The Ultimate Driving Experience!

Last Sunday I got a chance to go drive BMW X5s. Not just drive BMWs, but push them to their limits. BMW invited me to a half-day event at Houston's Reliant Park called "The Ultimate Driving Experience". This event put me in a car with a professional BMW driver on a closed autocross course to see just what these cars could do.


The day started with my getting into a Z4 Roadster convertible and driving a course around Houston to raise funds for the Susan G. Komen Cancer Foundation. For every mile I drove, BMW made a contribution to the cause.

After the Z4 drive, the real fun began. I went into the classroom for a 20 minute presentation on BMW X5 suspension, engine systems, stability control programs, and car set up. The instructor talked about three other cars - a Lexus GX470, a Mercedes ML500, and the Volvo XC90. He discussed the differences in all these cars, so we would have a background for evaluation. After the talk, we met up with our drivers and headed out to the autocross course. My instructor's name was Dave and since retiring from racing he has made his living in California as a test driver for various car companies, and has driven cars in many commercials - he's the guy they refer to in the small print "professional driver, closed course" on commercials.


We were three to a car on the autocross course - pro driver and 2 passengers. The goal for the afternoon was to learn some driving techniques - cornering, quick stops, accident avoidance, and theory. We got 2 laps each in a Lexus GX470 & Mercedes ML500, and 6 laps in the BMW X5. The course had all kinds of turns - switchbacks, slaloms, and sweeping lefts and rights. We took the course fast, with tires squealing and ABS going haywire. During the laps, the pro driver in the passenger seat would tell us when to brake, steer, and accelerate. The mantra for cornering in a car is "slow in, fast out" - way different from my bicycle racing days where we just flowed through turns. The amazing thing was that for all of the hard braking and poor entry/exit points, neither one of us spun the X5. That car was amazing and we could really push it. I was taking corners that would normally be 20 MPH turns, at about 45 MPH. The cars were pushed so hard that new tires had to be put on every 1-2 days. The Lexus got a new front driver's side tire every day.

The real fun was at the very end - the pro driver got behind the wheel and took us on "hot laps" in the BMW X5. We got in the car, and our driver disabled the stability control, traction control, and put the car in manual shift mode. We then proceeded to haul some serious butt around the course. We took most corners at 60 MPH, triple what I was able to do. I wish I had taken photos - all three BMWs were on the course at once and we were inches from the car ahead of us. On one of the sweeping right hand turns, I looked at the cars ahead and the inside front tires on the X5s were about 2 inches in the air! Very fast, very cool, and very fun. All in all a great afternoon and thank you to BMW for a great time.