#mtrackday @LRP review

[afadeev]

I don’t see anyone else reporting on this year's M Track Days, so here are a few notes from my experience attending the very first day (7/7) at LRP (Lime Rock Park).

BMW has been organizing these ///M track experiences all over the world for many years, but seems to have kicked things off in earnest in the US a few years ago. I got invited to the 2016 edition at one of my favorite tracks - LRP. US events are run professionally by BMW NA staff and instructors from the M performance driving school in Spartanburg. The event was planned and executed flawlessly.

The cost is zero!
What you get for that price are six (6) hours of fun on track in BMW provided ///M cars: M2s, M3s, M4s, M5s, M6s and some X-M trucks and GC's. All cars had DCTs, and there was a good mix of steel vs. CC brakes (for back-to-back comparison - more on that later). There are two (2) sessions per day, one from 8am-2pm, and another 11am-5pm. I registered for the latter, since LRP is ~2.5 hours from my home.

Once you arrive (plan to be there 15-30 minutes early), the registration tent is flanked by a fleet of unlocked M cars, M4s (CP and GTS), and an i8. Inside the tent you get to meet another ~40 fellow M-enthusiasts and some of their families. After a short kick-off session, we moved to a lunch hall (food provided by BMW), got rudimentary briefing on track driving (early/late apex, etc), then got divided into four (4) run groups. The one and only rule was - keep cars shiny side up, and leave DSC ON at all times. Since it started raining hard in the middle of the intro briefing, virtually everyone adhered to this admonition. I did, though I wondered into MDM mode on occasion.

I was in run group #1, so my day progressed as follows:
(1). Take a bus to pit entry. Grab a loaner helmet, and jump into any one of a dozen or so (pit lane was choke full of ///M cars, I didn't keep the count) warmed up M2s (2 sub-run groups between morning and afternoon sessions) and head out on track in follow-the-leader format. The leader is one of M performance driving school instructors, and he drives progressively faster until he starts losing the student cars behind him, then he slows down. If you keep up, he speeds up some more. Throughout the drive the instructors provided commentary and instructions on the turns and the racing line though radios jammed into cars driver-side-door pockets. Every 2-4 laps, the car that was immediately following the instructor was asked to peel off and move to the back of the train, and the next student's car got the firsthand view of instructor's bumper, and took charge of trying to keep up with him. There were 3-4 cars in all run groups (driver + passenger in each student car), and we all had a blast driving 9-16 laps around LRP. Then into the pits we dove, drivers and passengers switched seats, and we went back out for another 9-16 laps.

I should mention here that the usual LRP layout was modified to channel cars away from the (awesome) uphill turn, and instead slow them down and snake them through the S-chicane instead. This way the trailing cars had a chance to catch up to the leader, and BMW NA avoided sending potentially inexperienced drivers through a high speed and challenging uphill turn with guard rail only few feet away from the edge of the track. All within reason.

(2). After we were done with M2's, we repeated the same format with the M3's. The only difference was that while the instructors were driving M235's to lead M2s (thus making it easy to keep up with them), now they drove identical M3s, and were willing to push them hard. I jumped into the first student M3 (CC brakes), and after a warm up lap, we wound things up a bit. My group's M3 instructor was not all that familiar with LRP (judging by his lines through the big bend and the esses), so I was glued to his bumper for most of the lap. So his went progressively faster on the subsequent laps, and before you know it, we were driving at ~8/10s around LRP ... in someone else's M3's! Incredible !!!

Observation #1 - driving M2 and M3 back-to-back left me generally underwhelmed by the M2. It's a nice car, and I was toying with the idea of getting it as a replacement for the M3 in a year or two. Not anymore. M2 was almost as much fun, but not nearly as stable, not as well planted, and definitely not as predictable and therefore not as fast as the M3. I could push the M3 harder and go faster in places where M2 would get squirrely under acceleration. Brakes worked equally well in both cars (CC on M3, steelies on M2). However, when I took a high curb, the M3 drove right over it with little to report, while M2's suspension would get thrown off balance and I would have to wait for it to settle before I could put the power down again. What little weight advantage in favor of M2 (~90 lbs?), the greater torque and suspension rigidity and stability of the M3 left it a far more predictable and potent track toy.

