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I had a chance yesterday to attend a "cloud seminar" hosted by virtustream to get their spin of visualization and security. They held the meeting at the BMW performance center down in Greer SC. I have to say I had a blast beating on just about everything BMW. I was able to drive the following....

> X3, very good off road features
> X6, fast but wallowy sport-ute, wasn't a fan
> M5, damn, this is a fast car, very capable and fun to drive, one of my top 2 picks
> M3, my car of choice assuming I was going to buy a bimmer
> 328, very nice daily driver
> 135, great car, just a little too small for daily use
> 750, huge car, surprisingly quick, lot of body roll and you can feel the weight of it
> Z4M, fast drop top sports car, very quick and precise

So there were 4 BMW events during the day. They had the "off road" with the X3's. This was over the hill, through the water up and down the hill and sideways. I was impressed by the x3. Next was the "rat race" w/ the 135 on a wet oval. Turned the traction control off and they staged 2 cars on the oval at the same time. Idea was to chase down the other car. This was tricky and I saw too many drivers get too aggressive and just shot past the cones and pushing way outside the line. A little self control was needed here and that was tough to do for me. I did win my group event.

Third on the list was the autocross event w/ the M3 and they all had the SMG tranny. The best thing to do here was just put in auto/sport mode and drive. I was actually won the timed event overall out of a "class" of 40 drivers. That felt good. Lastly was the swap and drive where we drove the rest of the cars around a small track and hopped from car to car. As a wrap up, we went on a hot lap w/ one of the hired drivers. I must say they have great car control. Must be nice to smoke a set of tires and not have to worry about replacing them.

I have to say that having owned 4 BMW's in the past, I was frustrated with the current crop of BMW's and the throttle response of everyone of these cars. Part of it was from the turbo lag and part from the nanny driver controls. It's true that nothing drives like a BMW and these were great cars to drive, but I think I'll keep my bullitt for now. Almost as fun to drive and a hellofa lot cheaper to work on and maintain. But that's not to say I wouldn't consider an e90 M3, nice car.

That said, I HIGHLY recommend that if you ever get the chance to go the BMW driving center, do it, it's a blast.

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Rodney

'08 Bullitt mustang, CAM 7
Autox VP '09-'10, President '11-'12, interim President 2nd half of ‘14
proud recipient of the Bowie Grey service award '12
Now just a guy driving a mustang....

Rodney,

It doesn't surprise me you took the title on the autocross! Good job. The rat race is a lot of fun too, I've done that many years ago and won also as almost everyone overcooks it.

If you're a CCA member, *and* you add the Sandlapper Chapter as an additional chapter, and of course you have a BMW or Mini, you can run in the Sandlapper Chapter "autocross" events at the PC. I've been doing the FTD routine on those guys 4 out of 5 times I've been down for the event. It's an awesome "autocross" in that there are few cones, so it's more like a time trial and super fun. There is no course working allowed as they have two of the PC employees work the course for cones in X5s, and a cone hit is a DNF too, so there are not too many of those.

Here's a video from when I was down there last month with the M3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFhtzGsXD6M

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

I wan't aware of that, I may need to renew my membership, sounds fun.

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2002 MCS, 2003 MCS Track Rat, 2003 Generic White Yukon, 2003 BMWk1200rs, 1973 CB350F, 02 996. 08 Cayenne Turbo
http://www.clinehallagency.com