# ED Day at Welt Drops to 2nd Place!



## laser (Aug 2, 2004)

WOW!!

I thought the day at the Welt last July was amazing as my daughter and I toured the museum, factory, and departed in a new BMW for a 10 day tour of beautiful German countryside.

Yesterday at the PDC in Greer, SC eclipses that by far. I would have to borrow a boatload of adjectives to say how amazing the PDC staff and the experiences of the day were!

Pushing the 550i GT through the slalom cones while Donnie on the radio kept telling me to look where I wanted to go - not at the cones.

Panic stopping the 550 on wet pavement letting the ABS keep me in the lane.

Spinning out a 335i on the skid pad with the DSC turned off, then to learn it was almost impossible to lose control with that switch back on.

Lunch in the cafeteria followed by a couple of "hot laps" in an M5 drifting through the slalom cones and sliding around the skid pad again.

Oh, and then they made us each get in a new X5 to drive through an off road course that lifted the X5s on 2 wheels in several places!

Factory tour to calm down after all the excitement.


As I drove my new 535i back home down I-85, I kept reflecting on all the capabilities the car has you never realize in normal every day driving.


Huge thanks to Donnie, Mike, Jonathon, Willie, Bill, and the driver of the "hot lap" M5 (missed his name hanging on for dear life!) for an incredible experience that will not be forgotten!!!


----------



## The Other Tom (Sep 28, 2002)

How would you compare the factory tour in MUC to Sptg ? I've been to the Sptg plant many times so I skipped the MUC tour. Did I really miss anything ?


----------



## I-Won-Today (Feb 21, 2007)

Thanks for the post! Glad you had a great time and enjoyed the day.

Enjoy your new BMW :thumbup:


----------



## laser (Aug 2, 2004)

Tom, there were a few differences ...... the plant in Greer seemed much larger than Munich which is kind of surrounded by neighbors. So much land was purchased by BMW in SC.

We were much closer to the production line in Greer even dodging some welding sparks at times! We were on the plant floor - could reach out and touch many parts that were staged for assembly (of course we were warned not to touch anything!) 

In Munich many of the processes we saw were viewed from catwalks separated from the production floor. We saw more of the paint process in Munich including bodies being dipped in undercoating / primer and then the actual robot spray painting process. Both plants were highly automated with robots doing many production tasks, body assemble / welding, paint, windshield / back glass installation. Humans doing smaller more delicate assemblies.


----------



## ncarter124 (Dec 17, 2009)

Wow, that is awesome! I am really excited for my PCD now.


----------



## Ounce (Jul 7, 2010)

I can't wait for my post ED redelivery at the Performance Center as well, thanks for the info/review.


----------



## Hasek9339 (Feb 5, 2009)

I had a similar opinion of the BMW Performance Center!

Its sooooo much fun!!!


----------



## willwin2day (Apr 4, 2006)

Thanks to everyone that makes our jobs so much fun!!!

Donnie Isley
BMW Driving Instructor


----------



## laser (Aug 2, 2004)

Donnie, I have passed on the outside rear-view mirror alignment tip to a few "heads up" driving friends.

Using it in Atlanta traffic has eliminated a lot of unnecessary head twisting looking into the blind spot for me as well! :thumbup:


----------



## tunafish (Dec 27, 2009)

I had the same terrific experience (and instructor) at PDC. The only difference was that one of the 335i cars had a bad tire and I was forced to drive an M5 on the skid pad.


----------



## Rafa (Sep 5, 2010)

Because I was desperate to get my F10 after doing ED, I asked my CA to skip the PC redelivery. Judging from your post, Laser, I made a BIG mistake.

I am considering doing the driving course sometime this year, to make up for my mistake. Other than the redelivery aspect, is the driving school different in any way from the instruction and driving that you get in the one day driving school?

Thanks for posting, and congrats on your new car!


----------



## ozinger (Jul 1, 2009)

You get much more driving and class room with the school!


----------



## laser (Aug 2, 2004)

Rafa, I don't know what all the driving school encompasses but I expect it is more focused on driving techniques.

The redelivery day is more like a "smorgasbord" of experiences designed to show off several BMW features (ABS, DSC) as well as to tantalize you with a taste of the M5 and the X5 off road capabilities.

It is just so well done that I'm sure you would have a great experience with either!


----------



## JimD1 (Jun 5, 2009)

This is not different from what others have said but will, perhaps, contain a bit more information. The three driving experiences in PCD are a mini-autocross segment, a panic stopping segment, and a wet skid pad segment. In the mini-autocross, you are basically playing. I can't remember if we even did a slow drive through, probably we did, but there was not much discussion of lines. You drive a vehicle as close as possible to the one you bought. I bought a 128i convertible and drove a 135i coupe, for instance. We had a X5 in our group. I could easily catch anybody in our group except for a physician in a 6 series. I caught him too but it took longer. The panic or emergency brake exercise was just get up to 40, then 45, then 50 and slam on the brakes. From the higher speeds, you had to steer as the car came to a stop because you were in a row of cones. The skid pad was fun. Donnie had us doing 360s (I did them poorly because I followed instructions poorly and went too fast) then we switched on the stability control to prove you couldn't do that any more.

The only school I've done was the 2 day M school. The instructors broke down the track into short segments and then instructed us on the correct lines. We had apexs and braking points marked. Neither were marked for the PCD (they would have been different for different vehicles). We all drove the same vehicle (M3, M5, or M6). Then we tried to put all the shorter exercises together and run the whole track. Similarly, there was a wet skid pad exercise at both but the M school had far more instruction. We had to demonstrate we could recover from both understeer and oversteer. If we had time left, we got to try hanging the rear end out all the way around the skidpad. This is more difficult when the type of concrete changes as you go around. The instructor would throw the car into hard oversteer with the handbrake and then expect you to get out of it. Fun and instructive. There was no emergency or panic braking exercise but you got yelled out if you were not on the brakes hard enough to activate the second level of brake light when you ran the track. They encourage you to use the cars up to their potential.

So there are some similarities between PCD and the M school (there are other schools) but they are not the same. The PCD shows you a little of what the car can do. The school teaches you how to do more.

Jim


----------

