Post by johnc on Oct 5, 2021 17:31:30 GMT
I thought I would do a short write up of my day with BMW at Silverstone last Thursday.
Unfortunately it was windy and poured and in the morning, the garage where the admin and briefing took place was bloody freezing. In the afternoon the space heater and dragged the temperature back up to acceptable.
I won't bore you with the one hour initial chat about grip, steering angles, braking, weight transfer and lines through corners. One that was over we were put into our teams of 6 and allocated an instructor and a car. Two people shared each car and the instructor had his own car which he led us about in. There were 7 parts to the day and the driving: a timed slalom, a drifting session around a coned circle, a swerve and brake test at various speeds to show the capability of ABS, an on track evasion of an imaginary tractor on a corner with increasing speeds - 50, 55, 60 and 65 and three sessions on track just going quickly in a train of 4 cars.
The timed slalom was our first event and each driver got 4 attempts with exclusion of that run if you clipped a cone. This felt like a bit of fun to get us warmed up but it showed the power and stability of the M3 which was impressive. The cars had the standard seats which I found very comfortable although later on when we were on track I could have done with a bit more lateral support. The interior is also of good quality and the steering feels very quick and direct. I never really thought about the steering and the weighting so there must be something right about it.
The drifting part of the day was the only time that DSC was allowed to be switched off which given the conditions was very sensible. We all had 3 attempts and I managed 2 complete drift laps but it was easy to push the car into understeer if you didn't kick the tail out far enough with the initial boot full.
The swerve and brake test was pretty easy and well within the car's limits although once the speed got above 60 things happened pretty quickly and our instructor was getting a bit upset at the number of cones he had to replace - I only gave him some work to do when I accidentally over-rode the limiter and ended up swerving at 70mph instead of 60mph. It was all good fun though.
The on track tractor avoidance was an impressive demonstration of a modern car's capabilities. When the speed got up to 65 and you passed the braking point, the tyres were already close to their grip limits. Hitting the brakes caused the car to understeer and the whole point of the exercise was to get control back by modulating the brake a little, having the line tighten and then applying the brake again. There were cones to simulate the other side of the road and cones for the tractor which just pulled out and with some care it was possible to avoid everything. However there were a few people there who demonstrated the common hit the brakes and panic mode and they just understeered straight across the road into oncoming traffic or ploughed into the tractor. By the end of the session though most of them understood that putting more lock on when understeering is like putting petrol on a fire.
After lunch we headed for the track which had been split in to two - that involved follow our leader for half a lap to the bridge and then half a lap back to the other bridge. Once we had done that 4 times we went to the other half of the track and swapped with the other groups and did the same there. By this time the rain had abated and the track had a dry line so we could push quite hard. The M3 has a great balance and strong power. Very noticeable is the amount of rear grip available which was very impressive for a 500hp RWD car. It is totally different to the previous M3/M4 and for that matter, my friends M2, all of which display a tendency to kick the rear out even when throttle levels are pretty modest, unless it is totally dry.
The final session was the full track taken at increased speed each lap. Unfortunately this coincided with the heavens opening. The format was one lap, then the car following the leader dropped to the back and so on. I started at the back and for the first 2 laps I couldn't see a thing as we were going down the main straight at over 110mph and there was just a wall of spray in front. Thankfully these were road cars and the brake lights worked so I was able to get a braking point even though I couldn't even see where the apex was. On the final lap, I was right behind the instructor and visibility was a lot better as we went even faster.
I am very impressed by the M3. On the track I could use full throttle in the pouring rain and I had no traction control light flashing. The braking was also very strong and confidence inspiring and the grip was way beyond what I thought was possible in those conditions. There was the beginning of a bit of understeer on a couple of the corners but a slight feathering of the throttle brought the nose back into line and the car tracked straight and true with little drama. We were the fastest group by a long way and we had a drive through the pits at one point to let the others get ahead before chasing them down again a lap later. By the end of the session there was so much water on the track that aquaplaning was an issue at a few points so it is probably a good thing that we finished the day before anyone had too big a moment.
I know I said we had one car allocated to us but we ended up with 3! We started out in a light grey one (more a grey white) with the Kyalami orange seats which actually looked pretty good but that car threw up a low tyre warning. After coffee we were given a horrible bright greeny yellow car with a black interior but some idiot forgot to put fuel in it so we had to come back in to change it after it refused to rev above 3,000 rpm due to a low fuel warning. The final car was a green metallic which looked pretty good........apart from the grill. There is no doubt the car looks better in person but you would absolutely not look back at it as you walk away and think Wow. It is OK from most angles apart from the front. I would also be a bit concerned about the stone damage that will be done to the rear arch just behind the rear door - I think that would need a Porsche like slicker applied to prevent it being sandblasted down to primer within a few thousand miles.
I thoroughly enjoyed the day although the 4 days travelling and 4 nights in hotels made the whole thing a bit expensive. However it was good to get a break and Susan was able to go to Bicester and pick up a few Christmas presents so it served two purposes.
