As the title says, I attended the BMW CCA HPDE event this past weekend and took the M5. I just want to share my experience with the rest of the forum members in the chance that you think it might be something that you would like to attend. I would highly recommend it, and I personally extend a thanks to Gene Mulligan (another '13 M5 owner on this board) for encouraging me to do so!
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johntomferg, on Flickr
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johntomferg, on Flickr
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johntomferg, on Flickr
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First, let me say:
My wife and I had a
great time this past weekend at this event and we enjoyed meeting all of other car enthusiasts. This was the first 'anything' for me involving formal high speed driving instruction, but certainly a great event and great people!!! It was ran very professionally (kudo's to Jack Joyner and his band of instructors), everything I was exposed to was on schedule, 'poor decisions' on/off the track by a very few participants were addressed, and the instructors were very involved to make sure you got as much out of the track time as possible.
Let's talk about track time - there was a lot of it. I was really surprised coming out of this event regarding the track time. The field was broken out into A/B/C/D and Instructor groups. In general, only classes said group on the course during that group's track time. For D group there were more classroom sessions, but still lots of track time. I've included pictures of the schedule for the insight:
There were so many enthusiasts and beautiful cars! I was very happy to be given the opportunity to share the track with the ones in the D group. I learned a lot about driver etiquette on the track, point-by, wave offs, etc...
I had an excellent instructor, but I know most here really want to see 'the cars!' So I'll give a little with some pictures of my instructor's (Scott Meyer's) car:
If you have never been to Barber (
https://www.barbermotorsports.com/pa...nformation.php), the park is wonderful. Lots of access areas to get really good shots of the corners and the field as the cars come around.
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johntomferg, on Flickr
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All of our pictures and short videos are posted on flickr at
http://www.flickr.com/johntomferg
My abilities on the track with the M5 were significantly better by the last run on the second day than when I started out. As speed increased though, my experience and judgement was tested for keeping up with the changes that made to where the car would be entering and leaving turns. Always an adjustment battle.
I've posted a long-ish video series on youtube as "unlisted." It is the 2:30PM Sunday D Group. It's raw and you'll probably want to skip to around 8:08 so as not hear the 'Ferguson commentary.'
In the notes for Part 1 you will find the link to Part 2 (and Part 3 is just more 'Ferguson commentary').
To Justin Ward in the Porsche....yes I really did want to catch you / keep up with you in that Porsche (beautiful car!) this last time around, and except for that hiccup in the pit turn I felt I was 'almost there.' You were always so fast through the day.
Notes on the video:
This was my last run for the day and the car was set for Throttle: Sport, Suspension: Sport +; Steering: Comfort; D2 for shifting; and Full traction control. If any of you want to see a spastic traction control light at 90-100, watch the lower dash between the center gauges when it is accelerating out of the turns (like double apex turn and the museum turn). As Scott Meyer (my excellent instructor) put it: that light is "All those engineers in Munich keeping (me) out of trouble". I like to think I eventually won't need them when on a track where I am approaching the limits of the driver (and not the car), but with this car I am certain I will for a long time!
If you made it this far, thanks for reading!
As per request, Saturday session video has been uploaded. Should give you a better picture of the track as it is a window mount shot.