[cycler2]

My daughter and I took delivery of my 328i sedan at the Performance Center on October 17. It was a great experience and I recommend it to you. I found previous posts here about the Performance Center (“PC”) helpful in making my decision to take delivery there, so I thought I’d report on my visit and post some photos. (Photos follow this post, if I can figure out how to do it.)

Your visit usually begins the day before delivery when the hotel picks you up at the Greenville airport in a 5-series touring. Nice beginning. The Greenville Marriott is a nice hotel and everyone there takes good care of BMW PC people. Dinner and breakfast was first rate---and on BMW, as is your stay at the hotel and lunch at the PC.

Delivery day begins at 7:45 am with a shuttle to the PC, about 10 minutes from the hotel. We were greeted in the PC lobby by all the delivery specialists and Mike Renner, our driving instructor. (Donnie Isley, who usually teaches during deliveries, was off on another assignment.) It was raining very hard and looked to get worse as the day progressed, so Mike wanted to get on the track first thing. Okay by me!

Mike started with a chalk talk—but first we signed releases in case we failed to keep the painted side up. Mike offered three tips for surviving on the road and track, which I will share with you. First, pay attention. I know this sounds pretty obvious, but Mike relayed a story about a driver who was weaving about the road who, when Mike passed her in his M3, was reading a novel propped up on her steering wheel! I have to keep reminding myself about this tip whenever I’m tempted to play with the Sirius radio or car computer.

Second, look high. You won’t be safe on the road staring at your hood ornament and if you look at a cone on the track, you will hit it. I hit more than my fair share. Look down the road.

Finally, don’t sit too far from the steering wheel. Mike used a steering wheel on a stand to illustrate that you need to get close enough to the wheel to turn it as far as possible. If you sit at arms length—pretending you’re Graham Hill—you won’t be able to get enough rotation from the wheel. Also, you need to get close enough to the brake pedal to really mash it. I was surprised how much force Mike encouraged us to use on the brake during our driving exercises. Last, if you lock your legs in an extended position and get into a front-ender, you will take the force of the accident up through the leg and suffer serious leg injury. Better to have bent knees. Pretty sobering stuff, just before we go out to the track.

After the chalk talk we went out to our cars. You get to drive a car similar to the one you’re picking up. The PC does not yet offer 328s or 335s, so I drove a 330 as did the fellow picking up a 335 sedan. The fellow picking up an M5 drove an M5, of course. On the track, we began with the braking exercise. Seems pretty simple—from a standing start, accelerate to 40 and mash the brakes when you reach a pair of orange cones. But that cone is positioned pretty close to the end of a straight and you have to remember to turn right to avoid going into the weeds. Repeat at progressively higher speeds. Remember to breath. I never quite mashed hard enough—about which Mike reminded me. (There are radios in each car.) My daughter was much better at it. And I remember when we taught her to drive. Student surpassing the teacher and all that.

Next, track time. We began with a recon lap and Mike’s turn-by-turn instructions about braking points, where to place the car and how to negotiate the turns. He then pulled out of harms way and set us off in intervals. The track was set up as follows (different configurations are possible): out of the paddock, right onto the front straight, set up as a slalom with cones. Hard left turn at the end of the slalom into a chicane. We were supposed to position ourselves at the outside of the track (marked by a cone) to enter the chicane, but the last cone in the slalom took us to the inside. Devilish. Through the chicane, hard left onto the back straight. There’s a barrier at the outside of the straight so you have to watch it coming out of the chicane. Mash it as early as you dare exiting the chicane. In the 330i (Steptronic) we got up to about 65-70 mph at the end of the straight, just before a hard left into a short uphill leg, then to an off-camber left onto the slalom straight. I visited the grass at the end of the back straight far too many times.

Finally, the skid pad. There are two pads; we used the smaller of the two. It was still raining hard, so no need to wet down the pad. The point of this exercise is to experience how DSC operates. Mike rode with each driver, turned off the DSC, and instructed us to go counter clockwise around the pad at low speed then floor it and try to catch the spin. In three attempts I could not—several 180s. With DSC turned back on, the car simply would not spin out. I learned my lesson; DSC stays on all the time when I’m on the road.

My daughter and I had a ball and learned a lot about driving skills and the 3 series. I’m a pretty conservative driver (even when I had my S2000, which I sold to get the 328), although I like to have a bit of fun. But I never drove the way we did on the track. I’m surprised at how quickly I lost my fear (and gained stupidity!) The 330 gets much of the credit. You don’t die even if you lose it. But that’s on the track. I don’t intend to drive that way on the road. I was impressed at how stable and fast a four-door sedan can be. In fact, my experience to date with my 328 is that it’s too easy to go fast.

