RE: BMW M Power Driving Experience: PH Blog

RE: BMW M Power Driving Experience: PH Blog

Monday 15th May 2017

BMW M Power Driving Experience: PH Blog

M2, M4, M6 and more, all in a morning at Oulton Park



The idea of manufacturers using circuits for customer driving experience days is nothing new, but then that doesn't mean they hold any less appeal. Great cars and great circuits don't become less entertaining, do they?

Get used to seeing the traction control light
Get used to seeing the traction control light
The USP of BMW's M Power days is that they're on offer at all the MSV circuits, which now includes Donington. So there's a huge variety of circuits to try M cars on, from Snetterton to Cadwell and Brands Hatch to Bedford. Not something that's always on offer elsewhere.

It's a short, sharp hit of excitement as well, with two programmes a day running and very little dead time spent without driving something. Which is good. Nice though the batak test and the simulators are, you're paying the money to drive cars - thankfully you're not kept from a chubby BMW steering wheel for long.

If anything the day reached its peak early for me, with a 'handling course' in M3s. Essentially said course was a car park with cones and strategically applied water, but since when has oversteering M3s required a glamorous location? There isn't much coaching and it isn't all serious, though it's hard to care particularly when there's smoke coming from tyres - back on the dry bits for that - and the M3 is showing off its very best party trick. Good car, that. If you're an oik.

You want to go fast? Get an M6
You want to go fast? Get an M6
Things get a little more serious with the MSV-prepped M4s, which feature some instruction and V-Box data to fully assess how good (or otherwise) your driving is. Oulton Park is a good place for this, as the Fosters circuit is short (meaning plenty of laps) but sufficiently challenging (meaning there is enough to learn). Without wishing to sound like a complete hoodlum, the M4 is a little frustrating with all driver modes left on. It's an entirely understandable approach but, with the cars little altered from standard (half cage, uprated pads, new tyres), the M4's caged animal persona isn't hard to find. As in traction control intervention in fourth gear. On part throttle. Exiting slower corners therefore becomes a little frustrating!

That being said, it's a very useful exercise for learning the course and your own abilities. The instructor will help you experiment with brake and turning points so that you're so in a rhythm that suits you. The V-Box data will then show you room for improvement - as will a video lap from a pro that makes yours appear in slow motion - and then you're out again for a second run. With some slightly tweaked lines, later braking and a tad more throttle in places, I trimmed five seconds off a best lap.

Oulton Park the perfect setting
Oulton Park the perfect setting
And all this by 11 o'clock. There are a brief few laps each in M2, M4 and M6 road cars too, ideal for identifying similarities and differences between the two. The M2 is still a right hoot on track, though the M4 does feel rather more serious: stiffer, sharper, more aggressive than the smaller car. The Comp Pack seemed more at home on circuit than the MSV-prepped car too. And the M6? What a monster! It feels huge and a tad ponderous around Oulton, yet outrageously fast. I always think you can tell a really quick car when it still feels so on a track, and the M6 absolutely qualifies for that. What on earth will they do for the next one?

Finally, the M Power Driving Experience includes a passenger ride in an M235i Racing. Now normally these aren't all that, but special mention must go here to Paul O'Neill for the most committed, exciting and hilarious passenger lap I've ever had. Four wheels entirely off the road at Oldhall exit? Go on then. Sideways out of Lodge? Yep, fine. Really, really, really close to the M235i on the approach to Druids? Of course, all part of the service. It was absolutely brilliant. Thank you Paul!

There's even a good passenger ride too!
There's even a good passenger ride too!
Then it's lunch already. Four M cars driven, many circuit tips absorbed and drift king dreams lived, all in a morning. Food wasn't bad either. In all serious though, having such a jam-packed schedule means that so much is achieved in a few hours and you're left feeling like it's time and money well spent. We were fortunate enough to be invited by BMW, but anyone can go along (not just M car owners) for £600. For half a day that sounds like a lot of money, though for the amount of driving involved it seems like pretty good value actually. It goes to Knockhill as well...

 

 

 

 

[Source: Donington Park]

 

Author
Discussion

Monty Python

Original Poster:

4,812 posts

196 months

Monday 15th May 2017
quotequote all
Since when does £600 equate to "a few"?

Scottie - NW

1,284 posts

232 months

Monday 15th May 2017
quotequote all
Monty Python said:
Since when does £600 equate to "a few"?
Yes I also found the headline a little misleading.

£600 for half a day does seem steep for the amount of wheel time.

moffat

1,020 posts

224 months

Monday 15th May 2017
quotequote all
Jonathan Palmer day or 1/2 day sounds better value.

