It’s not often one is able to drive a pre-production BMW M model six months before it’s released. Similarly, it’s not often one is able to drive this car or any car on a Formula One circuit. And lastly, as much as we would like, it is not often some of us are able to visit a foreign country. So when BMW recently invited me to be one of the first Americans to drive the new, yet to be released, 2008 BMW M3 on the Formula One circuit at Nurburgring in Germany, I had to leap at the opportunity.
On the first night in Germany, after a hellish flight that included a six hour layover in Amsterdam, with nary a (weed shop) in sight, I was quickly asking myself why on earth I left my wife and kids at home to spend good money traveling halfway across the globe to preview a new BMW M3. My frame of mind quickly changed as soon as we started warm-up laps in this amazing car the following morning.
The F1 track at Nurburgring is a challenging one but no match for the new technology offerings and fat tires of the M3. These characteristics certainly helped a novice like me achieve tremendous speed while giving me great confidence as I maneuvered the corners, faster and faster each lap. Flat out speed wasn’t the gist of the week; the intent primarily was to provide an introduction to BMW’s new sport M flagship. We would accomplish this by undergoing a series of workshops that concentrated on braking (imagine that), cornering, drifting, slalom and last but certainly not least, the ideal line to take when sport driving. In addition, the fine German and American instructors (instruktors) would compliment our training with some classroom time that concentrated on ideal seat positioning among many other previously thought of casual elements.
The workshops were quite informative and in some instances, allowed us drivers to do things behind the wheel that we were never able to do. Specifically, fully braking and turning from 100 km (about 62 MPH) is something that I think should be a part of all national student drivers training. Unfortunately, most drivers never experience this until it’s too late (tidbit: with a car equipped with an anti-lock braking system, you can slam on your brakes fully and still steer out of harm’s way).
While the workshops were fine and dandy, nothing could compare to actually taking hot laps behind the instructors. This is where we got the opportunity to let the rubber meet the road, and it did. By giving us the opportunity to do consecutive hot laps, we were able to push and push the car a bit more with each lap. Because we were separated into 10 drivers among 5 cars, your real hot lap quickly became the one that you were directly behind the instructor. In these situations, the instructors would determine your speed and ability and always remain ahead of you, allowing you to push the car as hard and as far as your ability could take you (tidbit: passing a German instructor as I stupidly did on a formation lap is never a good idea, no matter how hot you are coming out of a corner and into a straightaway). With new DSC and EDC traction control system of the BMW M3, you never really needed to worry about harm’s way as the technology was always monitoring your speed and traction, automatically and severely limiting power when traction was not evident
I thought doing 210km on a straightaway of a Grand Prix circuit in a new M3 would be the highlight of the week but even that would be overtaken by the ultimate highlight of the event. On our final day, we had the opportunity to be a passenger in the M3, piloted by a ring taxi driver around the full 22-km Nurburgring course. Ring taxi drivers are those that are highly proficient at navigating the treacherous course that Nurburgring is. Our ring taxi driver was Fritz Lario, an engineer at the BMW M division and certainly, an expert at driving Nurburgring. I could not imagine doing many or any of the things he did with that car on that fine afternoon drive. It must have been the most thrilling nine minutes of my life, (sex would certainly be number one if only I could last that long).
The event culminated with some further instruction and the last of our hot laps. It truly was hard saying goodbye to the M3 for the next six months, waiting and dreaming about its eventual introduction to the States. Because of this thrilling experience and premature courtship, I’ll be first in line to re-acquaint myself with this specimen upon its none-to-soon release in the US.