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View Full Version : Hello, and back from Spartanburg


JST
10-19-2003, 08:34 PM
I go away for two weeks, and someone starts a new website on me, TD gets a new wagon, and Hack gets a Z4. Things move fast around here.

Last week, I was in Spartanburg (actually, Greer) at the Performance Center doing their two day car control class. Overall, I was impressed with the class. The cars that we used were 330iA SPs, so there was no heel and toe work, but other than that, they covered the majority of topics I wanted to work on. We spent a fair amount of time on the wet skidpad, as well as doing various lane change and braking exercises. The highlight of the class, though, are the "autocross" sections, which are done on sections of the track that are much faster than what I think of as an autocross around here. They run you through finding the apex, the turn in and track out points, and continually emphasize how important it is to keep looking ahead. This is all stuff I've heard before, but the hands-on work was very helpful.

Then they let us hammer some other cars around. I'll post that in a different thread...

Doug
10-19-2003, 08:36 PM
Cool, welcome!

Mathew
10-19-2003, 09:04 PM
Ah, so you were at the PDC.

Glad to see you had fun, I did. So what car number did you have? Did you have to share with someone else?

JST
10-19-2003, 09:09 PM
Ah, so you were at the PDC.

Glad to see you had fun, I did. So what car number did you have? Did you have to share with someone else?

S12. A white 330.

Yes, I had a co-driver. It was actually useful; you learn a lot watching what other people do.

Mathew
10-19-2003, 09:16 PM
S12. A white 330.

Yes, I had a co-driver. It was actually useful; you learn a lot watching what other people do.

I was in car 6 of 6, a red 330. We were an odd numbered group, so I was alone. I liked it because I got double driving time. The only downside I thought (at the time) was that I didn't have a partner to take pictures of me.

JST
10-19-2003, 09:17 PM
Oh, some other random things:

I saw (but did not drive) an X3, and got to climb in and around it. It's surprisingly big inside, but has less rear passenger space than the X5. The interior is not as bad as I thought it would be.

I drove an X5 4.4 Valvetronic, but we took them off road and my max speed was about 10, so I don't have any driving impressions. On BMW's off-road course, the X5 isn't bad, but then you'd expect that, right?

I saw a new Rolls-Royce, and that thing is freaking huge. It's mammoth. Imense. Elephantine. Pictures do not convey its cartoonish dimensions well, but I've got a couple of shots I'll post in a big showing it next to an X5 and my car.