BMW and Nurburgring Race Track Experience!

AWESOME!!!

That is how I would describe my recent trip out to Germany, courtesy of Vine's BMW in Guildford!

There were about 50 of us (mostly men unsurprisingly) and we flew from Farnborough airport on a specially chartered plane and from the moment we arrived the hospitality was impressive - plenty of attention, drinks and food!

After a short flight to Koln airport we transferred to our hotel directly overlooking the Nurburgring and once we had settled into our rooms, we made our way to the bar.

The first evening was made up of presentations, a fantastic evening meal, and the opportunity to see another unveiling of the M3, after which, we went back to the bar to finish the evening! By this time, I had made a number of new friends (Ian, on the left above - was my co pilot in the car, Andrew, - a very funny man, Gary, next to Ian above - brilliant at keeping me organised, Steve and Sam - real whizzes on the facts & figures of the old and new M3's, Adrian - our US friend, and Dave and Colin - a couple of 'Likely Lads'! They all made my experience what it was - memorable.

I finally went to bed about 1pm local time, as we had to be up, breakfasted, and ready for action at 8am!

...and this is where the adventure really began.

We were split into teams with 2 people to each car (instructors drove the red cars). The track was divided up into sections so that we experienced different elements of driving such as driving through a slalom of cones, experiencing the ability of how the M3 can react in the event of emergency obstacles in the road (the most scary for me), chicane handling and competitive cornering, before ending off with race track experience!

The first thing we did as a team was the slalom of cones - which was a real challenge! We had to drive at speed through pairs of cones that had been set at different distances from each other, some of which really put the car through it's paces, including tight cornering. It was very challenging, and for me I was doing this whilst learning how to drive a left had car, and a BMW to boot! At one point, I managed to slide off the track onto the grass, and it took some moments to regain control! I have to say it was the most thrilling experience I have ever had - and was disappointed that just as I was getting the hang of it, we had to move on!

By the end of the day, we finally got to do the one thing all of us were really looking forward to doing - drive around the track at speed. This was not the full track, just about a mile and a half of it, and all the same it was fab! I was even more lucky as my co-driver had had to go off somewhere, so I got extra driving in, much to the other guys disgust!

It really was one of the most thrilling experiences of my life and one I would love to do again - thank you Vine's BMW!

Pause for Thought

I like to think about my experiences in terms of the lessons we can learn in life - and for me, this experience was no different.

You can see in one of the photos, that the weather was really poor - it rained buckets all day. As I mentioned, I lost control of the car on a bend and went sliding off onto the grass (my co-driver Ian seemed to think it was great - and was very level headed, telling me what to do). Whilst I believe that I didn't panic, it was a moment that made me think - I really had no idea how to correct the car! Fortunately, being a race track, and through the careful planning of the instructors, I was in no danger - however, back at home, it is another story...

For a long time, I have known that I have a tendency to drive too fast, and yet the experiences on the race track made me recognise my limitations - that if I lost control of a car I would not necessarily know what to do and if I did, would I react quickly enough? It's food for thought.

Interestingly, one of the guys (Andrew) on my team, runs a company that provides the university degree of driving tests for young people to encourage safer and more responsible driving. I was very impressed with what they are aiming to achieve - and believe that this maybe the way to go - check them out!