GRIP IT AND RIP IT
In the heart of golf country, The BMW Performance Center West is something to get revved up about
FTHERMAL, Calif. or decades now Canadians having been flocking to the Coachella Valley in search of warmth, rest and relaxation.
Home to the winter enclaves of Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Indian Wells among others, the valley is a desert oasis dotted with golf courses tempting golfers to tune their perfect drive.
Here in Thermal, a 45-minute car ride from the Palm Springs airport, the perfect drive has nothing to do with draw, fade or yardage. Rather, it has to do with horsepower, car control and G-forces.
The BMW Performance Center West is a performance driver training facility open to the public and offering a wide range of driving schools for people of all ages and capabilities. And if you are a fan of the high-performance products of Bayerishche Motoren Werke, this place is Nirvana (I’d say Mecca but that’s a small town 10 kilometres to the south).
I found this out recently when I took part in one of the centre’s introductory sessions one. And while the “BMW Performance Center Drive” two-hour session could be considered the training-wheels’ class of what the facility offers, I did get to drive a handful of brand new Bimmers in full anger on the facilities track. The first session saw our class rip around a coned-off section of track in all manner of vehicles, from lightning-quick M coupes, to full-blown Autobahn-inspired sedans and even a couple of SUVs. The second session was a timed lap event on a bigger circuit in identical M3s.
I was also reunited with a racer I used to cover during the Atlantic Series races during the Vancouver Indy weekend, as Case Montgomery is one of the BMW professional driving instructors working at the centre, a group with a very diverse motorsport background and have a deep reservoir of experience.
According to the centre’s operations manager, the centre attracts all kinds.
“We’ve had everything from a bachelor party to a couple of friends coming, some couples, lots of corporate groups,” says Stephen Saward. “We’ll get guys who are down here in the desert for a few days of golf who want to do something a little different.”
Well, this place certainly brings new meaning to grip it and rip it.
Saward adds that since the facility opened a few years ago, Canadians are starting to show up more frequently.
“We get a fair number of (Canadian) visitors and groups, as there is a tremendous Canadian presence here in the wintertime,” he notes, adding that the BMW Canada enthusiasts clubs have held a number of sessions at the track, and next month Canadian BMW dealership reps will be on hand to drive the new Z4 and the 3, 7 and 8 Series.
The facility is one of two BMW performance centres in the States, the other being in South Carolina, but the West one has a distinct advantage
over its southern cousin.
Says Saward: “They don’t have five miles of FIA-certified race tracks available to them, so it gives us an opportunity to do some classes they can’t do.”
Ah yes, that would be the adjacent Thermal Club, a private country club that instead of offering fairways and tennis courts boasts three big-time race tracks hidden from view by a high wall skirting the massive facility. The only sightlines are from the second-floor decks of the million-dollar houses that ring the tracks and from the private
lounge area.
“There are a number of these kind of facilities around North America but I don’t know that anyone has done it to the extent that they have here,” Saward says. (Don’t believe me? Google “Thermal Club”).
His facility has access to those tracks, with some of the more advanced classes and sessions allowing you to really feed your need for speed. Or scare the you-know-what out of you.
According to Saward, if you are interested in that kind of experience, best to plan well
in advance. For the session I did, not so much.
“The more advanced the class, the further out they tend to book up,” he advises. “So for example, in the case of the Performance Center Drive, you can usually find something that same week. But the two-day M School, we’re usually booked three or four months out. That said, there always a chance there’s a seat but they do tend to book up early.”