Hire car lottery gods were not smiling and we got a hybrid Yaris, which is now one of these small SUV-styled things. LHD car, driving on the right took a bit of getting used-to with the amount of car on the right hand side. I think it would have been quicker to adjust with my own car but was all good by day two.
Hundreds of miles... not one pot hole. They do seem to like the traffic to flow on the country roads with hardly any traffic lights or stops, but the driving from the locals seems to assume they can just join the main road at any time and you'll slow down/avoid them.
8 participants split in to two groups of four. Driving is done in M4s and M2s - you get to do each exercise in each car so can feel the difference in handling. The M2 is like a go-cart in comparison to the M4 - very good fun for the short, tight slalom stuff, but by later in the day the M4 was very good fun for higher-speed, longer drifting.
One instructor per group - they have radios in each group of cars so can talk to everyone with instruction and individual tips etc without having to get in and out of the car. They sometimes took people out for bits of 1 on 1demos, but the format did seem designed to maximise the time actually driving which was good.
Our instructor works for M so does his day job and the training - winter courses and summer track-based stuff in Germany. They're currently testing the new M5 and sounds like they absolutely love their job. Spending a week up in northern Sweden testing cars on quiet roads and frozen lakes... He says the new M5, despite its size and weight, is mind-bendingly fast, but does take a bit of getting used to compared to the M3 to get it up to speed on the twisty stuff. So the jury is still out for me...
Cars had short spiked tyres and other than that its just a case of turning everything off, use the paddles and put the engine in Sport+.
Morning is about building up the technique on tight slalom, round cones etc - then its doing J turns in the afternoon followed by a single longer course with one side of slalom, a long drift space at the bottom end and then wider gates for faster, longer drifts on the way back up.
A few wee pics and videos although it's kind of difficult to get many because you're behind the wheel so much and there's hardly any time out of the car which is great.
Mrs Mike wants to go back... my boy also wants to go... so need to see. They do one over a couple of days in Sweden which is apparently a good progression, but €€€€€€.... Was a great way to spend a day though.
J Turn Practice
Chasing Mrs Mike
Calm steering demo for Mrs Mike - 9 & 3... no "washing dishes" please
Arriving for theory briefing followed by a 6 course meal together with the participants and instructors
View from the room
Hat merch
The cars
Driving onto the practice area
Thoughtful
Honestly, the back end does look good in the flesh
Grey