Perhaps my impressions were biased by my familiarity with the M3 and experience wringing it around LRP. Yet IMHO, there is no way an M2 is a comparable car to M3 on track. On shorter autoX courses, may be, but not on track.

Observation #2: There was an opportunity to mix in-between morning and afternoon sections, and I jumped back into another M3 with steel brakes. I could barely tell the two apart by feel (CC pads and rotors seamed to provide a higher initial coefficient of friction during brake application), but not by performance. Both slowed the car equally well. Granted, I only pushed the car 3-4 laps and then followed others at a slower pace for another 5-10 laps, so OEM regular pads never got a chance to fade (which they should - I run RS29s on track). But as tested, steel and CF brakes were equally effective.

CC brakes felt very similar to how my M3's steel rotors feel with RS29 track pads.
Minus the squealing, plus $8K in the pocket.

(3). After threshing M2s and M3s on track, we were invited to jump into M4 with Competition Package (CP), and drive them up to the autoX course. Some M4CP's had sun roofs, some did not. I waited a split second too long, and got an M4 with a sun roof. I had never before driven and M3/4 with a sun roof, so that was interesting. Once we got to the autoX site, we were shown and outline of the course, and given 3 tries to post a competitive time without any walk-throughs or instruction. First lap was pure reconnaissance. Second and third I got down to 29.2 and 29.1, with more time left on track if we were allowed to turn DSC off.

AutoX M4CP cars were equipped with suction cup mounted iPhones running M Laptimer App. However, I was too busy learning the course to mess with the iPhones, so I didn't record or save any video. My autoX partner was one of the BMW NA helpers, and she get her time down from 35 to 33 to 31 seconds by the last run. I'm sure she had a 30.x run in her, but her colleges wouldn't let us or her play any more.


Observation #3: I really could not tell the performance differences between CP and standard M3/4. CP car should have had more torque (+10 ft.lbs?), it should have had more HP (444 vs 425), and the lower profile and slightly wider tires that should have provided marginal traction advantage. But without repeated back-to-back runs, I could not feel it. Perhaps a better driver could, but I couldn't. The M4CP handled and responded just like my M3 with adaptive suspension usually does, minus the headroom.

Observation #4: sun-roof really cuts down on the head room space. My CF-roofed M3 leaves me with 4 fingers of extra headroom between the top of the helmet and the roof. M4 with sun-roof had barely enough room for 3 fingers without a helmet (no helmets for Mtrackday autoX, for some reason) !

Observation #5: CP style-666 wheels really are a God's punishment to anyone who will ever try to wash and attempt to keep those wheels clean. I don't think they look any better in real life then they do in pics - the design is way too busy. At least the ones I drove were all silver, and didn't have the silly bronze wheel spoke shadows of the GTS package wheels.

(4). The last event of the day was a drag race with an ABS stop at the end. This one held the least appeal to me (press one pedal, then the other). And to top it all off, me (or whoever drove that M5 before me) managed to send it into unrecoverable limp mode. M5 thew up all sorts of error codes and warning messages, turning the instrument cluster into a Xmas tree ornament. I took this as a hint, and checked out at this point, as I had other commitments that evening.

I believe there were more hot laps to be had in cars driven by instructors.

Overall, it was a fantastic and unique opportunity to drive M2s and M3s on track, back-to-back. I don’t see any other way one could have done that. The event was run extremely professionally, and given the cost of entry (free!), it’s a no-brainer repeat for me and a strong recommendation to attend to everyone else.

The parting gift bag included a BMW coffee mug, an M Performance driving school lanyard, and some marketing literature.


There are more events scheduled for August @Miami Homestead, and September @Thermal. If you can - do register and try to attend. The event is free to the participants, and is an absolute blast.

More details here:
https://mtrackdays.bmwusa.com/


a

P.S.: Will add pics later

[Jbmw21]

Great post can't wait for limerock tommorow as well. Where did you leave from NJ ? Is it a nice ride to take the M up to the track from jersey ?

