BMW Driver Training

[Zeuk in Oz]

My 18 year old son (he who has been driving the E34 for the past 16 months) did the "Young Driver" BMW training course at Eastern Creek raceway yesterday and he hasn't come back to earth yet.
"Awesome" being the only word we can get out of him.
12 students and 2 instructors.
12 E90 325i manuals, each with 1,400 km on the clock and 2 E46 M3s.
Apparently it covered the basics and a lot of driving - on Pirelli P6000s which are probably not the standard run flats.
He had a ball and learnt a lot too.
The 2 hot laps with the instuctors in the M3s at the end of the day were worth talking about, he thought.
Highly recommended in his opinion.
Now to see if this translates into accidents - but he is actually quite sensible - I hope. :D
Beware buying a used 325i with low kms from BMW ! :p

[stx133]

congratulations. it is great to hear people getting young drivers to learn to 'drive' rathere than just steer!! what you have given him is an opportunity to avoid accidents by being skilled at car handling. well done.

[Zeuk in Oz]

If only I could get "she who must be obeyed" to take one !
I bought her one for Christmas the year before we were married and she hated every minute of it.
She has never had a car out of control in her life, so I make sure the car she drives has all the latest electronic safety things like ESP, BAS, etc.
I don't much care about her but she drives my kids around and I am quite fond of them ! :D

[stx133]

Had my lady in her car 'corolla' going the wrong way on a narrow gravel beach track. Handbrake u turn and off we go. she hit me and then said she didnt know whether to be cross or impressed.

[Jeff N.]

I volunteer as an instructor for our local CCA chapter and have been teaching "advanced skills days" almost 5 years now. Hands down, they are the best and most fun single day you can have at the track. Zeuk - I can totally see your son and the permagrin on his face - I see them twice a year at the end of each of our skills days.

When we do our days, we are able to get about a 1:3 ratio of instructors to students and a student never drives alone the entire day.

Do you remember what stations they ran him through? Our club will run through the following on a skills day:

- slalom
- skid pad
- threshold braking
- handling oval (the best and trickiest of them all by far)
- large auto x
- small auto x
- classroom chalk talk session

The last part of the day is a lapping session where the instructors provide demonstration rides to the students illustrating the application of all the skills the students learned during the day.

Personally, I think everyone should have to attend a "school" like this. It's all the stuff you wish they would have taught you in drivers ed class but didn't.

Jeff

[uscharalph]

My 18 year old son (he who has been driving the E34 for the past 16 months) did the "Young Driver" BMW training course at Eastern Creek raceway yesterday and he hasn't come back to earth yet.
"Awesome" being the only word we can get out of him.
12 students and 2 instructors.
12 E90 325i manuals, each with 1,400 km on the clock and 2 E46 M3s.
Apparently it covered the basics and a lot of driving - on Pirelli P6000s which are probably not the standard run flats.
He had a ball and learnt a lot too.
The 2 hot laps with the instuctors in the M3s at the end of the day were worth talking about, he thought.
Highly recommended in his opinion.
Now to see if this translates into accidents - but he is actually quite sensible - I hope. :D
Beware buying a used 325i with low kms from BMW ! :p
How much did they charge for the class?

[pyro]

i did the youth driver training through bmw for free. it was the bmwusa one they had us go fulll speed inot a wall of cones and then at the last minut they would say left or right and we would have to turn
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then they had us do some other stuff but it was very cool

[shogun]

I did it last year on the Nurburgring circuit in Germany.
2 days 300 $ approx. with own car.
They had quite many M3 there for rent for the course.

[Zeuk in Oz]

How much did they charge for the class?
The cost was AUD$450 (Approx US$340) for the day including food (quite a challenge for 18 year - olds) His grandmother (at my suggestion) gave it to him for his 18th.
For more info : www.bmw.com.au/indexframe.asp and then go to driver training.
Bad news tonight though, number 2 son, who turned 17 on Sunday, just got his licence.
Shogun, there was no option to use your own car - insurance here in Oz doesn't cover it - so he had to "put up with" a new E90.
Life's tough ! :)

[Nick.Hay]

Ive had several female friends behind the wheels of my old Corolla on the beach here... They hate it at first, then once THEY start to slide the car around, they think its great!!

