# thumper_330's 135i PCD, November 2011



## thumper_330 (Jan 3, 2009)

Thursday morning, December 1st, 2011; the day after. Some say the day after a great experience can be a let-down... when you start returning to normal life and the whole thing dissolves into drudgery. Well, I for one was determined not to let that happen. Besides, I had 600 odd miles still to go in order to get home, and I figured that the Tail of the Dragon wouldn't be THAT much of a detour...

I woke up early that morning. I knew that despite the cold and it being December it would probably be in my best interest to hit up The Dragon early in the morning. Staying at the Microtel in Robbinsville was functional, but even daylight streaming through the windows did not improve the decor that I think was last refreshed in about 1988. Still, who cares? This is a motel. It's about a million miles from the Marriott in Greenville but for those on the road these places are a functional and decent enough place to stay. I looked out onto the cold and slightly frosty landscape in front of me, the grass having frozen to a lovely crispy white during the night. Lovely.

After breakfast which consisted of the smallest bagel I have ever seen, a banana and half a cup of really bad coffee (hence the reason for half a cup), I packed my things, checked out and wandered out to my poor frosty car. Yeah, I think it's chilly;










Still, as the car warmed up I just kept myself busy mounting my video camera (ContourGPS) on its mount (CruiseCam short bar headrest mount) and lining up the camera so I could capture some video of my trip on the Dragon. While metallic sounding at first, the engine note quickly settled into a satisfied burble that I appreciated. A little quieter than my old 330i was, but not as quiet as my 545i... and while nowhere close to the V8 burble of an M3 is definitely a nice sounding exhaust note. As I finished, I grabbed my camera again and grabbed a quick shot up the road toward the hills;










At that, I climbed behind the seat, fired up the heated seats (an invaluable option in my opinion) and headed off to go North on the Tail of the Dragon.

I will provide some commentary after this, but here's where you can see the video of my drive up the Tail of the Dragon...

http://contour.com/stories/tail-of-the-dragon-north--4

As you can see in the video, it starts just before the bridge that marks the accepted start of the Dragon itself. This bridge runs in front of the so-called "Fugitive Dam" because it's the dam that was used when filming the movie of the same name, where Harrison Ford's character dived off to escape Tommy Lee Jones. Of course, if I saw TLJ coming toward me down a darkened pipeline I'd probably jump out, too...

The official name of it is the Cheoah Valley Dam. The Tail of the Dragon itself runs about 11 miles from CVD up to Calderwood dam... taking 318 turns during the run. My run was rather tame because I was driving a new car with less than 250 miles on the clock (new tires... eek) combined with sub-zero temperatures (cold roads... double-eek!) but the car definitely could have done MUCH more. Still, it was a great deal of fun and definitely something I'd recommend that any Bimmer head do at least once in their chariot of choice. Some of the corners are very steep and very tight... and thus in a little car like the 135i INCREDIBLY fun 

I reached Calderwood Dam and stopped for a few, and also grabbed a couple more shots of my car... unfortunately now showing some of the dirt accumulating on the front of it 










From there, thanks to the almost zero traffic this morning I turned around and did The Dragon again... backwards  This was a bit more fun because I was a little more confident and knew the road a bit better... and hopefully I'll update this later when I have a chance to upload that video. It turned out OK, but kept having the sun glaring in the camera during the run.

Almost back at the bottom of the Dragon I stopped at Deals Gap to grab another quick photo... unfortunately it was closed for the season but I was at least able to get one nice picture;










After completing the Dragon, it was off to Robbinsville again but this time I figured it was high time I got some GOOD coffee. I ended up at a little place that again wasn't in the iDrive but found on Google Maps; Coffee and Clay. The coffee was pretty decent, the atmosphere was quiet, and the girl behind the counter was very cute and I couldn't help but hit on her. <sigh> I know... such a flirt...

So by this time it was about 10am, and I had 600 miles to drive. But I knew I had time... so why not also drive the Cherohala Skyway? For those who don't know this is also considered a wonderful driving road as it heads West from Robbinsville to Tellico Plains, TN. It's a high road, climbing up to 5400 feet overlooking the plains of Tennessee and has that wonderful combination of sweeping turns and gorgeous views. I do have video of this entire run, but I have had trouble uploading it. I will hopefully link that in later too.

The run itself was incredible. In some ways more enjoyable than The Dragon, but for completely different reasons. The Cherohala Skyway is quite challenging in that it is hard to keep your eyes on the road as you keep getting distracted by the gorgeous vistas to every side. It's often closed in winter due to snow so I knew there was a risk I'd have problems... but I figured it had been long enough since the last snows and the temperatures had been high enough that it wouldn't be too much of a chore. As it turned out, there was an interesting temperature inversion sitting over the mountains here. When I left Robbinsville my outside temperature was showing 29 degrees... but by the time I reached the summit it was a balmy 52 degrees... with snow on the ground. Again as I descended into Tellico Plains the temperature dropped back to 31 degrees by the time I got to the gas station. An odd experience, but cool.