[afadeev]

Originally Posted by Jbmw21

Great post can't wait for limerock tommorow as well. Where did you leave from NJ ? Is it a nice ride to take the M up to the track from jersey ?

I drove from NNJ, taking 287 and 87 North, then back roads East towards LRP. Pretty much followed the Nav.

I love LRP, and took my F80 there a few times (and will repeat in the future), so driving there is fun. 287/87 are boring, but if you stay on 87 longer and head East on 44 at Ardonio/Poughkeepsie, that last part of the drive goes through, around, and over the mountains.
Fun, pretty, and sea sickness inducing for the passengers

a

[Jbmw21]

Originally Posted by afadeev

I drove from NNJ, taking 287 and 87 North, then back roads East towards LRP. Pretty much followed the Nav.

I love LRP, and took my F80 there a few times (and will repeat in the future), so driving there is fun. 287/87 are boring, but if you stay on 87 longer and head East on 44 at Ardonio/Poughkeepsie, that last part of the drive goes through, around, and over the mountains.
Fun, pretty, and sea sickness inducing for the passengers

a

Great thanks Can't wait . Should be a great time please pics if available

[cprx7]

Was there myself as well and I completely agree on your comparison between m2 and m3. However, m3 vs cp m4 difference could not be noticed due to the nature of autocross vs fast laps done on base m3.
One thing I noticed was at the end of the day, the last m3 I drove to get us back up the hill had CEL on. Also, during our hot lap, the m3 bugged out and we got a "drive train malfunction" warning. Instructor took it slow, pulled to the pit and after restarting the car it went back to normal and back on the track. It was great fun.
So funny when the head instructor said "just because you catching up to the lead car doesn't mean you are faster than him" hahaha

I drove my Lexus GS F and it felt like a total turd after driving M cars. Great marketing strategy by BMW

[AGAV13]

I'll be there this Wednesday. Thanks for the itinerary. Can't wait.

[Jbmw21]

Originally Posted by afadeev

I don’t see anyone else reporting on this year's M Track Days, so here are a few notes from my experience attending the very first day (7/7) at LRP (Lime Rock Park).

BMW has been organizing these ///M track experiences all over the world for many years, but seems to have kicked things off in earnest in the US a few years ago. I got invited to the 2016 edition at one of my favorite tracks - LRP. US events are run professionally by BMW NA staff and instructors from the M performance driving school in Spartanburg. The event was planned and executed flawlessly.

The cost is zero!
What you get for that price are six (6) hours of fun on track in BMW provided ///M cars: M2s, M3s, M4s, M5s, M6s and some X-M trucks and GC's. All cars had DCTs, and there was a good mix of steel vs. CC brakes (for back-to-back comparison - more on that later). There are two (2) sessions per day, one from 8am-2pm, and another 11am-5pm. I registered for the latter, since LRP is ~2.5 hours from my home.

Once you arrive (plan to be there 15-30 minutes early), the registration tent is flanked by a fleet of unlocked M cars, M4s (CP and GTS), and an i8. Inside the tent you get to meet another ~40 fellow M-enthusiasts and some of their families. After a short kick-off session, we moved to a lunch hall (food provided by BMW), got rudimentary briefing on track driving (early/late apex, etc), then got divided into four (4) run groups. The one and only rule was - keep cars shiny side up, and leave DSC ON at all times. Since it started raining hard in the middle of the intro briefing, virtually everyone adhered to this admonition. I did, though I wondered into MDM mode on occasion.

I was in run group #1, so my day progressed as follows:
(1). Take a bus to pit entry. Grab a loaner helmet, and jump into any one of a dozen or so (pit lane was choke full of ///M cars, I didn't keep the count) warmed up M2s (2 sub-run groups between morning and afternoon sessions) and head out on track in follow-the-leader format. The leader is one of M performance driving school instructors, and he drives progressively faster until he starts losing the student cars behind him, then he slows down. If you keep up, he speeds up some more. Throughout the drive the instructors provided commentary and instructions on the turns and the racing line though radios jammed into cars driver-side-door pockets. Every 2-4 laps, the car that was immediately following the instructor was asked to peel off and move to the back of the train, and the next student's car got the firsthand view of instructor's bumper, and took charge of trying to keep up with him. There were 3-4 cars in all run groups (driver + passenger in each student car), and we all had a blast driving 9-16 laps around LRP. Then into the pits we dove, drivers and passengers switched seats, and we went back out for another 9-16 laps.

