. . . does not mean New York City. Our instructor at the BMW Performance Center in Spartanberg, SC let us in on a little secret before hitting the track, “Not Your Car” means tons of fun! Steph and I drove a rental car to the BMW factory to pick up her 1989 Nissan 240 SX red car replacement, a BMW 335i convertible! BMW paid for lodging, dinner, and WiFi at the Greenville Marriott the night before pick-up and covered breakfast and lunch too! When we arrived at the Performance Center, Steph’s car was waiting in one of the showroom bays, but we were quickly hustled to the classroom in the back and given a short introductory lesson on BMW vehicle driving characteristics before heading out to the track.
BMW gave us a representative vehicle of Steph’s car, a 2013 BMW 335i (F30) sedan, for the next two hours. We worked on three drills, the first was braking using the anti-lock braking system. The demonstration illustrated keeping control (steering) of the vehicle while under stopping stress. While the video looks pretty tame, the stopping forces were pretty awesome.
The next exercise was learning the proper turn in and out on the slalom track. While we started off slowly, all the participants were able to get up to a fun speed by the end of their 7 laps.
The final exercise involved the skid pad in which the instructor demonstrated the built in controls that BMW included with the Dynamic Stability Control (DSC). After getting the pad sufficiently wet, we circled and then floored the throttle while trying to maintain control with the DSC deactivated. Needless to say, we all went into a flat spin. With the DSC activated, the vehicle controls braking to all for wheels and acceleration to prevent any type of skid. This includes dropping the throttle to a manageable level.
Finally, we got to take a hot-lap with our instructor who is a professional driver (formula) by trade. This was a blast as they were using the outgoing M 5 series (V10) and treated us to some drifting as well as a reverse J turn.
We were than split up into two groups, one group going to the X3 factory tour and the other getting the vehicle orientation / instruction from a product specialist. Steph was super excited about getting the vehicle orientation first as she really wanted her car. It took about 2-1/2 hours to go through the basic features of the car with most of the time spent on setting up and learning the basics about the iDrive. There is so much more that we need to learn on the features of this car.
BMW treated us to the Performance Center lunch which was fantastic. In fact, we were pleasantly surprise as all the meals were first rate.
To get to the factory tour in the afternoon, BMW provided us the X3 to drive there. On the way to the factory, we navigated through the off-road course which included a water traverse, moguls, and several steep hills. They demonstrated the BMW 50-50 weight distribution as our vehicles balanced on two diagonally opposed wheels, and the hill descent mode in which the X3 controls the descent and the driver does not use the brakes or the accelerator! This was kind of eerie.
The factory tour of the X3 assembly plant was simply awesome. The regular plant where the bodies and doors were manufactured was not open for tours due to renovations, so we toured hall 52 where everything else was assembled after the cars made their 45 minute conveyer ride from the main plant. They produce about 550 X3’s per day, about 70 percent of them are pre-ordered with specific options. This is almost equivalent to having a custom made vehicle as there is about 5000 unique combinations.
BMW keeps about three to four hours worth of parts and supplies on site, which means they have a very strong relationship with their suppliers. The agreement they have is that for every minute a supplier is late to the assembly line, they will be fined $2000. Sounds relatively cheap in the big scheme, until you get to one to two hours of time.
There is a good mix between factory personnel and robots, with a lot of the material being pre-assembled. With the number of combinations for each car, all parts must be tracked, which is done with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags. The automation in the factory is fantastic, while a worker be in charge of tightening a bolt, the tool itself tracks to see if the right part is inserted in the right place and automatically torques the part to the correct specification.
We finished the day off at the BMW Zentrum, which is a small museum. While it had some neat stuff, they could have done a more interactive exhibit. Steph, of course, stopped by the merchandise store to get a few things.
It was about mid afternoon when we headed out of Spartenburg, we took the BMW recommended tour of the smokey mountains in South and North Carolina and had a fun time driving with the top down. Unfortunately, there was a lot of rain, so we had to take care to make sure we put the top up at the earliest indication. We didn’t realize that the car had automatic rain sensing wipers!
We had a satisfying dinner at the peak of one of the mountains (Pisgah) before we got back on the road toward home. While the car is super fun to drive, we were pretty beat and had to spend the night in Wyetheville, VA. The next day, we drove the whole way home with the top down and I don’t think I saw Steph stop smiling the entire time. You can click to read more here for home building projects. It was definitely a fun trip and we would highly recommend that people take delivery of their BMW at the Performance Center.
Click on any of the photo’s to go to the photo album. A final photo of Steph’s two red cars. Which would you like to drive?
