[BugKiller]

What was it like? Does it have a road course section? A skid pad, wet and/or dry?

Am taking the nephew later this month, after getting a 2 for the price of 1 deal. Multiple day event with slots still open last I saw.

As context, I have driven California/Autoclub Speedway many times where we have had big oval, road course, big oval and road course combined, and wet skid pad events.

TY for any feedback, except from Mr.C who has recently called me "dumb" and a "book locker" (yea, he cannot spell). LOL

[calbears]

They have a road course which will utilize part of the oval. You can watch the IMSA race from last year at Indy and the SRO Indy 8 Hour race which will be the same course used for the Performance Center at Indy

[Zepin]

I go on the 15th!!!!

[dr adequate]

I went for a morning session a couple of years ago before deciding to buy my G80 because that was the only way to actually drive one before committing to buy. It was a blast driving the different cars.

I started off doing an auto cross in a M235 (I think) which was fun. It was a very short course but was enjoyable.

Second set was a ride in an M4GT4 with a professional driver around the road course. They was fantastic. Driver will push as hard as he can until you reach your limit. It’s amazing how fast that car corners. Learned it has the same engine as the g80 but upgraded suspension/roll cage/racing harnesses. Driver hit 143 on the main stretch past the pagoda (fastest I have ever been in a car)

Next was a 2 lap lead/follow in the M3. Lead driver in an M4 takes you and a partner on the road course. There were 2 cars following the instructor and each gets a turn directly behind the lead. Lead driver will go as fast as you can keep up with. On my turn to drive I was able to hit 140 on the front stretch. My partner kind of freaked out when I waited to hit the brakes at the end of the straightaway, but I was just following the braking points the instructor had done. The one advice I would give is if you can have the 3 other people in your lead/follow group be a little more experienced and or aggressive. I had to wait for the car in front to move over for my turn directly behind the instructor and that limited my top speed on the straightaway. Also lead to my partner freaking out at the end of the front stretch.

Last part was drag races to a stop box in an M5, X5M and M8. Those were a blast but very short time in each different car.

Overall worth the money and convinced me to buy my car.

[Zepin]

Originally Posted by BugKiller

What was it like? Does it have a road course section? A skid pad, wet and/or dry?

Am taking the nephew later this month, after getting a 2 for the price of 1 deal. Multiple day event with slots still open last I saw.

As context, I have driven California/Autoclub Speedway many times where we have had big oval, road course, big oval and road course combined, and wet skid pad events.

TY for any feedback, except from Mr.C who has recently called me "dumb" and a "book locker" (yea, he cannot spell). LOL

I just went this week. Fantastic time. Had a small group so we got to drive the whole time, otherwise you are splitting time driving and riding. They do a great job breaking down the day. My group focused on a 1/4 of the road course (M4). Took a break skid pad (wet in M5's) then went back and did the next 1/4 of the road course (M3). Had lunch and then after lunch we did full Indy track time (M4). Took a break to do Autocross (M2's) and then finished with faster full laps around (M3).

Great day all round.

[Marius1585]

Originally Posted by dr adequate

I went for a morning session a couple of years ago before deciding to buy my G80 because that was the only way to actually drive one before committing to buy. It was a blast driving the different cars.

I started off doing an auto cross in a M235 (I think) which was fun. It was a very short course but was enjoyable.

Second set was a ride in an M4GT4 with a professional driver around the road course. They was fantastic. Driver will push as hard as he can until you reach your limit. It’s amazing how fast that car corners. Learned it has the same engine as the g80 but upgraded suspension/roll cage/racing harnesses. Driver hit 143 on the main stretch past the pagoda (fastest I have ever been in a car)

Next was a 2 lap lead/follow in the M3. Lead driver in an M4 takes you and a partner on the road course. There were 2 cars following the instructor and each gets a turn directly behind the lead. Lead driver will go as fast as you can keep up with. On my turn to drive I was able to hit 140 on the front stretch. My partner kind of freaked out when I waited to hit the brakes at the end of the straightaway, but I was just following the braking points the instructor had done. The one advice I would give is if you can have the 3 other people in your lead/follow group be a little more experienced and or aggressive. I had to wait for the car in front to move over for my turn directly behind the instructor and that limited my top speed on the straightaway. Also lead to my partner freaking out at the end of the front stretch.

Last part was drag races to a stop box in an M5, X5M and M8. Those were a blast but very short time in each different car.

Overall worth the money and convinced me to buy my car.

