Last weekend was my first ever day at the track, and it was at the famous Laguna Seca! I was invited to a VIP event from my dealership, and I now worry I have the track day bug. It was so much damn fun with a bunch of terrific M car folks.
While I'm no stranger to high speeds through twisty mountain/coastal roads with both sports cars as well as sportbikes, I really wanted to get the right "training" before unleashing my car. As homework, I went through articles on track days, YouTube videos, and Laguna-specific tips.
And perhaps silly: I've been playing Real Racing 3 on my iPhone for years, and have "raced" Laguna Seca a few hundred times. Well that game is no joke in some ways. I was kind of blown away at how much that game prepared me for how to know all turns and understand them. I knew what I was up against despite having never been there. The elevation changes were obviously not easy to grok from the game, so that was a surprise.
After five sessions at the Beginner level (lead-follow sessions which really helped me understand braking and approach speeds), I jumped into the Intermediate class. I followed a newfound friend in a 950+ hp McLaren for about 4 laps, which was intimidating at first, but he's 70+ years old and wasn't pushing his machine as hard he could. (Maybe age has no influence, but I just think he was playing it safer than, say, a 25 year old InstaMillionaire with a supercar.) I was able to keep up pretty well, so much so that he waived me on and that's when my lead foot sank to the floor and I could just explore the track at the speed I wanted.
While I don't know what that track would be like with RWD, I do feel that the xDrive really did seem to allow me to pull out of corners very aggressively, at least when compared to my experience through twisty roads (however flawed that comparison may be).
From my brief time there, and from watching the videos afterward, I think one thing I could have done better is to keep on the acceleration longer while also braking much later than I had been. You can see in the video that I'm easing off the throttle too early. Besides braking too late (I think), I feel like I was turning in to the apex too early. Put a little video together to share and I'd honestly welcome any feedback on track driving tips.