[champignon]

Not entirely germane to this discussion, but I throw this out.

A good friend of mine was driving his 8 or 10 year old pickup, with his GF as the passenger a couple of days ago, on a two lane road with a 65 mph speed limit. Some geezer in the other lane drifted off and crossed the center line, headed straight on for my friend's truck. He did what he could to avoid a head-on collision, and in that sense he succeeded, but got nailed on the rear and his truck was totaled. Everyone basically walked away from the accident, which could have produced 3 fatalities had my friend, by report, not been as attentive as he was. The other driver, in his 70s, was cited for "inattentive driving," and according to what the highway patrolman told my friend, this dude was out of it and likely shouldn't even have a driver's license.

It looks like my friend did a helluva job, with only a few seconds to react as this happened at a curve with limited visibility.

I'd sure like to learn the limits of my car in order to execute the same sort of maneuver should the unfortunate situation present itself to me. Even a minor distraction in the car could have prevented his ability to get out of this one alive, from what he said to me on the phone today.

Do these schools teach this sort of thing?

[calbears]

Originally Posted by champignon

Not entirely germane to this discussion, but I throw this out.

A good friend of mine was driving his 8 or 10 year old pickup, with his GF as the passenger a couple of days ago, on a two lane road with a 65 mph speed limit. Some geezer in the other lane drifted off and crossed the center line, headed straight on for my friend's truck. He did what he could to avoid a head-on collision, and in that sense he succeeded, but got nailed on the rear and his truck was totaled. Everyone basically walked away from the accident, which could have produced 3 fatalities had my friend, by report, not been as attentive as he was. The other driver, in his 70s, was cited for "inattentive driving," and according to what the highway patrolman told my friend, this dude was out of it and likely shouldn't even have a driver's license.

It looks like my friend did a helluva job, with only a few seconds to react as this happened at a curve with limited visibility.

I'd sure like to learn the limits of my car in order to execute the same sort of maneuver should the unfortunate situation present itself to me. Even a minor distraction in the car could have prevented his ability to get out of this one alive, from what he said to me on the phone today.

Do these schools teach this sort of thing?

The car control schools (the ones below the M schools) do teach accident avoidance and ABS braking. the accident avoidance portion is at speed with quick lane change and then back to your original lane. Plus you get the skid pad to learn to correct under and oversteer. It's well worth it.

[jhall1957]

This makes me LOL! I have a buddy that got this offer. I haven't! I currently own 6 BMW's(3 M cars) and over the last couple years I've owned over 20 counting track cars and such.

The only "free" stuff I've gotten was a few pictures and stuff when I bought my 1M.

I guess I'm being over looked....

Hello Porsche! Maybe they will love me

[UltraMagneticAL]

taking any of the M-schools also allows you to take the advanced m school and the m school at the nurburgring.

edit: also the i use the same skills taught at m school when driving on public roads....just not as aggressively.

[akkando]

Originally Posted by champignon

Not entirely germane to this discussion, but I throw this out.

A good friend of mine was driving his 8 or 10 year old pickup, with his GF as the passenger a couple of days ago, on a two lane road with a 65 mph speed limit. Some geezer in the other lane drifted off and crossed the center line, headed straight on for my friend's truck. He did what he could to avoid a head-on collision, and in that sense he succeeded, but got nailed on the rear and his truck was totaled. Everyone basically walked away from the accident, which could have produced 3 fatalities had my friend, by report, not been as attentive as he was. The other driver, in his 70s, was cited for "inattentive driving," and according to what the highway patrolman told my friend, this dude was out of it and likely shouldn't even have a driver's license.

It looks like my friend did a helluva job, with only a few seconds to react as this happened at a curve with limited visibility.

I'd sure like to learn the limits of my car in order to execute the same sort of maneuver should the unfortunate situation present itself to me. Even a minor distraction in the car could have prevented his ability to get out of this one alive, from what he said to me on the phone today.

Do these schools teach this sort of thing?

Having done a bit of research it sounds like you will be learning some of the limits of your M2 if you do the M school. However they have you in and out of the M2, M3, and M4 so you might not get to use the M2 in every situation you would like. I think the M2 gets autocross and skid pad the the M3 and M4 are on the track.

https://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1402565

[calbears]

Originally Posted by akkando

Having done a bit of research it sounds like you will be learning some of the limits of your M2 if you do the M school. However they have you in and out of the M2, M3, and M4 so you might not get to use the M2 in every situation you would like. I think the M2 gets autocross and skid pad the the M3 and M4 are on the track.

https://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1402565

Correct. The M2 doesn't have carbon ceramics, so they don't use them on the track. There might be an occasional use of the M2 to learn a portion of the track, but that's it. I don't know where they'll use the M5 yet, but I imagine it's going to replace the M3 by the end of the year on the track portions

[champignon]

So I finally did my 1-day M-Performance Driving School. It was a lot of fun and the instructors were very capable. We got some time in M2s, M3s, and M4s, did skid pad and several courses of different, but short, lengths. The coaching was good and it was a fun to see what these cars are capable of.

The applicability to everyday driving, at least in my own opinion, is pretty minimal. This is not to say that there isn't some good information that you will retain and possibly be able to use in your street driving, just that there isn't enough of that to justify the time and expense of doing this course, for that reason.

Do the M-School if you want to see what these cars can do when pressed to the limit, or if you have an interest in tracking your car. Maybe even do this course if you just want to do it for fun. Don't do this course if you think it will improve your everyday driving; it probably won't.

