Recently, I participated in the BMW Ultimate Driving Experience in Dallas, TX! Admittedly, I am a BMW fan. Ever since I was a chubby 12 year old, I dreamt of this car, an E36 M3 sedan…
The allure, the reputation and the look coaxed me in to adoring the brand. Aside from a few questionable designs and niche market vehicles, I still love BMWs to this day.
When I saw that BMW was hosting one of their Ultimate Driving Experiences in Dallas, TX, I knew that I had to attend! Apparently, local BMW dealers pay $800k-$1 million dollars to host the Ultimate Driving Experience which I greatly appreciate. I had no idea what to expect. At some point there would be time with a driving instructor around an autocross course, but that is all that I knew. When I arrived early, I was met by a team of staffers who warmly welcomed me and gave me a dorky badge that you receive from industry conferences (and yes, I kept it as a souvenir).
Then they directed me a separate area where all participants had the opportunity to test drive their entire lineup of cars on a pre-arranged route around town before the event even started. Not one to miss out on such an opportunity, I test drove 3 cars and I was ecstatic as you can see below… 
The actual event started with a training/promotional video and then I was shuttled over to a section of the massive parking lot that was coned-off into an autocross course. I was grouped with two other drivers and our driving instructor was Verena Mei. She was absolutely phenomenal because she gave each of us specific instructions on how to improve our driving skills. 
Unfortunately, during the two hour event, I only had about 5 minutes of driving time as they need to allow everyone an opportunity, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I’ve never driven any kind of autocross course and initially, I thought it would be super easy. 20 plus years of playing car video games and 17 years of driving experience gave me false confidence. I quickly realized that I was ill-prepared for the braking/accelerating timing of autocross and I don’t think I ever went faster than 35mph! That was the craziest part to me. 35mph isn’t very fast, but it felt like I was going 100mph! All of the participants drove two cars; the 428 Gran Coupe (gray) and the 328d (blue). Honestly, the 328d was the better car to drive and it was less powerful by about 60 horsepower. The significant torque advantage of the diesel and the lighter weight made it my preferred choice for the quick technical course. At the end of the event, we did a timed lap to see how our skills compared to the other drivers and it was exhilarating. Though I didn’t finish first, I also didn’t finish last which I was happy about for my first time!
Overall, I enjoyed the accessibility of vehicles, the instruction and the opportunity for new experiences. I learned quite a bit about how to be a better driver and it was FREE. How can you beat that? If BMW ever hosts an Ultimate Driving Experience in your area, definitely sign up!
My BMW fandom has only increased. And now I really want to start photographing cars…#DrivingIsBelieving
~ Chris
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