[BugKiller]

Intend to do at least one M track day and plan to write about it.

Am still dithering on the M Driver's Package, which includes a track day package but will buy at least one track school event even if I do not get that. Am waiting on an ordered '22 M4Cx, just went back to status 112, Scheduled for Production for the 3rd time and am now set for build week 20.

For context, am an ex-MBZ fan-boy that grew up around Indy and Midget race tracks where my father was a mechanic.

Did the Russell Racing School High Performance Course in my own '01 CLK55 AMG at Infineon / Sears Point raceway. I do not remember any BMWs but there doubtless were some. In competitive lead-follow type events I was paired first with a Viper driven by a knuckle-head who had too much power and too little control. He spun out twice trying to match me in the twisty bits before the instructors paired him instead with a Corvette so "nothing bad would happen." I was then paired with a Lexus SC430, which was close to my suspension but not at all my power. The overall theme was to learn high performance driving in our own cars, with a lot of street safety content, and I learned a lot. Highly recommended class.

I later managed to get onto the invite list (both luck and hard work) for the AMG Challenge, as it was literally named back then. This was and its current AMG Driving Academy equivalent appears to be similar to the M school. I attended 5 Challenge events in 2006-2008. These were all day events in factory cars of every current AMG model. These included 3 standard and 2 advanced events. The standard (basic) ones were more fun (e.g., learn more, no stupid questions, less ego; no Beverly Hills plastic surgeons having a prissy fit when they get a 'cone killer award' in autocross and they thought they were advanced drivers because their everyday ride is an S600).

These ran $1,200-$1,400 but some years the manufacturer gave out vouchers for the price that were applicable to any MBZ dealership new purchase (not just AMG). The formats changed slightly every year but always included road course, autocross, and wet skid pad. If the track had high speed capability, we were asked to not exceed 155 mph but the instructors were not so limited and 175 mph hot laps in SLRs and SL600s were provided for "instructional purposes." FYI, a lot of the instructors were professional or ex- drivers who instructed at events for multiple manufactures (but were not supposed to say so, and absolutely not to name what they drove regularly).

Many tracks were available but I only attended west coast events. At first this meant California Speedway (now Auto Club Speedway) in Fontana, east of Los Angeles. It has a big oval that for some events was used as that and for others was combined with the road course section. During the last event there (2007) two bozos (everything about them reeked of bad news) 'kissed the wall' at 130 mph in an E63 on their first set of big oval laps. This appears to be why the California event was moved in 2008 to Thunderhill Raceway, north of Sacramento. Maximum speeds there were a lot less and I am sure I never topped 125, but it was still a fun event and the track had elevation changes which I had not experienced.

Fast forward to 2018, my new '18 C63s came with a free day at the AMG Driving Academy. This was good because I got to drive the full range of AMGs at Lagona Seca Raceway but it sucked because of what such events had become. E.g, an expensively catered semi-sales event where many of the other participants had bought AMG's because they could and only came because the event was free to them. The first half of the day the instructors spent babying things down for idiots that should not be on any roadway, until half the class dropped out (with a few attendees willing to sell their AMGs parked out in the parking lot on the spot because they were now scared of their cars capabilities -- go home to Hollywood Blvd. or Lombard St., where nothing is posted over 35 mph; please do not try canyon carving above Malibu or drive Hyw 2 above Pasadena; an early Sunday morning (Century Club time slot) drive on route 84 to La Honda, above Palo Alto, would be a traumatic and seat wetting event for such people).

Anyway, happy to be here. BMW, please give me the keys to my new car so I can start to say good things about it.