Drive ‘em fast!” instructor Derek Leonard tells every class at the BMW Performance Center. “Slow down” is not something you’ll likely hear around this school’s Driver’s Ed program, located across the street from the BMW factory in Greer, SC, just outside of Spartanburg. In fact, you’re encouraged to spin out.
The school’s 130 acres are crowded with asphalt where students can practice such skills as interstate panic braking and skid control. Oval and circular tracks provide practice settings for figure-8 acceleration, lane changing, timed laps, hazard avoidance and controlled turns. Out in front of the building, an off-road course presents challenges ranging from steep climbs on rocky roads to water hazards. And then there’s the skid pad.
“It’s our premiere teaching tool,” Leonard says. At 300 feet in diameter, the circle of polished concrete is used to teach students how to maintain control in slick conditions such as black ice. If Mother Nature doesn’t provide rain, fountains shoot water onto the course.
“It’s like the floor of a Costco but wet all the time,” he explains. “This is slide central.”
Students learn to put their car into a controlled “drift” that carries them sideways around the wet pad. “We’re the House of Drift,” Leonard says. And, in fact, the South Carolina facility has several Guinness Awards to prove it.
In late 2017, BMW Performance Center driving instructor Johan Schwartz set the world’s record for greatest distance vehicle drift in 8 hours, traveling sideways for 232.5 miles in a BMW M5. To achieve this distance, the BMW team had to figure out a way to refuel the car without stopping. What they came up with resembles the mid-air refueling the Air Force uses to keep jets flying without landing. While two M5s drift side by side, a refueler leans out of the passenger side window and attaches a hose to top of the car that’s attempting the drift record.
“In the end, the refueling system worked flawlessly and the M5 performed as expected,” Schwartz said. In the process of refueling, the team bagged a second Guinness record: longest twin vehicle drift, an impressive 49.25 miles of side-by-side sliding.
“We don’t think it’s possible to break our record,” Leonard says.
The polished concrete area used to teach students how to maintain control in slick conditions [Photo/BMW Performance Center]
Besides learning to drift, which has been called the motorsport for the PlayStation generation since it recreates video game maneuvers, students get lessons in understeering and oversteering, panic braking, high speed lane changes, holding a drive line, handling spin outs, even how to correctly adjust mirrors to eliminate blind spots. According to Leonard, something like 80 percent of drivers do this all wrong.
Before the day is over, students participate in head-to-head “rat races” and take a top-speed timed lap around the course. “Basically, we’re teaching the physics of driving here,” Leonard says. “We want it to be exciting and fun, but we also want our courses to be safe and, above all, educational.”
The South Carolina facility offers several different one and two day training programs for teens and adults. Leonard says a lot of parents (and grandparents) bring their kids here to learn the skills they’ll need to be a good and safe driver. “This is the finest driving training teens can get,” he says. “It’s all about judgment and decision making.” The course even teaches teens the dangers of distracted driving.
BMW runs the teen and adult schools concurrently, so families can be on the track at the same time. Training takes place in late model BMWs, including the popular M2, the 605-hp M5, and the brand new M850i. “It’s the prettiest,” Leonard says. “It’s track-bred and track ready.” The center also offers the M School, for those who want to learn competitive driving skills in high-performance cars, with six hours of solo behind-the-wheel time included. Some 15,000 people train at the Spartanburg facility, and more at its sister school near Palm Springs, California, each year.
A highlight of the two-day schools, in Spartanburg only, is instruction on the Off-Road course in the newly redesigned X5 Sports Utility Vehicle, produced at the factory next door. Resembling nothing so much as a bombed out battlefield, the course features rocky hills with grades of 38 degrees, bridges and bumps that have the X5s teetering on two wheels, flooded tunnels, steeply winding downgrades, and even a stream to ford. An instructor on a walkie talkie talks drivers through the off-road course, reassuring them that the sure-footed vehicles aren’t going to turn over, even if they feel like they will.
By the end of their training, students will have driven some five different models of BMW, each equipped with the company’s latest technology, ranging from advanced ABS braking systems and Dynamic Stability Control to the latest eDrive tech, even drink holders that keep beverages hot or cold. There’s a real danger of addiction here, Leonard claims. “One in five of our graduates buy a BMW within three years, and that goes up to one in three in five years.”
For folks who don’t feel the need for speed, BMW has several other options for visitors. You can arrange a guided factory tour to see the X line of vehicles being assembled. BMW Manufacturing currently produces more than 1,400 vehicles each day and is the global producer of BMW X3, X4, X5, X6 and X7 Sports Activity Vehicles and Coupes. The $10 billion South Carolina plant has rolled out more than four million vehicles since 1994.
Next to the factory sits the unique Zentrum, a museum that follows BMW history from its early days before WWII to today’s new electric models. On display are many rare racing and touring classic vehicles, including the famous Isetta “Bubblecar,” as well as exhibits on BMW’s state-of-the-art technologies. Admission to Zentrum, conveniently located just off I-85, is free.
The courses offered by the Performance Driving School are definitely not free, but, Leonard says, there’s a work-around. Every person who buys or leases a BMW from a certified BMW Retail Center is entitled to take advantage of the Performance Center Delivery Experience option - free of charge. “We put you up in the Marriott, with all your meals included,” Leonard says. The next day, a shuttle brings you to the Performance Center for two hours on the track in a car of the same model as yours, receiving tips on effective use of the built in braking, stabilization and other technologies on the skid pad and road course, followed by a top-speed “hot lap” with a pro driver.
After lunch, it’s time to meet your new car. A BMW Product Specialist gives you a tour of all its special features, and even pairs your phone to the car’s technology. “It’s totally free,” Leonard reminds. “With every car, every time.”
Derek Leonard, who began driving at 14 and is the veteran of many races, has one further safety tip to share with MobileRVing readers. “It’s my favorite: Shiny side up, rubber side down.”