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The Ultimate in Driver Education
Text and photos by Ike Moolla
The Blue E46 M3 is barely visible because of the fine mist of ice crystals and rooster tails of snow kicked up by its screaming spinning rear tires. We are keeping a safe distance from it as it makes the turn fully sideways, rally style, front wheels pointed in an unnatural position to where it’s going, rear wheels clawing for traction on the polished ice and loose snow that passes as a track surface. The concentration is so intense and the brain so focused that auditory senses are momentarily switched off - sounds only seem to penetrate the helmeted muffled sensory realm, when attention is disturbed or relaxed.
We are similarly hurtling around the corner parallel to it, sideways, making sure our back end stays where we want it, with just the correct throttle and steering input being sparingly feathered into the car. The steering wheel is sawing gently to correct any imbalance of inputs which could make the back end rotate too much and result in us being labeled "UNCOOL".
The M3 makes it around and accelerates like a slingshot granted liberty, when it reaches the correct track position and is oriented in the right direction. It powers past the next apex and onto the front straight. We follow in similar fashion, our tail threatening to become a pendulum, while the throttle is gently hooked up.
Too much throttle and the back end will come up to meet you so quickly – adrenaline will hardly have had time to pump into the system. We easily get up to 100kph on the straight and can just barely see the brakes light up on the M3, faintly through the white hazy cloud that trails behind it, as it reaches turn one.
We follow closely around the big sweep of turn one, just a little sideways but with good speed. We know this is a decreasing radius turn and we need to be a little sideways if we are to make the turn-in in order to hit the late apex that is now polished smooth enough to push you away like a giant polarized magnet in the middle of a centrifuge. We fight to get back onto the part of the track that won’t scrub off speed and degrade line position.
This is also where you could easily lose it big time; the surface is so slick, any greed with the throttle will cause severe imbalance and will send you into a spin that would be impossible to correct. Besides, when reality invades your cloistered thinking, you realize that a BMW spoiler is not exactly built to hit the snow banks head on, without exacting considerable pain from the wallet.
This is day two of the Alberta joint BMW club’s Winter Driving School. A driving experience under controlled conditions and a driving education possibly like none other in North America. A two day immersion into intense focused driving - constantly testing the limit of the driver’s skill level, and concentration, and of the car’s handling and adhesion, all at a relatively safe venue and within reasonable speeds.
This was my second BMW Winter Driving School and I realized again why I am so enthusiastic about them. After having completed the last one – the inaugural Alberta joint BMW club’s event of this type - carefully planned and organized in 2000 – I had meant to write about it purely because of how much I had learned in the two days that it took to run and I wanted other people to take it. Other things intervened, however and I never got around to doing a write-up for the newsletter. This time though, I was intent on keeping my word to myself and this article is the result.
The event was organized jointly by the Northern Alberta (Edmonton) and Southern Alberta (Calgary) BMW clubs and takes place over two days. School size is limited to 30 students in order to make the event workable. School Starts with a 9:00AM Saturday half day classroom session held at the Northern Alberta Sports Car Club Headquarters in Edmonton, where Barry Munson, goes through the basics of vehicle dynamics, weight transfer, tire contact patch, correct seating position, under steer, over steer, track etiquette, flags and their meanings, all laced with anecdotes from his vast storehouse of ice racing experience. He has but one rule for the students – "UNSMOOTH IS UNCOOL"
Being "UNCOOL" means that you have violated track etiquette, or exited the track because of inattentiveness and gotten stuck in a snow bank, thereby delaying proceedings. The embarrassment of being labeled UNCOOL is the ultimate indiscretion at this school, barring outright removal from the track.
The students range from old and new members of the BMW club. There are young family members of BMW clubbers, or owners of other car marques, who joined the BMW club just to participate in this event. Membership in the BMW club is a mandatory requirement to be a participant, as is a rated helmet.
