I received an email a few months ago inviting me to a BMW driving event at the Santa Anita Horse racetrack. I called my "genius" and was told it was a free event, so I signed up. It happened this past weekend. It took about 45 minutes to get there from West LA and it was a hot day in S. Cal. They had set up a bunch of coned autocross tracks in the very large parking lot, as well as one designed to let you drive a few different BMW models really hard. All of these were with an instructor in the car.
The first session gave us a chance to drive an X3 and and i5 40. It was fun and I enjoyed it. I have extensive experience with club racing and HPDE events as a participant and instructor so I really didn't need much info. The i5 was bigger than my i4 M50 and it was surprisingly nimble. The X3 was top heavy but still hustled around the track quite competently.
We did two laps in each car and then were free to visit the car displays and try the sprint autocross track where they had a Z4, a Mini JC Works, a three series something or other and an suv.
I drove the Mini and it was a blast but over in 30 seconds.
This is terrific promo event for BMW and I had fun on my three short drives and met other enthusiasts. I think they oversell these events and there were just too many people, so the opportunity to try all the cars would have taken a couple of hours of waiting in the sun for a 30 second drive. They were also selling their performance driving school programs quite heavily and I can see how someone who has never been on a track of any kind could be tempted to pay $3k or more to do a performance driving school program.
All in all it was fun and I enjoy driving my M50 anyway so It was a worthwhile morning.
The first session gave us a chance to drive an X3 and and i5 40. It was fun and I enjoyed it. I have extensive experience with club racing and HPDE events as a participant and instructor so I really didn't need much info. The i5 was bigger than my i4 M50 and it was surprisingly nimble. The X3 was top heavy but still hustled around the track quite competently.
We did two laps in each car and then were free to visit the car displays and try the sprint autocross track where they had a Z4, a Mini JC Works, a three series something or other and an suv.
I drove the Mini and it was a blast but over in 30 seconds.
This is terrific promo event for BMW and I had fun on my three short drives and met other enthusiasts. I think they oversell these events and there were just too many people, so the opportunity to try all the cars would have taken a couple of hours of waiting in the sun for a 30 second drive. They were also selling their performance driving school programs quite heavily and I can see how someone who has never been on a track of any kind could be tempted to pay $3k or more to do a performance driving school program.
All in all it was fun and I enjoy driving my M50 anyway so It was a worthwhile morning.