This sounds like the M Track days event - I've done that two times over the last few years, and it was a lot of fun. I absolutely agree that the most unique part of the experience was the M4GT4 ride-along. It's absolutely crazy how balanced and stable the cars feel when the steering wheel is in the right hands

[Marius1585]

Originally Posted by Zepin

I just went this week. Fantastic time. Had a small group so we got to drive the whole time, otherwise you are splitting time driving and riding. They do a great job breaking down the day. My group focused on a 1/4 of the road course (M4). Took a break skid pad (wet in M5's) then went back and did the next 1/4 of the road course (M3). Had lunch and then after lunch we did full Indy track time (M4). Took a break to do Autocross (M2's) and then finished with faster full laps around (M3).

Great day all round.

Thank you for sharing! You went on a weekday? I've been eyeing the next week to potentially go - but haven't booked yet. Only did the MTrack days half-day event, but always had a performance driving school on the list as something I absolutely want to do. Saw people in M2s learning how to keep a drift in SC, and that looked like a lot of fun.

Curious about the skid-pad portion - is it learning to maintain a controlled drift, or is it more like testing where they kick out your rear and you try to regain direction?

[Sizzleman1]

I just went as well (on the 20th) and it was amazing! It was my first track experience and was doing very well the whole day.

- "What was it like? Does it have a road course section? A skid pad, wet and/or dry?"


Exactly like Zepin said. You start the day with a debreif and lesson for track driving then they give you wristbands for your groups. I started off with the track, which they had initially split into 2 sections for 2 groups at a time, this was to work on bringing up your speed the whole time to learn how the cars handle and learn limits.

I then went to the m5's to learn to drift on the wet skid pad, this was cool but was very interesting to learn how little throttle input is needed to hold the drift.

Last before lunch was the Autocross, which was really fun. First time doing autocross as well. They gave us a practice lap and 3 runs for time. This was all in the m2's. I ran some good times on the autocross as well.

Then lunch...

After lunch we went all out on the full infield track. This was the highlight! Testing the limits of yourself and of the vehicle, from hitting 154 on the straight then off gas and pretty much directly into 100% brake for the first turn. Its very exciting.

I think if you go on a week day you would have even more time in the drivers seat and less in passenger seat. I went on a saturday so there were more people but I still feel I had a ton of seat time in total.

[BugKiller]

Originally Posted by Marius1585

Curious about the skid-pad portion - is it learning to maintain a controlled drift, or is it more like testing where they kick out your rear and you try to regain direction?

At the full day M School I did last year at Thermal it was both. They turned us loose in the morning to 'learn the hard way', then showed us how, and in the afternoon we had timed laps on the skid-pad. The skid-pad at Thermal is dry and wet, but we only used it dry. It has some kind of very slick coating. It also has a built in water system that makes it slicker, but I gather they rarely use that.

I went to Thermal last Saturday for a 2 hour New BMW Owner's event but the skid-pad was only used then during the closing instructor hot laps. I will report back after I do the Indy M School this Sunday.

[BugKiller]

Had a great time. Here are some observations.

Many of the instructors were from PCDS West (BMW-speak for the school at Thermal, Calif.), but few if any from Spartanburg.

The cars were different. At Thermal, as best I recall, there were no competition or xDrive M3's or M4's. At Indy yesterday they all where M3Cx's and M4Cx's.

My group (one of three, each with 6-8 attendees) did skid-pad first. It is a wet skid-pad at Indy, in contrast to the special surface dry skid-pad at Thermal. This was done in M5's with DSC and AWD off.

We were told to leave DSC on in all other events or risk being 86'ed. My instructor turned it off when he drove us during closing hot laps. We did all the other events with AWD (4WD) on but were given the option of using automatic (Drive) or manual (Sequential) mode.

We did autocross in M2's, but a shorter version than I have at many other events, and as I seem to recall at Thermal. I attended with my nephew, who had never done auto-cross but who has a lot of other track experience. He would have been fastest with a 14.36 time but missed the stop box and somebody with a clean 14.48 time (as I recall) got the pat on the back for that. [Indy does not award metals, unlike Thermal and Spartanburg; I won a gold one at Thermal last August.]

Indy is a big track, just under 2.5 miles the way it was laid out for us. The other events were split-track ones before lunch in M3Cx's and M4Cx's, and after lunch we did full track laps in the same cars.

On the full track my nephew and I were the first out, meaning we were first in lead-follow behind an instructor. We both got up to 148 mph as we learned the track. Big mistake.

Then we rotated and were behind another driver following the instructor, etc. I later got up to 152 mph and my nephew hit 154, but we were both limited by the drivers ahead of us.

The lesson learned, don't be first up. Everybody in my group hit at least 148 and one person in another group claimed to have reached 157 (maybe these cars had the M Driver's Package with the speed governors set above 155 mph, maybe not).

In sum, it was great and I have now driven Indy. Maybe the Nurburgring next (I was scheduled to do so in a Lambo in 2018 but the God's conspired to prevent that).

Actually, next may be the Stunt Driving class at Thermal in a Mini. I just learned about those recently, but the wife is making noises about having me committed.