Ideal car control testing ground... Local beach or local forest tracks!!

[Joe F]

If only I could get "she who must be obeyed" to take one !

If you can talk her into it, it will be time and money well spent. My Mrs. was an awful driver. I used to be terrified to ride with her. I talked her into taking two Driver training classes put on by a local sports car club. These classes are a pre requisite for getting a competition license and are very comprehensive. She took one in the rain and another in the dry. Best thing ever for her driving.

Although in the dry class, I remember riding with an instructor following her into a fairly fast corner that lead onto a straight. We watched in horror as she neglected to brake prior to the corner, and the car proceeded to do 2 360 spins between the guard rails.... She didn't hit anything, pushed in the clutch, restarted the car and continued. Whew.

Now she doesn't follow too closely or drive too fast for conditions and is much more aware of what's going on around her.

Of course, none of this is a result of the driver training. She was always a "really good driver anyway" "Yes Dear, of course you were." :p

Cheers,
Joe F :D

[Jeff N.]

$85 for the day + you need to be a club member which is $35 per year.


How much did they charge for the class?

[nuwde]

$85 for the day + you need to be a club member which is $35 per year.

wow good price! is there anything like that in the MD area??

[Jeff N.]

www.bmwcca.org --- follow the chapters menu.



wow good price! is there anything like that in the MD area??

[Zeuk in Oz]

If you can talk her into it, it will be time and money well spent.
Are you kidding ? I can't even broach the subject anymore - and thats after 20 years !!!!
Her stock answer is that she has never had an accident.
She has been caught speeding twice recently though so she has had to slow down a bit. Thank goodness !
She did do the course 20 years ago but claims to have learnt nothing from it. My bringing up the subject again would end up as a case of good news and bad news !
The good news is I would be single again ! :)
The bad news is I would lose 90% of everything ! :D
Women ! Can't live with them, can't live without them !

[SharkmanBMW]

I did it last year on the Nurburgring circuit in Germany.
2 days 300 $ approx. with own car.
They had quite many M3 there for rent for the course.

Where do I sign up for that?!?!?!
That was a great experience i am sure - what car did you drive?

[shogun]

I was driving a 5 series from our company. Actually the whole course was paid by the company. :D

If you want it on M3, that costs quite a lot
1660,00 - 1850,00 EUR
2 days, arranged by BMW
http://www.bmw.de/de/index_common.html?content=http://www.bmw.de/de/services/Fahrertraining/Erlebniswelt/cont_rundstrecken_training.html
There are various companies which offer this
http://www.fahrerlehrgang.info/html/en/en_fahrerlehrgang.html
http://www.fahrer-training.de/

[shogun]

Safety training
http://k063.ims-firmen.de/ah/bmw-forum/forum/upload/4741830112004.jpg
http://k063.ims-firmen.de/ah/bmw-forum/forum/upload/5441830112004.jpg

[Jeff N.]

Me and one of my driving buddies are planning to do that next year. Be good to chat with someone who's done a trip.

Jeff


I did it last year on the Nurburgring circuit in Germany.
2 days 300 $ approx. with own car.
They had quite many M3 there for rent for the course.

[shogun]

Jeff,
maybe you contact BMWNA, I think they arrange complete trips incl. such a training course.
For me it was a business trip including these 2 days training.
Courses are from April thru November every year.

[Jeff N.]

Still be fun to chat about what you might recommend. No hurries.

thx


Jeff,
maybe you contact BMWNA, I think they arrange complete trips incl. such a training course.
For me it was a business trip including these 2 days training.
Courses are from April thru November every year.