Barry skillfully and patiently explains what happens to the car when various inputs are given or not given by the driver – throttle, brakes, gear changes, steering, heel and toe, and also talks about the differences in handling posed by automatics, front wheel drives, including four wheel drives (X5 owners). The only SUVs allowed are BMW X5s but any other properly equipped car is also welcomed, providing it passed a thorough technical inspection by a licensed mechanic prior to registration. The classroom theory will become very relevant on the ice course but the rookie students are as yet not aware of how crucial this knowledge will be until they get on the course and experience it in the seat of their pants.
The course is at Telford Lake – 30 minutes south of Edmonton in Leduc, the town where oil was first discovered in Alberta. This discovery changed the fortunes and future of Alberta and all us Albertans. Telford Lake is home to the ice racing community of Alberta – it is a skinny east west lake just over 4 kilometers long and perhaps a kilometer wide that serves as the track venue for weekend winter ice racing. Two full courses are laid out on the lake, both with front straights about 1.6 kilometers in length and a series of turns, sweeping and brutal enough to test the mettle of ice racers. The winter ice is generally thick enough to support the heavy road graders needed to maintain the tracks. If the graders can go out and do their work, the cars can safely race.
There are no amenities at the track; the BMW club brings along a rudimentary tent shelter and Barry Munson’s large cube van which serves as temporary track headquarters. The cube van also doubles as a rescue/tow vehicle to service the unfortunate "UNCOOL".
A rented Johnny-on-the-spot serves as a relief station but at minus 20Celcius, (average Edmonton temperature for February) it is cold comfort. Leduc’s bustling city centre is however only seven minutes away for those craving citified comfort or the full range of North American fast food.
The ratio of volunteer instructors to students is about one per car; this is almost unheard of at any other school that I have attended barring the ultra expensive private label racing schools. Alberta boasts some superb drivers; they come from the Ice racing community, the BMW and Porsche clubs, Northern Alberta Sports Car Club and interested skilled private individuals. Albertans are renowned for their volunteerism, and the spirit of giving back the help and knowledge that they received from their own mentors prevails throughout this school. This is a school run by enthusiasts and it shows.
Time at Telford is broken up into half hour sessions of on-track and off-track. Students are split into two run groups, while one group is on-track; the other is off-track, thereby maximizing each student’s precious minute of paid school-day time. Off-track time is just as educational as on-track; in fact only if you master the off-track exercises can you hope to become a more proficient track driver. The most innovative off-track exercise is the big sweeping “S” of the increasing and decreasing radius practice run. It is demarcated entirely by cones or a just-visible but benign 150mm (6inch) high snow bank, so there is absolutely nothing solid to hit.
You take off and approach the first part of the “S” through a cone gate, build up speed and negotiate the first part of the increasing radius while you induce the rear wheels to lose traction either by tapping the brake hard or using the throttle while gently sawing the steering. You are rewarded with an amazing sideways slide if you put in the correct inputs and the car just goes sideways into the correct attitude and position to enable it to negotiate the second part of the “S”. If you admire how rally drivers do this on dirt, this same skill is yours for the taking, but without any threat to either the car or yourself. On the other hand you could over-rotate and spin like a top, but this is again the safest place to do it. If you executed the first part correctly, you are now in position to accelerate into the next (decreasing radius) turn. You are again rewarded by another sideways slide in the opposite direction, as you give the car the proper inputs and negotiate the turn, hit the apex (or not) and shoot out of the “S”. If you remember the exhilaration you felt the first time you were on a favorite fairground ride; this is a close duplicate. However, here, you can run this “S” again and again until your grin becomes permanent, your skill level shoots up to where you are comfortable, your tolerance for fun is exceeded, or your turn on track approaches.
The other off-track exercise is a long cone slalom with cones spaced pretty far apart; to successfully traverse this slalom requires a steady, constant, even throttle – remember you are on ice and any jerky input will make you slide. There is also a brake trap which will quickly show you the benefits of ABS should your car be so equipped. Both of these exercises are made more challenging by moving cones closer or changing the rules, as the school progresses and student skill increases. You run these also as often as you like.