[izzyM2]

Originally Posted by champignon

So I finally did my 1-day M-Performance Driving School. It was a lot of fun and the instructors were very capable. We got some time in M2s, M3s, and M4s, did skid pad and several courses of different, but short, lengths. The coaching was good and it was a fun to see what these cars are capable of.

The applicability to everyday driving, at least in my own opinion, is pretty minimal. This is not to say that there isn't some good information that you will retain and possibly be able to use in your street driving, just that there isn't enough of that to justify the time and expense of doing this course, for that reason.

Do the M-School if you want to see what these cars can do when pressed to the limit, or if you have an interest in tracking your car. Maybe even do this course if you just want to do it for fun. Don't do this course if you think it will improve your everyday driving; it probably won't.

I've done the half day M-track Day and 1 day BMW Car Control School. I'm due to do the 1-day M School on Feb 3. Two weeks ago, as I made a right during a rainy evening (maybe a bit fast for a rainy day) the car started to oversteer dramatically. My instincts kicked in and I was able to counter-steer looking straight at where I wanted to go and not panicked. Got the car back in control asap and after a deep breath pat myself on the back for saving my own self and it saved my M2 along the way. You might be thinking its minimal until you start noticing how much better your awareness and decision making already is daily driving.

[champignon]

Originally Posted by izzyM2

I've done the half day M-track Day and 1 day BMW Car Control School. I'm due to do the 1-day M School on Feb 3. Two weeks ago, as I made a right during a rainy evening (maybe a bit fast for a rainy day) the car started to oversteer dramatically. My instincts kicked in and I was able to counter-steer looking straight at where I wanted to go and not panicked. Got the car back in control asap and after a deep breath pat myself on the back for saving my own self and it saved my M2 along the way. You might be thinking its minimal until you start noticing how much better your awareness and decision making already is daily driving.

Unless you already have some background and experience in this, coming in, or perhaps unless you are a quick learner, I doubt that the 1-day M-School will give most people the sort of awareness and quick decision-making that you imply that you have/got from this kind of course.

Having no prior experience in any of this, I felt that I could have gotten more out of this course if the performance center provided some information IN ADVANCE about how courses are set up, the theory behind it, and preferably some videos showing cars doing what they were going to be teaching so that you could absorb this and be better mentally prepared for what was going to happen during this one brief day of driving instruction. Instead, at least for me, a lot of it was a blur.

Most of us (if we have avoided getting into accidents that we caused), for a long time, such as myself, have gotten really good at defensive driving and not exceeding the limits of our cars in a given driving condition (unlike, perhaps your given example of making a turn in wet conditions). What a course like this is doing is trying to get you to overcome all that hard-wiring that is in your head from what might be several decades of driving experience. Like any such experience it is an uphill battle to overcome your hard-learned instincts. I found it especially difficult.

I would compare this to learning how to ski race. It's easier when you are 18 than when you are 60. Teenagers can be kind of reckless naturally, but by the time you are in middle age, you really value avoiding getting injured, and learning to take tough gates in a ski race course can be an almost insurmountable challenge.

Most people will be way better off with good defensive driving skills, than they will be with the sort of skills you might learn in the BMW Performance Driving M-School. This is not to say that there won't be an oddball incident in your life where the M-School training might save your life, but odds are that you will be better off avoiding that circumstance entirely than trying to deal with it on the fly.

[izzyM2]

Just to be clear, I’m not stating that I’m an expert driver already from just going to a few M schools, but just the fact that I was able to stay clear from a possible mishap due to a reaction I was not sure I had and I considered those lessons to be reasons for my current state of driving character. Anyway, consider the 1 day car control clinic. You might not be in M branded bmw’s but it will focus more on lessons like accident avoidance.

[champignon]

Originally Posted by izzyM2

Just to be clear, I’m not stating that I’m an expert driver already from just going to a few M schools, but just the fact that I was able to stay clear from a possible mishap due to a reaction I was not sure I had and I considered those lessons to be reasons for my current state of driving character. Anyway, consider the 1 day car control clinic. You might not be in M branded bmw’s but it will focus more on lessons like accident avoidance.

I am assuming that there are quite a few driving schools out there, some of which are part of the marketing program of a given car maker (the BMW and Porsche schools being examples). BMW has spent a lot of money constructing these two driving schools, and they would not have done this if encouraging brand awareness and sales wasn't a large part of the reason.

I guess the question is, what is so unique about a BMW that makes it better than other cars when it comes to defensive driving or even racing? Certainly, I'd rather race in an M3 than in a Kia Soul or a Nissan Sentra. So, I'd probably not go to the Kia Performance Center, if one exists :-)

If I was serious about taking more driving courses, I'd survey the universe of driving schools and go to what I thought was the best one. I have no reason to believe that the BMW schools are the best ones without doing more research on this subject.

[Weshymynna]

I came across this forum by chance, but my curiosity will not give me rest. I'm wondering what the difference between a BMW driving school and a regular one is? That is, what is taught in this driving school? It's just that I personally got my license about 3 years ago. But my brother received her during the pandemic. He faced many problems, and the only correct solution that we did was to study on the defensive driving school website since he did not understand anything at the driving school. And here is my final question: what do you do in a BMW driving school in general?

[imolam3]

Originally Posted by Weshymynna

I came across this forum by chance, but my curiosity will not give me rest. I'm wondering what the difference between a BMW driving school and a regular one is? That is, what is taught in this driving school? It's just that I personally got my license about 3 years ago. But my brother received her during the pandemic. He faced many problems, and the only correct solution that we did was to study on the defensive driving school website since he did not understand anything at the driving school. And here is my final question: what do you do in a BMW driving school in general?

Here you go:
https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1402561