Obviously, mountain driving rules applied. On most areas the road was clear... but above 3000 feet elevation there was steadily more and more snow on the side of the road. In the shaded areas where the sun doesn't hit much (or at all) the snow was pretty bad on the road as well necessitating slow and careful driving (summer tires... triple-eek?). Literally, one moment you could be driving in the sun with nary a sign of snow and you'd come around a sweeping bend and be confronted with this;









(screen cap from the video I took)

Still, so long as you understand that kind of thing there's no reason that you can't drive carefully on it. A little judicious use of the throttle and light braking and quickly I was back on dry pavement again and making good time. The traction control kept me honest when I slipped a little on the throttle control, and only once did the back end start to get a bit floaty at which point I eased off the throttle and let the car coast down to a better speed.

All in all, it was worth it. I reached the summit of the Cherohala Skyway and pulled off in the parking area to grab some pictures of the incredible view. I was also able to capture my favourite picture I took of my new 135i that day;










I think I'm going to print and frame the full-resolution copy of this picture... it really does showcase the colour of the car beautifully in my opinion.

It's interesting as a "lowlander" to compare the performance of the 135i at ~500 feet (St. Louis) to the performance at 10 times that! You can definitely tell that it's different; the engine noise is different, and the turbo is more immediately noticeable. Obviously there's a gas-mileage difference as well and while the turbo does compensate for the lower oxygen density, you can definitely feel that there's still a slight performance degradation up there. Despite that though, the car was a joy to drive on these roads. As I descended back down toward Tellico Plains I enjoyed extremely the further turns and vistas that I was able to enjoy.

I will break this post now... to add one more final thoughts posting...


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## thumper_330 (Jan 3, 2009)

Even wonderful trips like this come to an end... and all of them far too soon. My Performance Center Delivery and the trip I took at the tail end of it was an experience that I will never forget... but hopefully one day repeat. Sure, I took a lot longer over it than some might have or might do... but in doing so I was able to enrich what was an already wonderful experience by doing some driving on roads I don't normally get to experience or enjoy. My only regret was that because my girlfriend is an accountant she was unable to join me (end of month) and thus I was unable to share this experience with her. Next time, though...

As I arrived in Tellico Plains to fill the gas tank for the first time since I got the car I thought back over the last three days and how much fun I had. The rest of my day was going to be spent on the Interstate, which I knew was not going to be as much fun as I'd had during my car's first 300 miles. However it would give me a chance to settle into another type of driving which in honestly is the majority of what this car will do; cruising the highways of the USA from point to point. My thoughts on the car itself... well I'll be putting that in another thread in the 1'er forum in the next few days... but the trip... man, I don't think I can say enough about it.

As I cruised the highway later that day I activated my BMW Assist (thanks, Irv!) and settled into learning my way around the BMW Connected apps, nav, and of course listening to lots of music. And I arrived home late that night unable to talk about anything else except how wonderful the trip had been, but also with no fatigue and in fact pretty much rearing to go again. The miles went by quietly and without incident... the car performed flawlessly... the weather cooperated. What's not to like?

While European Delivery was a lot of fun for many reasons, I think for the true car enthusiast the Performance Center Delivery is just incredibly more fun. ED is epic in that you get to "go to Mecca" and see places and people you just never encounter. But it's not really for the driver; it's for the passenger in all of us who wants to see and experience. PCD is about the driver... it's about knowing the limits of yourself and your car both to make you a better driver and to connect you with your car in a way you just won't in any other way. Knowing what my 135i can do on the track makes me more confident at driving it on the street. Knowing in my head is one thing... feeling it in a visceral way is something quite different.

I guess in summary all I can say is that if you ever have a chance to do a PCD... do it. Don't hesitate. It's worth it.


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## CLTBimmerBri (Nov 23, 2011)

Thanks for the write up on your experience at the Performance Center. I will be there Feb 10th to pick up my new M3 Convertible (first BMW) I can hardly wait. Reading your experience there just makes it seem like Feb is a long long time away.

Thanks again for such a great write up.


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## alewifebp (Sep 20, 2008)

Great write-up! I went the more pedestrian route when I did my PCD in September, but if I end up in another BMW, I know another PCD is in order.


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## IrvRobinson (May 10, 2006)

*What A Story*

What a great story from the beginning to the end. We really started this process over 1 1/2 years ago , but you had to put your journey on hold. Then you contacted me earlier this year and we were able to put the wheels in motion.

It was unfortunate that you weren't able to use your new baby in Europe , but look at the fun you had in the 5er without putting miles on your own machine.

Looking forward to meeting you the next time you're in my neighborhood. I'll give you a nice tour of our facility as well as introduce you to one of our owners if he's available.


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

Great write-up! Glad you enjoyed it and had a safe trip back!

Thanks for sharring!


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