Track Day
Nen Lin Soo goes from racetrack to highway with performance cars designed to look and drive beautifully.
Unlike aggressive lane changers and unashamed queue jumpers, I prize safety above all. But I’m not perfect. I have caught myself phone in hand one too many times, eyes inadvertently off the road to briefly glance at the string of notifications coming in on my phone screen. And while car manufacturers are constantly going the extra mile to implement in-car tech to facilitate the smoothest and safest drives, unintended blunders by way of human error are inevitable. That’s where the BMW Driving Experience comes in.
It was a couple’ve minutes before 10am, and I just parked my car at the Sepang International Circuit. This wasn’t my first rodeo at the world-class racetrack, but it was the first time I was going to be taught how to recognise, avoid, and solve potential real-life road hazards. I was game. After 40 minutes of classroom-style briefing, I hopped into the requisite vehicle, the rear-wheel drive BMW 420i Coupé Sport, and was ready to hit the throttle.
THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE
I most looked forward to having any of my previously held beliefs contradicted, even if in the simplest of ways, whether it’s learning the appropriate seat adjustments or discovering the tricks of swift steering during the timed slalom challenge.
Three notable takeaways: One, always have your eyes focused on where you want to go. Sounds simple, yes? But most of the time, our eyes are glued to where the car is moving towards. And instead of setting our intentions and looking at the spot, we focus on where the car is going, derailing us from our desired direction, which then causes accidental scrapes to happen. It was an eureka moment when I realised this as we manoeuvred the traffic cones as quickly as we could, without tapping on the brake.
Two, all I had to do was switch off the Dynamic Stability Control function, enter the zone in full speed, lose traction control when taking the corner, and countersteer. Drift, complete. This is something I admittedly had a hard time grasping during our oversteering exercises, even though in theory, and in my head, it sounded so simple. This took me three failed tries before I finally got it. A fluke? Possibly. But I succeeded at least once, so #achievement. Finally, what I absolutely loved, was the complete freedom with handling the BMW 420i Coupé Sport. If anyone were to even slightly hesitate when our instructor told us to floor the brake pedal to initiate an emergency brake, he’d go, “The car doesn’t belong to you. Just hit it—hard. Give it all you’ve got!”
I left the Hermann Tilke-designed F1 circuit when the sun was just about to set, equipped with the essential knowledge for my future drives. Was I a world-class driver yet? Definitely not. But for now, I’ve mastered the art of safe driving, and is that not the most crucial thing when on the road? The BMW Driving Experience (Advanced Module) is priced at RM1,588, RM1,788, and RM1,888 for BMW White Card Elite members, BMW owners, and non-BMW owners respectively, and runs three times a year. www.bmw.com.my