Liability law--usually as in, "I screwed up but you're going to pay"--has wrought upon our society all manner of stupidity.
Have you ever noticed you can't buy a hot cup of coffee since that lady burned herself by putting the cup between her legs while driving and then burned McDonalds for her injuries? And that was just the tip; now you can't even buy a home coffee maker that keeps the coffee more than lukewarm. And it shuts itself off in two hours.
What about go-karts? Have you ever gone to a kart track with a few buddies, strapped yourself in, only to find the thing is governed to 25 mph? What a drag. I remember when rental go-kart tracks meant pretty serious racing.
Been in any new cars lately? Instead of spending your first day lovingly detailing a new ride, you have to spend it trying to remove a plethora of ugly lawyer warning stickers from nearly every surface in the interior.
So, when BMW of North America created its spiffy new Performance Center near their Spartanburg manufacturing facility, we figured it might have to do with risk management: "We tried to teach him how to drive, your honor. We even built a special school and he went through it. We did all we could. It's not our fault he went off the New Jersey Turnpike at 80 mph in snow, with no snow tires, talking on the phone and watching television...."
The BMW Performance Center is a purpose-built facility billed as the ultimate North American destination for BMW enthusiasts. The Centers proximity to the manufacturing plant allows BMW production tours as well as visits to the factory museum, called The Zentrum, filled with historic BMWs and parts thereof. A large classroom and video screening facility provide ground school, while a complete service center and body shop maintain the Performance Center driving school vehicles.
Risk management may have sprung to mind then, but a visit to the BMW Performance Center cured that. Obviously there are marketing interests involved, still, there is no doubt BMW wants it's buyers to be trained drivers not only to protect the cars and the company, but themselves as well and to derive maximum enjoyment from these seminal sports sedans and coupes.
Driving is what the Performance Center is about, plain and simple and BMW has tailored several programs to suit the mild to the wild amongst their enthusiast customer base. The facility includes an "other roads" off-road course for the X5, which BMW calls a sport "activity" vehicle, a wet skid pad, autocross course, road course and an emergency maneuver section.
At the forefront is what BMW calls the M Driving Experience, a high-performance driving school with new M5s and M3s. The latter fleet is a mixture of both sequential and traditional gearbox examples. Only 15 participants at a time are allowed into the M car school, ensuring a nice instructor-to-student ratio. BMW orchestrates the school more like a vacation than a club-type driving school, including airport transfers, catered meals, helmet, helmet bag, coat, shirt and one day on the Performance Center course and one day at the Michelin Test Track.
It may seem like a bit over the top, but I suspect this is precisely the sort of weekend getaway the averaged stressed out executive BMW buyer dreams about.
The first day begins with classroom instruction but the majority of the day is spent driving the M3 coupe and M5 sedan, practicing handling skills, avoidance maneuvers and skid control. BMW actually teaches wet drifting. Cool.
The second day of M school is spent at right down the road at Michelin's tire testing facility on a wet handling course with decreasing and increasing radius turns. The Advanced M School comes next. A 2 1/2-day school takes the event to leading racetracks starting at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C., using the infield and NASCAR course.
Schools less than the M car courses are offered as well, including a Control Skills School, which offers practice in accident avoidance techniques on several areas of the driving course, including a "water wall," skid pad, slalom and actual roads course. Non-M cars are used here and students can follow up with an Advanced Control Skills School. Vehicle-specific schools are held for the Z8, Z4 and X5. A "women-only" school is also featured--at least until the ACLU hears about it. But most interestingly, BMW now holds 1 and 2-day teen schools, which they bill as driver's education, BMW style, for teens age 15 to 18.
So the BMW Performance Center should not be dismissed as mere marketing or risk management. This place is an absolute blast and although holding this magazine in your hands means you're probably a competent driver, believe me when I tell you much can be learned from a professional driver who drives on the track day in and day out.
It's also important to recognize that BMW is doing it's customers a great service by teaching them to hone their driving skills. Let's face it: You and I did not learn what we know about driving in 10th-grade driver's ed. In the United States, we memorize 40 questions, make a three-point turn, stop at a stop sign and whammo--we have a driver's license, fully authorizing us to drive any car.
Do you know how many people get out of a Honda Accord automatic and into a new 333-hp M3? Me either, but that first drive must be quite an eye-opening event.
Fifteen years ago, a hot car had 200 hp. Today, I think there are lawnmowers with 200 hp. The average milquetoast family sedan will cut 0-to-60 times in the 8-sec. range and nothing can claim to be fast without at least 300 hp on tap. A little profession driving instruction never hurt anyone, but lack if it has.