# What to expect if the weather goes bad for PCD?



## KingpenM3 (Dec 27, 2011)

My PCD is in two days!!!! But the weather looks like it is getting cold and wet. Anyone dealt with this before? How did it change the itinerary for your PCD day?


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## LSU Tiger Wes (Dec 17, 2015)

The PCD experience will be the same. They do the on-track portions rain or shine. Not sure if they finished the renovations to the delivery areas. Saw some folks took delivery in tents...otherwise that normally would be indoors. Factory tour is indoors, of course.


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## calbears96 (Oct 31, 2009)

KingpenM3 said:


> My PCD is in two days!!!! But the weather looks like it is getting cold and wet. Anyone dealt with this before? How did it change the itinerary for your PCD day?


cold and wet = more opportunity to learn car control


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## KingpenM3 (Dec 27, 2011)

LSU Tiger Wes said:


> The PCD experience will be the same. They do the on-track portions rain or shine. Not sure if they finished the renovations to the delivery areas. Saw some folks took delivery in tents...otherwise that normally would be indoors. Factory tour is indoors, of course.


Good deal, driving in the rain sounds fun to me!

But I'm also trying to give my wife a decent idea of how to dress and what to expect.

What time is the factory tour? Anyone have a schedule for the day handy?


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## LSU Tiger Wes (Dec 17, 2015)

KingpenM3 said:


> Good deal, driving in the rain sounds fun to me!
> 
> But I'm also trying to give my wife a decent idea of how to dress and what to expect.
> 
> What time is the factory tour? Anyone have a schedule for the day handy?


I have been to the Performance Center but have not taken delivery there before (going on March 17 to pick up my car on the production line currently).

The day is split into 3 2-hour windows. The first will always be the driving course portion (since the track is reserved the remainder of the day for paid courses, events, etc.). I believe the factory tour and delivery portions may alternate between groups (one does tour first and vice-versa), though I am not sure. There's also the off-road piece built in there somehow.

You won't spend much, if any, time standing around outside in the driving portion...you will either be in the classroom or in a car. Regardless, it would be best to pack/dress for the forecasted temperatures.

Looks like you did ED? As you are probably aware you will not get another overview of the car's features, so hopefully you will be in the group that does the tour first. Note the Zentrum museum is closed most of this year for renovations.


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## KingpenM3 (Dec 27, 2011)

LSU Tiger Wes said:


> I have been to the Performance Center but have not taken delivery there before (going on March 17 to pick up my car on the production line currently).
> 
> The day is split into 3 2-hour windows. The first will always be the driving course portion (since the track is reserved the remainder of the day for paid courses, events, etc.). I believe the factory tour and delivery portions may alternate between groups (one does tour first and vice-versa), though I am not sure. There's also the off-road piece built in there somehow.
> 
> ...


All sounds great. How are +1's worked in? Do they do some driving? Same car? I'm just trying to imagine my wife getting behind the wheel of anything on a track.

Do they do a hot lap riding with an instructor? That sounds like fun.


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## LSU Tiger Wes (Dec 17, 2015)

KingpenM3 said:


> All sounds great. How are +1's worked in? Do they do some driving? Same car? I'm just trying to imagine my wife getting behind the wheel of anything on a track.
> 
> Do they do a hot lap riding with an instructor? That sounds like fun.


Yes, your wife will get to drive unless she wants to give up her time for you. You'll be in the same car. At minimum she should do the emergency braking exercise. Good for everyone to experience full braking at least once.

Yes, I think there is a hot lap. It is fun. Lot's of drifting and putting the cars sideways...definitely not going for the quickest lap time. haha


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## brooski1 (Aug 24, 2015)

KingpenM3 said:


> All sounds great. How are +1's worked in? Do they do some driving? Same car? I'm just trying to imagine my wife getting behind the wheel of anything on a track.
> 
> Do they do a hot lap riding with an instructor? That sounds like fun.


