Had the opportunity last Friday to do half a day out at eastern creek punting the latest BMW V8 M3 around the track and skidpan.
The day was put on by BMW driver training through our dealer, Col Crawford at Brookvale in Sydney (free plug as they've always been good to us, hope the admins don't mind
)Anyways, the afternoon session which I attended was divided up into 4 activities, laps around the full circuit, an exercise on the skid pan both in the M3 and a timed laps around the little figure 8 circuit behind the medical centre in 325s.
The full circuit laps was my first activity and just bloody awesome, driving a 420hp M3 behind one of the instructors, the closer you get to them the faster they go. Managed to have the rear step out around turn 8 on one lap and the traction control just bought it all back in line before I even realised I had a problem. It's hard to comment too much about it as I'm not much of a driver but the car was just sensational to drive and felt very composed, all round it was just a hoot.
Second activity was the skid pan, setup was a 40m diameter circle laid out with witches hats over the wet skid pan, idea was to turn off the traction control drive round the circle around 50-60kph in 2nd gear and hit the trottle to get the rear to step out, then catch it and continue, this was a lot of fun and I managed to do it a couple of times, though just as many, if not more attempts ended in 180-270 degree spins, second part of the exersize was to turn the traction control back on and try the same thing, well, no one could manage it, the thing would just not let go with the traction control on, crusing round the cicle in the wet and just stomping on the gas to let go 420hp and the car just shot forward, it was impossible to break traction at all, very impressive technology.
Third activity was the figure 8 circuit in the 325's, again a lot of fun, the traction control isn't quite as smooth as the version in the M3 but still quite good. This exersize bought out the competitive side in everyone as it was timed, best time of the day was 38.7, my best was 41.2, its a very short circiut so that difference is quite big, I was towards the back of the timesheets
as I said, I'm not much of a driver!Last activity was a couple of hot laps with one of the instructors first lap the went reasonably hard and it was a real eyeopener, the braking marker for turn 4 seems to be about 2m before the entry, our instructor was absolutely hammering through there it was unbelievable, the rest was pretty much as I'd expected, second lap from turn 2 on was just sideways everywhere and a bit of a laugh.
Anyway, a lot of fun and a great opportunity. Strangely though, it felt pretty good to jump back on the rex for the ride home, the sense of freedom and the agility of a bike, for me, has just as much, if not more fun factor as a 150K car (not that I'd turn one down, they are awesome).
Cheers
Matt