I should mention here that the usual LRP layout was modified to channel cars away from the (awesome) uphill turn, and instead slow them down and snake them through the S-chicane instead. This way the trailing cars had a chance to catch up to the leader, and BMW NA avoided sending potentially inexperienced drivers through a high speed and challenging uphill turn with guard rail only few feet away from the edge of the track. All within reason.

(2). After we were done with M2's, we repeated the same format with the M3's. The only difference was that while the instructors were driving M235's to lead M2s (thus making it easy to keep up with them), now they drove identical M3s, and were willing to push them hard. I jumped into the first student M3 (CC brakes), and after a warm up lap, we wound things up a bit. My group's M3 instructor was not all that familiar with LRP (judging by his lines through the big bend and the esses), so I was glued to his bumper for most of the lap. So his went progressively faster on the subsequent laps, and before you know it, we were driving at ~8/10s around LRP ... in someone else's M3's! Incredible !!!

Observation #1 - driving M2 and M3 back-to-back left me generally underwhelmed by the M2. It's a nice car, and I was toying with the idea of getting it as a replacement for the M3 in a year or two. Not anymore. M2 was almost as much fun, but not nearly as stable, not as well planted, and definitely not as predictable and therefore not as fast as the M3. I could push the M3 harder and go faster in places where M2 would get squirrely under acceleration. Brakes worked equally well in both cars (CC on M3, steelies on M2). However, when I took a high curb, the M3 drove right over it with little to report, while M2's suspension would get thrown off balance and I would have to wait for it to settle before I could put the power down again. What little weight advantage in favor of M2 (~90 lbs?), the greater torque and suspension rigidity and stability of the M3 left it a far more predictable and potent track toy.

Perhaps my impressions were biased by my familiarity with the M3 and experience wringing it around LRP. Yet IMHO, there is no way an M2 is a comparable car to M3 on track. On shorter autoX courses, may be, but not on track.

Observation #2: There was an opportunity to mix in-between morning and afternoon sections, and I jumped back into another M3 with steel brakes. I could barely tell the two apart by feel (CC pads and rotors seamed to provide a higher initial coefficient of friction during brake application), but not by performance. Both slowed the car equally well. Granted, I only pushed the car 3-4 laps and then followed others at a slower pace for another 5-10 laps, so OEM regular pads never got a chance to fade (which they should - I run RS29s on track). But as tested, steel and CF brakes were equally effective.

CC brakes felt very similar to how my M3's steel rotors feel with RS29 track pads.
Minus the squealing, plus $8K in the pocket.

(3). After threshing M2s and M3s on track, we were invited to jump into M4 with Competition Package (CP), and drive them up to the autoX course. Some M4CP's had sun roofs, some did not. I waited a split second too long, and got an M4 with a sun roof. I had never before driven and M3/4 with a sun roof, so that was interesting. Once we got to the autoX site, we were shown and outline of the course, and given 3 tries to post a competitive time without any walk-throughs or instruction. First lap was pure reconnaissance. Second and third I got down to 29.2 and 29.1, with more time left on track if we were allowed to turn DSC off.

AutoX M4CP cars were equipped with suction cup mounted iPhones running M Laptimer App. However, I was too busy learning the course to mess with the iPhones, so I didn't record or save any video. My autoX partner was one of the BMW NA helpers, and she get her time down from 35 to 33 to 31 seconds by the last run. I'm sure she had a 30.x run in her, but her colleges wouldn't let us or her play any more.


Observation #3: I really could not tell the performance differences between CP and standard M3/4. CP car should have had more torque (+10 ft.lbs?), it should have had more HP (444 vs 425), and the lower profile and slightly wider tires that should have provided marginal traction advantage. But without repeated back-to-back runs, I could not feel it. Perhaps a better driver could, but I couldn't. The M4CP handled and responded just like my M3 with adaptive suspension usually does, minus the headroom.