On-track is where you assemble off-track skills into a seamless track run through about 5 kilometers of corners and a straight. The snow banks are anywhere from 600mm to 900mm or more high (2-3feet) depending on the amount of precipitation on the days preceding. They also get packed hard by the graders so exiting the track unintentionally, while not as terminal as summer tracks, is still not recommended. The corners can be up to 30metres (100feet) wide and the straight is perhaps 20metres (60feet) wide. This setup provides ample opportunity and flexibility for both the rookies and the skilled drivers to derive optimal benefit from time spent on the track.
If you are afraid, you can stay in the centre of the track and concentrate on driving or spin away without hitting anything. The skilled guys can use the track like any dry track – follow lines, hit apexes, find better traction and hone skills while constantly driving at the limit of their prior and newly acquired skills or the car’s adhesion. This is the most important difference from summer driver education sessions. In summer you would have to be going insanely fast to induce skids, do four wheel drifts, run sideways or just to be able feel the result of every small input into the car, unless you have had hundreds of hours of seat time.
At Telford every input (or lack thereof) is amplified, you can feel the back end breaking loose as the car is unsettled, when you downshift without matching engine speed to road speed. You think to yourself “so that’s what happens when you use the engine as a brake retarder”. An action with a consequence that would be almost too subtle to notice on a dry track but at Telford an unmistakable and obvious reminder, why heel and toeing is an important skill to develop to be smooth (I still cannot do it properly and it annoys me to no end).
Abrupt steering inputs cause major instability; you cannot help but be smooth or you pay the price right then and there. How many times have you had to catch or save the car on the dry track? If you have been forced to do this, you were in serious and possibly terminal sphincter-puckering danger. At Telford you can do this ad infinitum until you instinctively know when to catch it or what it feels like just before it happens. How often do you induce spins on the dry track? At Telford you can spend hours doing nothing but this.
Throttle input – you know what happens when some truck-driving yahoo puts a testosterone fueled pedal to the metal in some parking lot. The wheels protest and the truck’s back end literally breaks lose. Lots of smelly rubber and you thank God the idiot managed to catch it before somebody got hurt. At Telford you can practice this and instantly feel the result of indiscreet pedal application. You will feel and appreciate the benefit of smooth throttle application and the ensuing response.
This is perhaps the most democratic of all schools because driving skill is the only currency worth anything here. Power and aggression do not belong at this school; so leave the horsepower and hormones at home; this is a school where smoothness (skill) and good snow tires (traction) rule. A well-driven 318 will easily outperform an M3 or M5; this school is all about being SMOOTH. Brute power is useless; it cannot be harnessed and put to the ground without incurring major penalties in loss of control or traction.
The clincher for me is the absolute bargain-basement price of this Driver Education School as offered by the BMW clubs of Alberta. A mere $175CDN for a BMW club member plus $25 for an additional driver using the same car. A husband and wife duo can therefore get two full days of instruction for $50 per person per day. Perhaps a price increase may signify a greater value for potential students. If you are coming from out of town, Leduc has motel rooms starting at less than $50 per night or you can stay in Edmonton. If you are an American, this is akin to stumbling onto a third world bargain without straying too far from home.
If you have a new driver in your house, this two-day session should be made mandatory in my opinion.
I could go on and on, because the greater your level of skill before coming to Telford, the further and quicker you can advance your learning. I personally believe that two days spent at Telford are equivalent to at least three summer Driver Education schools. This kind of learning leverage is not available anywhere, but then again I am biased, since I belong to the BMW club of Northern Alberta and I love this school.
Oh! I almost forgot to tell you that you are given a classy, lighted BMW Advance Driver Education Key Ring as a parting gift at the end of all of this.
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