Unfortunately it was windy and poured and in the morning, the garage where the admin and briefing took place was bloody freezing. In the afternoon the space heater and dragged the temperature back up to acceptable.
I won't bore you with the one hour initial chat about grip, steering angles, braking, weight transfer and lines through corners. One that was over we were put into our teams of 6 and allocated an instructor and a car. Two people shared each car and the instructor had his own car which he led us about in. There were 7 parts to the day and the driving: a timed slalom, a drifting session around a coned circle, a swerve and brake test at various speeds to show the capability of ABS, an on track evasion of an imaginary tractor on a corner with increasing speeds - 50, 55, 60 and 65 and three sessions on track just going quickly in a train of 4 cars.
The timed slalom was our first event and each driver got 4 attempts with exclusion of that run if you clipped a cone. This felt like a bit of fun to get us warmed up but it showed the power and stability of the M3 which was impressive. The cars had the standard seats which I found very comfortable although later on when we were on track I could have done with a bit more lateral support. The interior is also of good quality and the steering feels very quick and direct. I never really thought about the steering and the weighting so there must be something right about it.
The drifting part of the day was the only time that DSC was allowed to be switched off which given the conditions was very sensible. We all had 3 attempts and I managed 2 complete drift laps but it was easy to push the car into understeer if you didn't kick the tail out far enough with the initial boot full.
The swerve and brake test was pretty easy and well within the car's limits although once the speed got above 60 things happened pretty quickly and our instructor was getting a bit upset at the number of cones he had to replace - I only gave him some work to do when I accidentally over-rode the limiter and ended up swerving at 70mph instead of 60mph. It was all good fun though.
The on track tractor avoidance was an impressive demonstration of a modern car's capabilities. When the speed got up to 65 and you passed the braking point, the tyres were already close to their grip limits. Hitting the brakes caused the car to understeer and the whole point of the exercise was to get control back by modulating the brake a little, having the line tighten and then applying the brake again. There were cones to simulate the other side of the road and cones for the tractor which just pulled out and with some care it was possible to avoid everything. However there were a few people there who demonstrated the common hit the brakes and panic mode and they just understeered straight across the road into oncoming traffic or ploughed into the tractor. By the end of the session though most of them understood that putting more lock on when understeering is like putting petrol on a fire.
After lunch we headed for the track which had been split in to two - that involved follow our leader for half a lap to the bridge and then half a lap back to the other bridge. Once we had done that 4 times we went to the other half of the track and swapped with the other groups and did the same there. By this time the rain had abated and the track had a dry line so we could push quite hard. The M3 has a great balance and strong power. Very noticeable is the amount of rear grip available which was very impressive for a 500hp RWD car. It is totally different to the previous M3/M4 and for that matter, my friends M2, all of which display a tendency to kick the rear out even when throttle levels are pretty modest, unless it is totally dry.
The final session was the full track taken at increased speed each lap. Unfortunately this coincided with the heavens opening. The format was one lap, then the car following the leader dropped to the back and so on. I started at the back and for the first 2 laps I couldn't see a thing as we were going down the main straight at over 110mph and there was just a wall of spray in front. Thankfully these were road cars and the brake lights worked so I was able to get a braking point even though I couldn't even see where the apex was. On the final lap, I was right behind the instructor and visibility was a lot better as we went even faster.
I am very impressed by the M3. On the track I could use full throttle in the pouring rain and I had no traction control light flashing. The braking was also very strong and confidence inspiring and the grip was way beyond what I thought was possible in those conditions. There was the beginning of a bit of understeer on a couple of the corners but a slight feathering of the throttle brought the nose back into line and the car tracked straight and true with little drama. We were the fastest group by a long way and we had a drive through the pits at one point to let the others get ahead before chasing them down again a lap later. By the end of the session there was so much water on the track that aquaplaning was an issue at a few points so it is probably a good thing that we finished the day before anyone had too big a moment.
I know I said we had one car allocated to us but we ended up with 3! We started out in a light grey one (more a grey white) with the Kyalami orange seats which actually looked pretty good but that car threw up a low tyre warning. After coffee we were given a horrible bright greeny yellow car with a black interior but some idiot forgot to put fuel in it so we had to come back in to change it after it refused to rev above 3,000 rpm due to a low fuel warning. The final car was a green metallic which looked pretty good........apart from the grill. There is no doubt the car looks better in person but you would absolutely not look back at it as you walk away and think Wow. It is OK from most angles apart from the front. I would also be a bit concerned about the stone damage that will be done to the rear arch just behind the rear door - I think that would need a Porsche like slicker applied to prevent it being sandblasted down to primer within a few thousand miles.
I thoroughly enjoyed the day although the 4 days travelling and 4 nights in hotels made the whole thing a bit expensive. However it was good to get a break and Susan was able to go to Bicester and pick up a few Christmas presents so it served two purposes.
