[MN2///M]

So took advantage of a BMW offer for the One Day Driver's School and upgraded to the One Day M School. I chose Thermal because I have been to Spartanburg twice and wanted to see how the car handled the heat.

As expected the day started very hot and got hotter. Early morning temps when we first hit the track were around 108 degrees Fahrenheit and by the end of the day were 122 degrees Fahrenheit.

My offer included two nights at the La Quinta Embassy Suites which is about 20 minutes from the Track. The hotel includes an evening social with beer, wine, cocktails and light snacks Monday through Friday and full breakfast in the morning. Hotel is nice enough and is well located in La Quinta.

When you arrive at the Thermal Club, the BMW center is immediately to the left of the security gate. There is citrus flavored and bottled water as well as tea and coffee available all day.

The day starts with an hour lecture that could be shortened in my opinion. They start with the instructors introducing themselves with a brief history of their background. Our instructors were Dave, Robert, and Adam. All of the instructors have considerable experience. Next they cover all the basics of seating, hand position/movement and vehicle dynamics and at the end of the lecture, they get a little deeper on vehicle dynamics and proper driving line.

Our class had 7 individuals. My wife and I have an X5 and an M4; for the rest of the class, the F80, F83, E92, X6 and 340 were represented. The F80 driver had already done the One Day M School and was back to do it again and the others had done some other driving or autocross events so everyone in our class had done some type of school or driving event experience. All exercises are done in DCT versions of either the F80, F82 or F87 with DSC set in MDM/Traction. The F8X cars are Competition Package cars with Carbon Ceramic Brakes and 19" wheels.

The 7 of us were broken into two groups. Everyone gets their own car. The instructor rides in his own car and communicates with you via two-way radio.

First Event:
For my group, the first exercise was the skid pad; see aqua on the track picture below. Here the goal is to learn to sustain a drift in the F80 with no DSC assistance. This is done one at a time with the instructor sitting side seat actively instructing you the entire time. You start with gaining an understanding of understeer and oversteer, from there progressing to how to correct oversteer and understeer and then finally to trying to sustain a drift. This progresses based on your personal skill. Some in the group will spend a lot of time learning to just correct while others will spend most of their time trying to sustain the drift. For our group of 4, we each had about 10 minutes on the skid pad.

Second Event:
We then took a quick break to swap to F82s to go do a handling exercise; see the orange line on the track picture below. The straight line across the track is the start point. The instructor first does a lead follow describing the track; vision, braking, turn-in, apex, and acceleration points stopping at each point to discuss in detail. They then do the lead-follow a little faster showing you the proper line. After that, you get in the instructor's car and they do the exercise at full speed so that you can get the in-car perspective. After that, you are turned loose to do lap after lap for about 30 minutes with the instructor focusing on critiquing the first turn of your lap progressing from your acceleration into the corner, at what point and how hard you brake into the corner, watching where you are looking, your turn-in, when and how you let off the brake, how you apex the turn and finally how you accelerate out of the turn.

Third Event:
You then take another quick break to swap cars, this time for my group into the M2. Our group went to the short autocross, marked in red on the track picture below. The same lead-follow process is done; turn by turn follow, slow to faster follow, and instructor ride. After the lead-follow, we were turned loose to do lap after lap. A lap on this course takes right about 30 seconds and all four cars are on the course at one time. If you catch someone, they divert you into the pits to space cars back out. While you are on the track, the instructor is constantly critiquing your performance. This is the course that is later timed after lunch.

Fourth Event:
Next, my group swapped into the F82s to do the long autocross course; green course in the picture below. The same lead-follow process is followed and then you are turned loose. On this course, again all four cars are on the track at the same time, but there are two instructor's critiquing you from opposite ends of the course. If cars begin to get too close, they pit someone to regain spacing.

We then broke for lunch where of course the general conversation is on the exercises and what we have learned so far. Lunch for us was deli sandwiches, salad and a side dish with desert. Several choices on the sandwiches and everything was very good.

Fifth Event:
After lunch, our group went back to the short autocross (red course in picture below) to do timed laps. This time we were in F80s and times were being recorded. You started your run at the solid red line, time started at the dashed line and you had to stop in the red square at the end of the track. In or out of the box added two seconds to your time. Since your time started shortly after you began acceleration, it was important to get a fast start. At the end, brake too soon and you lost valuable fractions of a second, brake too late and you chanced adding two seconds to your time. This exercise lets you put all the skills together in a measured tangible form. They pretty much run one car at a time which was great because you could watch the other drivers and listen to the critique. In the other exercises, you are very focused on what you are doing which makes it difficult enough to just listen to the critique the instructors are giving you, never mind anything they are saying to someone else. They allow you to do a couple of practice laps where they caution you about heating up your tires too much before doing the official timed laps. Overall, you do 6 timed laps if I remember.