More variety and no restrictions on DTC! Even in the wet the instructor had all the nanny devices switched off for me on the E92 M3... it was epic!

sc0tt

18,032 posts

200 months

Monday 15th May 2017
quotequote all
A few is 3.

For a grand i'll take a palmersport day.

b14

1,060 posts

187 months

Monday 15th May 2017
quotequote all
moffat said:
Jonathan Palmer day or 1/2 day sounds better value.

More variety and no restrictions on DTC! Even in the wet the instructor had all the nanny devices switched off for me on the E92 M3... it was epic!
DTC was firmly on for me on the M3s at JP day I did, in the dry. As a result the M3 was by far the biggest disappointment of the day as it was frustrating at every turn and I never got on with it at all.

Matt Bird

1,450 posts

204 months

PH Reportery Lad

Monday 15th May 2017
quotequote all
Scottie - NW said:
Monty Python said:
Since when does £600 equate to "a few"?
Yes I also found the headline a little misleading.

£600 for half a day does seem steep for the amount of wheel time.
Making a tweak now...

Jackspistonheadsaccount

85 posts

99 months

Monday 15th May 2017
quotequote all
I didnt do the full shebang, but I did drive one of the MSV prepared M4s round oulton last summer, good day all in all, but would've liked more time on track. They do have bags of torque though, that traction control light will be a common occurrence, I had it on in fourth using not a lot of throttle at all coming out of druids

Rich_W

12,548 posts

211 months

Monday 15th May 2017
quotequote all
Oulton?

that's Adorable laugh



BMW in Germany does it at a proper circuit, not some minky Kart track wink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx7DoaxGQis

https://www.bmw-drivingexperience.com/en/trainings...

Bit more pricey. But come on! biggrin

Stunters

575 posts

193 months

Monday 15th May 2017
quotequote all
Paul O'Neill is an absolute legend when it comes to hot lap rides. I was lucky enough to have a similar experience with him on a VXR track event at Donington back in 2007. Here's what I wrote at the time:

"I had Paul O'Neill as my chauffeur, and I was in the front passenger seat. He basically just hooned the car around every corner like a drug-fuelled teenager with an ungodly amount of talent! Fantastic fun. In one corner (the old hairpin) he tipped it in at such an angle that I thought he had no chance of recovery. As we rocketed up the next straight I said to him "I didn't think that one was coming back" - to which he replied "Ha ha - neither did I!". Respect is due..."

Edited by Stunters on Monday 15th May 21:32

zebede

122 posts

270 months

Monday 15th May 2017
quotequote all
Has anyone thought that at some point this lot will feature in the classified section with one careful owner?!?

Maldini35

2,913 posts

187 months

Tuesday 16th May 2017
quotequote all

Hmmm

Every road car I've driven has felt out of it's depth driven hard on track.

£600 is a bit much too.

One for the novice I think.

culpz

4,881 posts

111 months

Tuesday 16th May 2017
quotequote all
£600 does seem a bit steep but i'd much prefer this than one of those cheaper, supercar experiences where you only seem to be offered a few steady laps in dated Ferrari's and Lamborghini's. They're the only ones i seem to see anyway.

Seriously though, the TC has to stay on? That probably means that you're using about half the power with that thing cutting in all the time. I can understand that they don't want their cars being binned by racing gods but, come on BMW, really?

Rich_W

12,548 posts

211 months

Tuesday 16th May 2017
quotequote all
zebede said:
Has anyone thought that at some point this lot will feature in the classified section with one careful owner?!?
They did previously!

Thread might be in the BMW forum, but people spotted the low mileage white M3s dumped en masse on the BMW used network. IRC some people clocked the plates.

Yipper

5,964 posts

89 months

Tuesday 16th May 2017
quotequote all
You can fly to Germany, rent an M4 from Sixt, and spend 3 days ragging it up and down the Alps for the same 600 quid driving

Maldini35

2,913 posts

187 months

Wednesday 17th May 2017
quotequote all
Yipper said:
You can fly to Germany, rent an M4 from Sixt, and spend 3 days ragging it up and down the Alps for the same 600 quid driving
YES!!!!!

thumbup

PJZ7

17 posts

108 months

Wednesday 17th May 2017
quotequote all
That last sentence tho! biggrin

Knockhill sold out frown

sc0tt

18,032 posts

200 months

Wednesday 17th May 2017
quotequote all
Yipper said:
You can fly to Germany, rent an M4 from Sixt, and spend 3 days ragging it up and down the Alps for the same 600 quid driving
I can't even see one listed on Sixt.