Delivery was next. Jonathan’s delivery of my 328 was excellent. He knows the cars backwards and forwards. He patiently explained everything in a logical order, set up the car as I wanted, and answered all the questions my daughter and I posed. He even programmed my phone with a shortcut to enable and disable Bluetooth.

Lunch was next. Mike and a delivery specialist joined us (sorry, forgot his name) as did Richard, who runs the technical training facility at the Performance Center. Richard knows all there is to know about BMWs and he readily shared it with us. Mike told some hilarious stories about driver training (I’m sure he’ll tell some about my visits to the grass) and Richard had some interesting answers to questions often discussed here:

Oil change intervals: Richard, of course, pointed out the factory recommendation for 15,000 mile intervals. But he said that for his personal vehicles, he never lets the oil go more than 7,500 miles. When I asked him about changing the oil after the break-in period, he endorsed changing the oil change soon after the break-in period. I will do that.

Mechanical break-In: The delivery specialist told us that the engines are broken-in at the factory on a dyno with special lubricating fluids. But Richard strongly recommended that you follow the manual on gentle break-in. He did not endorse the “hard break-in” recommendations you see on this site from time to time.

After lunch, Mike took us out for a ride in the M5. We probably should have done that before lunch! The track configuration did not allow complete laps of the circuit, but Mike found ways to show us what that car can do. There were four of us in the M5 and it didn’t seem to mind the load. It’s a beast. Mike’s skill in the car is a wonder. I just braced myself against the seat and door (I was shotgun) and relaxed. After a few mad runs on portions of the track we went to the skid pad. Mike’s skill was astonishing. He pointed the car at the center of the circle and kept it that way by twirling the steering wheel (no fair, Mike, you told us to hold onto the wheel at 9 and 3) and balancing everything with the throttle. He was literally twirling the wheel as you would an amusement park bumper car. Power was not a problem, obviously. We were looking at the scenery go by out the side windows!

Next came Richard’s tour of his technical facility. It’s filled with M3 and M5 motors of different vintages on stands, as well as a twin turbo engine at the back of the facility. I was allowed to take photos (see following post), except for a tarp-covered car across from the twin turbo engine. From the position of the wheels at the corners, it was probably a new X-3 (now on the street), but it was small and could have been a Mini. Anyway, I honored Richard’s request not to photograph it. Richard spent as much time as we wanted answering technical questions from our group—and there were lots. We did not get a factory tour, because they were tooling up to produce a new vehicle, but we were given a rain check for our next visit.

That ended our visit to the Performance Center. Thank you Jonathan, Mike, and Richard (and colleagues) for a great time.

Next up was the Zentrum, just down the road and on the way home. I’ve attached some photos to give you a taste of what you’ll see there. There’s a gift shop, but I didn’t find much of interest. I picked up a Performance Center hat, though. Oddly, the gift shop does not offer BMWCCA discounts.

Almost forgot: if you want BMW accessories installed, the Performance Center is a good choice. Not only are their installations well done, but they offer 18% discounts on parts and their install labor prices are great. For example, I had them install a Sirius receiver and replace the ashtray with a sunglass holder. The Sirius receiver cost ~$405 plus brackets and cost $70 to install. The sunglass holder was $21 and change installed.

Whew! I know this is a long post, but I hope you find it helps your decision about taking delivery at the Performance Center. I recommend it highly. Take someone with you—it adds to the fun.

Cheers,

Rich

[BMW F22]

Whoa!!!! Nice Review!!

[asdfaa]

yah great review, all the points the instructor brought up about sitting closer to the steering wheel make sense, i will have to check to see if i sit close enough now.

[KL2DC]

Rich...

Nice writeup. Can't wait to see the pics. Congrats, once again on your delivery. We missed you at the last meet. Hope to meet up with you and your arctic 328i soon.

Donny

[Pedal2Floor]

Great review.

Now, if they would only allow Mini Cooper S delivery at the Performance that would be perfect!

Cooper S in combo with the Performance Skool would be awesome!

[cycler2]

Originally Posted by KL2DC

Rich...

Nice writeup. Can't wait to see the pics. Congrats, once again on your delivery. We missed you at the last meet. Hope to meet up with you and your arctic 328i soon.

Donny

Thanks, guys.

Donny--I was really bummed I couldn't meet everyone at Passport. We'll get together soon. I visited David who washed and sealed my car. What a great job.