Sixth Event:
Next it is back to the long autocross course (green course in below picture) in F82s just to do 30-40 minutes of lapping.

Final Event:
After both groups are done doing the time laps, we all get into M2s and head for the skid pad for the last event of the day and the second competitive event. The rat race. Here they have set up a football shaped course on the skid pad. Cars are placed on opposite sides and race with no DSC activated to catch each other over 3 laps; catch the other driver or be in the lead at the end of 3 laps and you win. If it is tied they keep going till they have a winner. If a car spins out, you stop and start from where you are at. Go inside the cones and you are penalized by two car lengths. Key to this race is steady and smooth. After a practice round, the racing begins, you stay in until you lose and there is an overall winner.

F87 vs F80/82:
It was really neat going directly from the F87 to the F82. The F87 is a joy to drive and you can feel significant differences between the two cars. For me, I felt the F87 was working harder than the F82, but there certainly was no lack of power or braking in the F87 on this course. After lunch, for the timed event we drove the F80 on the same short course that we drove the M2 on earlier. The F80 definitely accelerated faster, braked harder and you could feel the weight difference as compared to the F87. On the short course, the F87 stayed more composed, the F80 was tail happy. I felt you certainly worked harder in the F80 than in the F87 getting around this course. After this experience in my opinion, it takes more skill to be fast in the F80 than it does the F87.

Temperatures & Performance:
Despite 122 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures, pushing these cars as hard as we could and running the AC at full blast the whole time the brakes and cooling of all the cars never had an issue. I did have the power steering go out on both the F82 and F87 near the end of both autocross events, but most of the others were fine. I think one other person had this issue also in the F80s during the timed event. My understanding is that once the steering cools down, the steering comes back just fine. One F87, driven by someone else did display a drivetrain malfunction and the F82 driven by my wife on the final autocross event developed a screeching noise from one of the front brakes. We think this was just a rock caught in the shield, but they switched her to another car.

For those interested, tire temperatures in the F80 were just over 200 degrees Fahrenheit at the end of the timed event, but I did my best time on my third to final lap with tire temps in the 170ish degrees Fahrenheit range. The tires did get noticeably greasy at the end. All the cars were running Continental tires.

On the Instructors:
It is amazing how much the instructors see and know about what is going on in the car from outside of the car. They provide outstanding personalized critiques of your performance without being critical and are constantly pushing you to push yourself and the car harder. All exercises are by choice and the instructors seem to quickly determine how hard and when to push you to get you to reach your full potential.

Final Thoughts:
For those who have never driven like this. Vision is what they drive home the most. You have to be looking as far ahead as you can to get the best line. The thing I found most difficult was braking as late and as hard as I could and coming off the brake smoothly as I completed the turn-in and transitioned to acceleration. The instructors stress that you should be engaging the ABS every time; if you are not, you are braking too soon. In our daily driving, we tend to brake easy with increasing pressure.

I also found that my driving position is considerably different on the track than when I'm daily driving. I had to position the seat back almost completely vertical to keep my shoulders square in the seat. Speaking of seats, most of the cars had the Carbon Structure fabric seating. This was the first time I had seen them in person. They look good if you want black seats and if I did, I would probably option them. They definitely breathe better than the leather and they do grip better when you are sliding the car around.

The two competitive events do receive awards; pictured below. Timed lap gets a medal and the "rat race" winner gets a cool black rat with "The Big Cheese" imprinted on its back and M Performance School imprinted on its belly. My wife won the "rat race" and I won the timed event.

At closing, they give you a swag bag. The items given do change from what I understand so this is pictured below also. Items we were given included a Thermal specific hat, T-shirt, ///M water bottle, notepad, pen, carabiner, ///M lanyard, name tag and of course a certificate.

Thermal as a facility was outstanding. It was as hot as it gets and the heat was truly bearable. The only time I had any issue was the 2-3 laps where the car turned the AC off trying to save the steering. I did not let up and came out a bit sweaty, but that evaporated quickly when I got out of the car. Our hot lap was done with the AC off and windows down. If you come from a hot climate, you could probably do the entire day with the windows down while driving and turn the AC on when stopped.

Overall, you get considerable seat time. For our group, 10 minutes each on the skid pad, 3 - 30-40 minute autocross lapping sessions, and 8 timed laps. No matter what your skill level, you will come out of this a better driver.

I'm looking forward to doing the Two Day M School now, but many have commented on previous reports on how tiring the day is. It is a long day and everyone was tired at the end. The next day, I felt it in my shoulders and lower back. I chose the one day because my wife was coming and what other's reported. She is up for the two day, but admits it will take some effort on her part to motivate herself for the second day. I wish I had booked the two day this time now, but for many, one day will be enough and a second day would be too much.