Observation #4: sun-roof really cuts down on the head room space. My CF-roofed M3 leaves me with 4 fingers of extra headroom between the top of the helmet and the roof. M4 with sun-roof had barely enough room for 3 fingers without a helmet (no helmets for Mtrackday autoX, for some reason) !

Observation #5: CP style-666 wheels really are a God's punishment to anyone who will ever try to wash and attempt to keep those wheels clean. I don't think they look any better in real life then they do in pics - the design is way too busy. At least the ones I drove were all silver, and didn't have the silly bronze wheel spoke shadows of the GTS package wheels.

(4). The last event of the day was a drag race with an ABS stop at the end. This one held the least appeal to me (press one pedal, then the other). And to top it all off, me (or whoever drove that M5 before me) managed to send it into unrecoverable limp mode. M5 thew up all sorts of error codes and warning messages, turning the instrument cluster into a Xmas tree ornament. I took this as a hint, and checked out at this point, as I had other commitments that evening.

I believe there were more hot laps to be had in cars driven by instructors.

Overall, it was a fantastic and unique opportunity to drive M2s and M3s on track, back-to-back. I don’t see any other way one could have done that. The event was run extremely professionally, and given the cost of entry (free!), it’s a no-brainer repeat for me and a strong recommendation to attend to everyone else.

The parting gift bag included a BMW coffee mug, an M Performance driving school lanyard, and some marketing literature.


There are more events scheduled for August @Miami Homestead, and September @Thermal. If you can - do register and try to attend. The event is free to the participants, and is an absolute blast.

More details here:
https://mtrackdays.bmwusa.com/


a

P.S.: Will add pics later

Can we bring a family member to watch or is there no where really to watch from ?

[afadeev]

Originally Posted by Jbmw21

Can we bring a family member to watch or is there no where really to watch from ?

You certainly can, but it will be up to you to keep them entertained.

If you can sign them up to drive - do it. If not, they can either sit in the briefing/hospitality tent, the lunch room, or sneak into one of the briefing rooms in the control tower (best for observing track activities). Or they can picnic anywhere on the grass where the audience usually camps out to watch the races @LRP.

It will be up to you to work out the accommodations, as that's not part of the BMW NA event planning.

a

[Jbmw21]

Originally Posted by afadeev

You certainly can, but it will be up to you to keep them entertained.

If you can sign them up to drive - do it. If not, they can either sit in the briefing/hospitality tent, the lunch room, or sneak into one of the briefing rooms in the control tower (best for observing track activities). Or they can picnic anywhere on the grass where the audience usually camps out to watch the races @LRP.

It will be up to you to work out the accommodations, as that's not part of the BMW NA event planning.

a

Great thanks

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by afadeev

Observation #1 - driving M2 and M3 back-to-back left me generally underwhelmed by the M2. It's a nice car, and I was toying with the idea of getting it as a replacement for the M3 in a year or two. Not anymore. M2 was almost as much fun, but not nearly as stable, not as well planted, and definitely not as predictable and therefore not as fast as the M3. I could push the M3 harder and go faster in places where M2 would get squirrely under acceleration. Brakes worked equally well in both cars (CC on M3, steelies on M2). However, when I took a high curb, the M3 drove right over it with little to report, while M2's suspension would get thrown off balance and I would have to wait for it to settle before I could put the power down again. What little weight advantage in favor of M2 (~90 lbs?), the greater torque and suspension rigidity and stability of the M3 left it a far more predictable and potent track toy.

Perhaps my impressions were biased by my familiarity with the M3 and experience wringing it around LRP. Yet IMHO, there is no way an M2 is a comparable car to M3 on track. On shorter autoX courses, may be, but not on track.

I also participated in the #MTrackDays event al LRP on Friday at 11am.

Kudos to BMW for a very well organized event. I can only imagine the cost must be extraordinary to bring so many cars and people from their SC facility.
This is a nice event for people who have never been to the track and want to 'see what their cars can do'. In reality, a sticky tired Miata will pass all these cars up without an issue as you're given a car with stock tires.
It's also a great event for people who are between two M cars and don't want to kill their salesmen by driven them hard on the street.