My wife and I did our PCD about 2 weeks ago. She had never done anything track related before. 
It was near freezing but not wet. The renovations looked like they were almost completed. There were about 7 couples that were split in to 2 groups. The group I was in started with a little classroom time at around 8:15 and then on the track with each couple getting a 340i. The car had a walkie talkie that the instructor, who was standing outside, used to provide coaching. First was emergency braking, then autocross on a small road course and then skid pad. Skid pad was done with the instructor in the car one on one. Then at around 10 each couple was given an X3 for the short drive to the factory for about a one hour tour. Then we drove our X3s back to the Performance Center for the off road course driving with the instructor outside again coaching us using the walkie talkie. The last thing was in the car with an instructor driving the full road course at high speed. It was big fun. My wife was still a little woozy from my driving on the autocross so she passed on this part. Then lunch, then your car. We were on the road by around 2. This time would depend on whether you had your car already for an ED and were pretty familiar with it. Even if you had done an ED the specialists were there to help with any questions. You'll have a great time no matter what the weather. The hotel people and the BMW people were the best.


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## LSU Tiger Wes (Dec 17, 2015)

brooski1 said:


> The group I was in started with a little classroom time at around 8:15 and then on the track with each couple getting a 340i.


Sounds like you get the same car for the driving portion regardless of what you are taking delivery of? That's a bit disappointing. Was hoping to get to experience the characteristics of an X1 (front-biased AWD SAV) on the track since it will be so different than my current RWD 3 coupe...


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## brooski1 (Aug 24, 2015)

LSU Tiger Wes said:


> Sounds like you get the same car for the driving portion regardless of what you are taking delivery of? That's a bit disappointing. Was hoping to get to experience the characteristics of an X1 (front-biased AWD SAV) on the track since it will be so different than my current RWD 3 coupe...


That's actually a good question. The 5 in our group (4 couples and 1 single) were all picking up coupe/sedan cars including 3 - 3, 1 - 4, and 1 - 7 series. I suppose it's possible that the other group that went out on a different schedule were picking up X1/3/4/5/6s and that was what the Performance Center had them drive on the track. The Performance Center said they had 120 vehicles in their fleet.


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## LSU Tiger Wes (Dec 17, 2015)

One more question Brooski1 - was the factory closed on your visit? Really hoping to be able to get a tour.


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## brooski1 (Aug 24, 2015)

LSU Tiger Wes said:


> One more question Brooski1 - was the factory closed on your visit? Really hoping to be able to get a tour.


We toured the X3/4 factory. It was open and in production. The museum was closed though.


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## rmr927 (Oct 8, 2014)

Here's a video of what to expect

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDT7U_aKobg


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## KingpenM3 (Dec 27, 2011)

LSU Tiger Wes said:


> Sounds like you get the same car for the driving portion regardless of what you are taking delivery of? That's a bit disappointing. Was hoping to get to experience the characteristics of an X1 (front-biased AWD SAV) on the track since it will be so different than my current RWD 3 coupe...


So we got lucky and the weather was wonderful, just a little cold, but beautiful bright sun!

We had a M3, M4, and X4 being delivered and that is what they had waiting for us outside. Only difference was that I ordered a 6MT, but they had a DCT M3 for the driving. And that worked out great because my wife ended up doing more driving than either of us imagined she would (and she wouldn't have been able to with the 6mt).


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## KingpenM3 (Dec 27, 2011)

brooski1 said:


> We toured the X3/4 factory. It was open and in production. The museum was closed though.


We were told that the factory was open for all of the days that they do deliveries. Tour was pretty amazing. We did the factory tour in Munich a few years ago, got to see stamping, welding, and painting. This tour was surprisingly different because we got to see so many of the assembly steps.


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## LSU Tiger Wes (Dec 17, 2015)

KingpenM3 said:


> We were told that the factory was open for all of the days that they do deliveries. Tour was pretty amazing. We did the factory tour in Munich a few years ago, got to see stamping, welding, and painting. This tour was surprisingly different because we got to see so many of the assembly steps.


Glad you enjoyed the experience and the bad weather impacting the eastern seaboard missed you.

Sometimes the factory is closed if they have a new model coming soon or for which production recently started. When I was there last the factory was closed due to the X4.


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