic notions about controlling a car, learn more about the laws of physics applied to the car and leave the course having learned things that allow us to gain satisfaction for our daily driving but above all in safety.

And what better than learning directly from experts in the field, since the BMW school is made up of people from the world of competition (Balba Gonazalez Camino -3 times GT champion-,  Xavier Diaz, etc.) so every advice and comment is worth its weight in gold.

The course was divided into four parts:

1º A brief contact aboard a BMW 335i on the circuit, accompanied by an instructor who took note of our general level of driving and wrote down our mistakes and vices. The intention was then separate ourselves into work groups with a similar level of management so that the group's progress would be greater. During the return to the circuit the monitor does not make any observations to you, he simply limits himself to writing down what he sees.

2nd theoretical driving class of about 50 minutes. In it we went over the minimum concepts that someone who wants to ride fast safely must have (and this You don't learn "on the street" as some think).

explained by Alberto Rodriguez in an understandable way for all we address the concepts of:

-Subconscious/conscious driving. There is also "incompetent driving", but it is not subject of the course 🙂

-Sport driving position

-Steering wheel handling in fast corners

- Slow curves. chance to dodge

-Progressive and regressive braking

-Tracing curves

-Learn to sacrifice input for a better output

-Inertia control

-Limits of adherence (graphic concept of the "ellipse of adherence")

-Under and oversteer: types

In summary, the ideal layout of a curve consists of the following:

-maximum possible turning angle

-less steering wheel turn possible

-fewer possible line corrections (driving "fine")

-Respect the three times: braking, turning and acceleration

-Avoid understeering and oversteering to improve efficiency and times.

3º Explained all this, it was time to take action. It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount of information received during the scant 50 minutes of theory, but In this case, there is not much distance between saying and doing and you quickly “get the hang of it” with the practical application of all those slides that we have just seen.. The first thing was to practice a series of very interesting exercises, although in my opinion they were short-lived. We could only repeat each one twice and the truth is that it fell a little short.

The exercises were three:

-Slalom. The test consisted of performing the typical slalom between cones at a speed of about 50 km/h. As on all occasions, the monitor showed us the maneuver first, providing advice and emphasizing the absolute confidence that can be placed in a BMW with all the electronic aids connected, regardless of its power. In this case, and given the low speed at which we were driving the most noteworthy is the agility provided by the variable direction (...) of BMW which varies its gear ratio depending on the situation. It is important not to abuse the accelerator so that the electronics do not manifest in the form of a "stuck car" as you go around cones. In this exercise we put into practice the agility of the hands behind the wheel and the transfer of weights.

- Moose test. The most interesting in my opinion was this test, sadly known by many thanks to the disastrous publicity it brought to Mercedes by overturning one of his Class A in the hands of a journalist. Mercedes reacted immediately with changes to the tyres, suspensions and including ESP as standard across the range. I had the opportunity to carry out this test with a Class A and check that the changes took effect, currently being the Class A a stable car.

To add a bit of grace to the test, we had to dodge "the moose" (the cones) to the right or left, as the monitor indicated to us at the last moment. Entry speed was optional but never less than 70 km/h. In my case I made the first attempt without much difficulty at about 85km/h. As "it tasted like little" and the car passed the test without problems I did the second pass at 100km/h. To make things more complicated for me, the monitor told me to turn… STRAIGHT! whereupon I reacted by leaning to either side with a sharp swerve, trying to stay in the dodge lane, and getting back into lane again (taking the "S") with another shallow swerve. This time yes we could feel perfectly how the ESP acted decisively helping me not to lose control of a car hit by a sudden reaction to the steering wheel (also the active steering helps to correct). I unintentionally converted a circuit exercise to a situation that could occur in real life: sudden reaction and startle. Of course this time several cones fell...

-Full acceleration and braking to the limit in curves. These exercises were the least interesting, in my opinion. The first consisted of start from a stop accelerating fully in first, second and third while making a tight turn in a curve of the circuit. The electronics were always present and the car seemed to have 150hp instead of 300. Once again, the controls prevented the car from going out of control even if you wanted to.

The second contributed more to the driver. It consisted of driving at 100km/h and braking hard while taking a curve. The exercise had to be completed. without leaving a corridor of cones less than 3 meters wide. As in the moose test, the first attempt at 100km/h seemed very easy and safe, the car did not move one iota and the rear was hardly unbalanced by the weight transfer. For this reason, hethe second pass was at 130 km/h and things changed, although it did not get out of control. The braking became longer and the rear insinuated itself a little more, I even knocked down two cones (you can see it in the photo, car 14 was ours). The moral is that a car without ABS would not have completed the test in any way. Another conclusion is that if the car has ABS and vector braking, as is the case with this BMW, the maneuver can be completed much more safely. The third conclusion is that if you enter with a manifest excess of speed, not even the best car will save you from throwing two cones... or crashing into something.

4th Complete laps of the Montmeló circuit in working groups (3 participants + instructor). We did not enjoy the complete circuit, but approximately 2/3 parts of the route (3.067 meters. ) It is what is called "national configuration", that is, with its length cut compared to what we are used to seeing on television so that the other part can be used by another event outside ours.

For more than 3 hours and a half we were able to complete laps of the track; with each turn we made it was noticeable as thanks to the corrections of our monitor since we were getting used to the car and the circuit it was possible for us to shoot faster and above all finer. At first it is easy for excesses with the accelerator and the steering wheel to force the DSC to work hard, making us lose time and leaving a bitter taste in our mouth, giving the feeling that «the DSC does not let us give everything we can«. Little by little we are softening the lines, hastening the braking, jumping to the vertex at the right moment and accelerating when it is necessary to do so... and we realize that we ride much faster and with less effort.

As the hours passed we had already gained a lot of confidence and the monitor allowed us to do the last runs with the traction control in a more forgiving mode. The car seemed to be different and allowed us to complete the laps even faster and "show off" a bit with the counter-steering at the exit of the curves.

After several runs with this new electronic configuration of the car, it seemed that we had already learned all there was to learn, and by the way, we were beginning to feel exhausted but…now came the best part. When I was doing the penultimate run I saw a somewhat different car go by on the track: everything a Mr. BMW M3 with 420 hp and we were also going to have the opportunity to drive it!!

After two rounds (8 laps) at the controls of the BMW M3, we proceeded to deliver some diplomas that accredited us as participants in the BMW Sports Driving Course and the day was officially concluded.. From there, another half hour chatting with colleagues about the experience we had just lived, promises to attend the next level "Experience M" and a lot of sensations to remember.

Of course, a whole day in Montmeló with cars of these characteristics goes a long way, and we'll be back soon with more photos, videos, sensations, etc. Do not miss it!!