I mirror OP's comments about the M2. I haven't driven the M3/4 or M2 before Friday, but the F80 felt much, much more like an M car.
The M2 definitely is not some kind of 'track weapon'. The M3/4 is larger but weighs the same and has way more power.
Many of you say there's a chasm between the E92 and the F80 on track. Well, I'd be very surprised if an M2 is any faster than an E92 on track.


After reading so many comments about the M3/4 I expected a rocket ship coming from an E46 and E92 combo, but I was also underwhelmed, possibly because in the M event we were tracking cars with PSS/Continental tires which simply melt when you're trying to go fast and are forced to keep DSC (MDM) on which is very unnatural.

We got to drive ZCP cars and they sound significantly better than the stock M3/4, although neither sounds very well.

Later we drove the M5/6 and X6M. I reiterate what I felt when I was trying to buy an X5M and drive a friend's fully tuned X5M: they are very fast cars and handle very well, but do so without much pleasure. Compared to the X5/6M, the M5 feels alive and much more fun.


Many thanks to BMW for the event. I guess I'll be buying a '17 F80!

[hatepotholez]

Originally Posted by afadeev

I don’t see anyone else reporting on this year's M Track Days, so here are a few notes from my experience attending the very first day (7/7) at LRP (Lime Rock Park).

BMW has been organizing these ///M track experiences all over the world for many years, but seems to have kicked things off in earnest in the US a few years ago. I got invited to the 2016 edition at one of my favorite tracks - LRP. US events are run professionally by BMW NA staff and instructors from the M performance driving school in Spartanburg. The event was planned and executed flawlessly.

The cost is zero!
What you get for that price are six (6) hours of fun on track in BMW provided ///M cars: M2s, M3s, M4s, M5s, M6s and some X-M trucks and GC's. All cars had DCTs, and there was a good mix of steel vs. CC brakes (for back-to-back comparison - more on that later). There are two (2) sessions per day, one from 8am-2pm, and another 11am-5pm. I registered for the latter, since LRP is ~2.5 hours from my home.

Once you arrive (plan to be there 15-30 minutes early), the registration tent is flanked by a fleet of unlocked M cars, M4s (CP and GTS), and an i8. Inside the tent you get to meet another ~40 fellow M-enthusiasts and some of their families. After a short kick-off session, we moved to a lunch hall (food provided by BMW), got rudimentary briefing on track driving (early/late apex, etc), then got divided into four (4) run groups. The one and only rule was - keep cars shiny side up, and leave DSC ON at all times. Since it started raining hard in the middle of the intro briefing, virtually everyone adhered to this admonition. I did, though I wondered into MDM mode on occasion.

I was in run group #1, so my day progressed as follows:
(1). Take a bus to pit entry. Grab a loaner helmet, and jump into any one of a dozen or so (pit lane was choke full of ///M cars, I didn't keep the count) warmed up M2s (2 sub-run groups between morning and afternoon sessions) and head out on track in follow-the-leader format. The leader is one of M performance driving school instructors, and he drives progressively faster until he starts losing the student cars behind him, then he slows down. If you keep up, he speeds up some more. Throughout the drive the instructors provided commentary and instructions on the turns and the racing line though radios jammed into cars driver-side-door pockets. Every 2-4 laps, the car that was immediately following the instructor was asked to peel off and move to the back of the train, and the next student's car got the firsthand view of instructor's bumper, and took charge of trying to keep up with him. There were 3-4 cars in all run groups (driver + passenger in each student car), and we all had a blast driving 9-16 laps around LRP. Then into the pits we dove, drivers and passengers switched seats, and we went back out for another 9-16 laps.

I should mention here that the usual LRP layout was modified to channel cars away from the (awesome) uphill turn, and instead slow them down and snake them through the S-chicane instead. This way the trailing cars had a chance to catch up to the leader, and BMW NA avoided sending potentially inexperienced drivers through a high speed and challenging uphill turn with guard rail only few feet away from the edge of the track. All within reason.