I'll post pics as soon as I figure out how to shrink the images to the proper size for posting. I saved them as 800 x 600, but that's apparently too big to upload. Anybody have any tips on how to do this?

Rich

[Fester]

Rich - great description of your experience! Looking forward to the photographs now...

[SCA]

So where are those pics?

[dawgdog]

Great post! Thanks.

[tman]

Wicked post. Thanks.

[ALPINE6SPD]

Nice review. I have to do this sometime.

[ase2dais]

Originally Posted by cycler2

Thanks, guys.

Donny--I was really bummed I couldn't meet everyone at Passport. We'll get together soon. I visited David who washed and sealed my car. What a great job.

I'll post pics as soon as I figure out how to shrink the images to the proper size for posting. I saved them as 800 x 600, but that's apparently too big to upload. Anybody have any tips on how to do this?

Rich

Nice~

upload your photos at photobucket.com and then insert those images to your post here at e90post and you're done!I love to get a PC delivery after an ED in the future! congrats



...love your road bike too btw! maybe we can do a metric century sometime

[cycler2]

Originally Posted by ase2dais

Nice~

upload your photos at photobucket.com and then insert those images to your post here at e90post and you're done!I love to get a PC delivery after an ED in the future! congrats



...love your road bike too btw! maybe we can do a metric century sometime

Thanks for the tip and kind words. I'll try photobucket tonight.

The road bike is an Aegis Aro Svelt--made in Maine. Mine is blue, but couldn't find a pic of that color. I'd like to ride with you sometime. But a century (even metric) may be a bit long for me. I'm up for a Beech Drive cruise, though, or something around Poolesville. Maybe we can get a few of the DC Metro crew out of their cars and onto a bike.

Rich

[KL2DC]

Originally Posted by cycler2

Maybe we can get a few of the DC Metro crew out of their cars and onto a bike.

...my wife's been trying to get my lazy ass on a bike for years.... ... so has Ase2dais of late

[cycler2]

Originally Posted by SCA

So where are those pics?

I'm working on it. Ase2dais gave me a tip about using Photobucket.com, which I'll try tonight.

[BK]

Congrats on the car! I enjoyed the write-up and maybe I'll run into you at the next meet.

[ase2dais]

Originally Posted by cycler2

Thanks for the tip and kind words. I'll try photobucket tonight.

The road bike is an Aegis Aro Svelt--made in Maine. Mine is blue, but couldn't find a pic of that color. I'd like to ride with you sometime. But a century (even metric) may be a bit long for me. I'm up for a Beech Drive cruise, though, or something around Poolesville. Maybe we can get a few of the DC Metro crew out of their cars and onto a bike.

Rich

Aegis Aro Svelt were also one of my choice, but got a Trek 2100 since its mostly available.

Yeah! that would be a great idea! if we can get more commuters on a bike, their days would only be Good and Great!

What do you say Metro Crew!

Im up on it.... let me know my roadie is ready

[ase2dais]

Originally Posted by KL2DC

...my wife's been trying to get my lazy ass on a bike for years.... ... so has Ase2dais of late

I got an extra bike your size Donny

[cycler2]

Originally Posted by BK

Congrats on the car! I enjoyed the write-up and maybe I'll run into you at the next meet.

Thanks, BK. I look forward to meeting you.

Rich

[cycler2]

Originally Posted by ase2dais

Aegis Aro Svelt were also one of my choice, but got a Trek 2100 since its mostly available.

Yeah! that would be a great idea! if we can get more commuters on a bike, their days would only be Good and Great!

What do you say Metro Crew!

Im up on it.... let me know my roadie is ready

My decision came down to the Trek or the Aegis. Both are great rides. I like to commute to work in D.C. when the weather is good and the light holds. I use my hybrid on the Tow Path and my roadie on the Crescent Trail. There are a couple of guys in the office who commute year round, but I refuse to be miserable when I ride and am not comfortable riding on D.C. roads when it's dark. This is pretty off topic--maybe we should discuss wheels and groupos so we fit in with this crowd!

[ase2dais]

Originally Posted by cycler2

My decision came down to the Trek or the Aegis. Both are great rides. I like to commute to work in D.C. when the weather is good and the light holds. I use my hybrid on the Tow Path and my roadie on the Crescent Trail. There are a couple of guys in the office who commute year round, but I refuse to be miserable when I ride and am not comfortable riding on D.C. roads when it's dark. This is pretty off topic--maybe we should discuss wheels and groupos so we fit in with this crowd!

yeah! I agree, maybe this cycling thing can be continued over here
http://e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19060

We still expect photos here too btw

[Norsk]

Nice review