Driver Training: BMW Winter Driver Training

After splitting into groups, we went through a total of four sets of exercises. The braking and avoidance course saw us line up at some cones and some very brave instructors. The purpose was to avoid to the left or right depending on our last-minute instruction, while braking. We did it with all of BMW’s aids turned off via a magic driving-school only switch – this part of the day is best described as “The Great Cone Massacre of 2014”.

Then, with the aids turned on, we all became much better drivers.

Miracle that.

After that sobering experience, we did some “power circle” training. In Australian, that’s called circle work. Up here, it is power sliding around a circle til you puke or get bored. The instructors were far better than we were in their demonstration laps, but within a few minutes we were learning the tricks needed to keep the car sideways without spinning out. Others performed better than I did.

The point of this exercise is as much about demystifying skids and slides and loss of traction as anything else, but Létourneau noted that this section also helped restore confidence to gun-shy accident victims and other timid drivers.

After lunch and some more instruction we took to the slalom section again for some reverse 180 turns. Honestly, I’m not sure what we were supposed to take to the real world from this. Certainly it helped us understand some of the dynamics of a car and the way it responds to inputs – but mostly this was just a truckload of fun.

BMW Driving Experience. Click image to enlarge

Lining up a marker in the rear mirror we accelerated to 40 km/h (the highest possible in reverse), then flicked the wheel to turn the car around, changed into drive mid-spin and drove out the other side like a boss.

Good fun that.

The penultimate exercise of the day is back at the power circles, only this time we’re stringing two together and drifting around an hourglass shape. Sounds easy right? Drift around the circle one day, flick the car through the gates, flick the car the other way and drift around the other circle, repeat.

It looked easy, too… when the instructors did it.

When I did it? Not so much. It took me a long time to figure out how to keep the car sideways, but for this exercise the instructors sit next to you, and the advice was invaluable.

“When you get off the gas to catch the car, it straightens out, but it straightens out too much when you get all the way off the gas, stay on a little bit so the car stays a little sideways,” he explained.

That made much more sense, and suddenly I was a drift ninja. “I am a drift ninja!” I exclaimed, and immediately spun out in a shower of snow and hubris.

The final event of the day was a timed run that incorporated everything. Start with a reverse 180, drive through an avoidance section, onto a power circle, drift through to the autocross section, stop in the box. The challenge was not the fastest time, but to match our co-drivers time – booooo. I went for the fastest time anyway, and almost had it, too – almost. Apparently hitting a cone and blowing the stop box means six seconds of penalty time, so I was out. Regular Autos.ca writer and freelancer Steven Bochenek was my co-driver, and he was unable to match my time closely, as he didn’t make any mistakes and thus was five seconds faster than me – I’d like to point out we’d have been very close had I not had penalties. But anyway.

It’s hard to imagine a better-value day then this one. Down time was almost nil, so well-structured are the exercises. The lessons learned are valuable – and on my drive back down from Montreal to Toronto I used at least three of them – admittedly a couple of those were in OnRoute parking lots. In all seriousness, there were dozens of small hints and techniques that the course taught me, which make me now a better driver. I’m embarrassed to admit this one, but when I drive casually I had developed a habit of putting my left foot flat on the floor of the car. Létourneau explained that with the foot on the dead pedal instead, I’m not only better braced should I need to brake suddenly or steer quickly, but I’ll be less fatigued as well. He is right. I’ve noticed a lot more feel, control and less fatigue driving with my foot in the right spot – especially in those OnRoute parking lots.

The BMW Winter Driver Training is open to everyone for $795 plus taxes.