(2). After we were done with M2's, we repeated the same format with the M3's. The only difference was that while the instructors were driving M235's to lead M2s (thus making it easy to keep up with them), now they drove identical M3s, and were willing to push them hard. I jumped into the first student M3 (CC brakes), and after a warm up lap, we wound things up a bit. My group's M3 instructor was not all that familiar with LRP (judging by his lines through the big bend and the esses), so I was glued to his bumper for most of the lap. So his went progressively faster on the subsequent laps, and before you know it, we were driving at ~8/10s around LRP ... in someone else's M3's! Incredible !!!

Observation #1 - driving M2 and M3 back-to-back left me generally underwhelmed by the M2. It's a nice car, and I was toying with the idea of getting it as a replacement for the M3 in a year or two. Not anymore. M2 was almost as much fun, but not nearly as stable, not as well planted, and definitely not as predictable and therefore not as fast as the M3. I could push the M3 harder and go faster in places where M2 would get squirrely under acceleration. Brakes worked equally well in both cars (CC on M3, steelies on M2). However, when I took a high curb, the M3 drove right over it with little to report, while M2's suspension would get thrown off balance and I would have to wait for it to settle before I could put the power down again. What little weight advantage in favor of M2 (~90 lbs?), the greater torque and suspension rigidity and stability of the M3 left it a far more predictable and potent track toy.

Perhaps my impressions were biased by my familiarity with the M3 and experience wringing it around LRP. Yet IMHO, there is no way an M2 is a comparable car to M3 on track. On shorter autoX courses, may be, but not on track.

Observation #2: There was an opportunity to mix in-between morning and afternoon sections, and I jumped back into another M3 with steel brakes. I could barely tell the two apart by feel (CC pads and rotors seamed to provide a higher initial coefficient of friction during brake application), but not by performance. Both slowed the car equally well. Granted, I only pushed the car 3-4 laps and then followed others at a slower pace for another 5-10 laps, so OEM regular pads never got a chance to fade (which they should - I run RS29s on track). But as tested, steel and CF brakes were equally effective.

CC brakes felt very similar to how my M3's steel rotors feel with RS29 track pads.
Minus the squealing, plus $8K in the pocket.

(3). After threshing M2s and M3s on track, we were invited to jump into M4 with Competition Package (CP), and drive them up to the autoX course. Some M4CP's had sun roofs, some did not. I waited a split second too long, and got an M4 with a sun roof. I had never before driven and M3/4 with a sun roof, so that was interesting. Once we got to the autoX site, we were shown and outline of the course, and given 3 tries to post a competitive time without any walk-throughs or instruction. First lap was pure reconnaissance. Second and third I got down to 29.2 and 29.1, with more time left on track if we were allowed to turn DSC off.

AutoX M4CP cars were equipped with suction cup mounted iPhones running M Laptimer App. However, I was too busy learning the course to mess with the iPhones, so I didn't record or save any video. My autoX partner was one of the BMW NA helpers, and she get her time down from 35 to 33 to 31 seconds by the last run. I'm sure she had a 30.x run in her, but her colleges wouldn't let us or her play any more.


Observation #3: I really could not tell the performance differences between CP and standard M3/4. CP car should have had more torque (+10 ft.lbs?), it should have had more HP (444 vs 425), and the lower profile and slightly wider tires that should have provided marginal traction advantage. But without repeated back-to-back runs, I could not feel it. Perhaps a better driver could, but I couldn't. The M4CP handled and responded just like my M3 with adaptive suspension usually does, minus the headroom.

Observation #4: sun-roof really cuts down on the head room space. My CF-roofed M3 leaves me with 4 fingers of extra headroom between the top of the helmet and the roof. M4 with sun-roof had barely enough room for 3 fingers without a helmet (no helmets for Mtrackday autoX, for some reason) !

Observation #5: CP style-666 wheels really are a God's punishment to anyone who will ever try to wash and attempt to keep those wheels clean. I don't think they look any better in real life then they do in pics - the design is way too busy. At least the ones I drove were all silver, and didn't have the silly bronze wheel spoke shadows of the GTS package wheels.

(4). The last event of the day was a drag race with an ABS stop at the end. This one held the least appeal to me (press one pedal, then the other). And to top it all off, me (or whoever drove that M5 before me) managed to send it into unrecoverable limp mode. M5 thew up all sorts of error codes and warning messages, turning the instrument cluster into a Xmas tree ornament. I took this as a hint, and checked out at this point, as I had other commitments that evening.

I believe there were more hot laps to be had in cars driven by instructors.

Overall, it was a fantastic and unique opportunity to drive M2s and M3s on track, back-to-back. I don’t see any other way one could have done that. The event was run extremely professionally, and given the cost of entry (free!), it’s a no-brainer repeat for me and a strong recommendation to attend to everyone else.

The parting gift bag included a BMW coffee mug, an M Performance driving school lanyard, and some marketing literature.


There are more events scheduled for August @Miami Homestead, and September @Thermal. If you can - do register and try to attend. The event is free to the participants, and is an absolute blast.

More details here:
https://mtrackdays.bmwusa.com/


a

P.S.: Will add pics later

Thanks for the excellent review.

I found out about this event through this forum. Did anyone receive an invite through an email or letter? I received the USA drive event through email and my regular postal mail.

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by hatepotholez

Thanks for the excellent review.

I found out about this event through this forum. Did anyone receive an invite through an email or letter? I received the USA drive event through email and my regular postal mail.

I got it through email but by then I'd already signed up

[hatepotholez]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

I got it through email but by then I'd already signed up

Cool thanks.

[dxj]

Just signed up for Thur after reading the first post. Thank you for the description.

[boi222]

Do you have to sit as a passenger or can you wait on the side till it's your turn ? Don't think my head can handle being a passenger with someone else driving

[cprx7]

Originally Posted by boi222

Do you have to sit as a passenger or can you wait on the side till it's your turn ? Don't think my head can handle being a passenger with someone else driving

I guess you can wait at the pit area but part of the fun is to make a stranger shit his pants while you drive a M like you stole it

[TooFan328i]

Originally Posted by cprx7

I guess you can wait at the pit area but part of the fun is to make a stranger shit his pants while you drive a M like you stole it

One of the drivers who was behind me ended up puking in the pit after the M3 lap.

[cprx7]

Originally Posted by TooFan328i

One of the drivers who was behind me ended up puking in the pit after the M3 lap.

Damn I know its not fun feel bad for that person. Someone in my group got sick too and could not drive after that.

[afadeev]

Originally Posted by boi222

Do you have to sit as a passenger or can you wait on the side till it's your turn ? Don't think my head can handle being a passenger with someone else driving

You could jump in/out of the car while your partner is driving, but better have a conversation about your plan beforehand. It could easily be perceived as a bit rude otherwise . If there is an odd number of people in your run group, than you can be that one solo driver.

Originally Posted by TooFan328i

One of the drivers who was behind me ended up puking in the pit after the M3 lap.

That's mildly disturbing.
You would like to think that people who sign-up for events on track have driven on one at least once in their lives. If they did, their DE instructors must have taken them out as passengers once or twice.
Or may be not.

a

[TurboAL47]

had a great time as well. had similar impressions driving the m2 then the m3 back to back. definitely like the m3 more after.

nice times on the autox. i had a 30.7 on my second semi-reserved run but got too aggressive on my third run and was screeching tires on almost every turn which ended up slower. just goes to show smooth is faster.

overall great day and the hot lap with the instructors was nuts. those guys can really drive to the edge and drift like maniacs as well.

[Zeroblade]

Originally Posted by TurboAL47

had a great time as well. had similar impressions driving the m2 then the m3 back to back. definitely like the m3 more after.

nice times on the autox. i had a 30.7 on my second semi-reserved run but got too aggressive on my third run and was screeching tires on almost every turn which ended up slower. just goes to show smooth is faster.

overall great day and the hot lap with the instructors was nuts. those guys can really drive to the edge and drift like maniacs as well.

Know if there was any openings?

Still aiming for Miami run

[TurboAL47]

Originally Posted by Zeroblade

Know if there was any openings?

Still aiming for Miami run

the bus was completely full if that counts for anything.