Phokaioglaukos

I've done four BMW schools up hear in the north. At all of them but one I have had a Porsche driver instructing. There really is a difference in how one drives an M3 compared to a GT3, and that became really evident with one experience. Learning that was very worthwhile. Larry helped drive that home last weekend at The Glen!

M758

Well I have never instructed in or been to a BMWCCA event.

Some of my PCA instructor friends went to a BMWCCA event in Las Vegas. When they returned 90% got "yelled at" for driving too fast in the instructor group. Funny thing is that these are the same guys also very comfortalbe with NASA and other local track groups and most if not all run groups with open passing rules (pass ok in corners, but no racing). Heck I know many you east coast guys would go ape with open passing rules we have as common place in may DE groups on the west coast.

Interesting to say the least what is "acceptable" one place is "outlandish" somewhere else.

AudiOn19s

I think you'll find good and bad in all instructor groups though after several years of participating with BMWCCA and PCA I find the PCA instructors to me more consistant than the BMWCCA guys....but the M3 is the track toy right now so I usually participate more with the BMWCCA than anything else.

Brian: It's scarry how similar of an experience we had...I had a BMWCCA instructor last year that opted to no longer ride with me after lunch on the first day. (ironically an E30 guy). Both mornign sessions he kept asking me to back down the pace quite a bit and I felt like I was loafing out there just making laps. At the same time this made me fear that I had just turned into "that ***-hat, know it all studend" that didn't want to listen to the instructor...paranoid the heck out of me. He switched students with his Buddy who got in the car and was actually encouraging me to go faster than my current comfort level in the car and by the end of the day I had lopped an additional 1.5 seconds off of my best laps ever.

Andy

TD in DC

The video is funny. But . . . video is misleading since it really doesn't have any context. You can make someone look like a superstar or an idiot depending upon which moments you choose to show.

ltc

I was expecting to see the instructor reach down and grab a rolled up newspaper and whack the student across the nose at some point during the video.

Pretty funny stuff.

rvernick

Exactly. I'll put up a note on the web page that it is a spoof.

What that 45 seconds of video DOESN'T show is the other 19 minutes of a relatively quiet session and that I was out there with 2 other friends going nose-to-tail in cars Mike maintains (Mike owns Bavarian Specialties in King of Prussia, PA). I purposely pulled out the exact moments when Mike yelled; all in an effort to make a joke.

Lemming

DITTO!

Larry Herman

That's nothing. At Pocono I got black flagged by the SCCA corner workers for "driving too fast" in the Red Instructor Group, and then proved it by missing that black flag for more than several laps!

techno99

Interesting comments about PCA vs BMCCCA. I find that here in Florida the pace is much faster with BMWCCA than PCA.

JoelG

Even with a note, if they don't know Yaskin they still probably wont get it. If you DO know Yaskin, however, its hilarious.

Wasn't it DelVal that had the Monday combined with PCA at SPR back in the spring? Or was that NJ? I'm pretty sure a good time was had by all.

FWIW, DelVal's chief instructor is a Porsche guy.

As far as BMW instructors being weenies goes, I think that's gonna vary from chapter to chapter. Both DelVal and NJ have a lot of racers in their instructor corps and I don't recall ever hearing about anyone get told to slow down. I know thats not true about some other chapters

Veloce Raptor

Now, THAT is hilarious!!

Lemming

My first DE was in an '03 M3 with BMWCCA at Road Atlanta. By the end of the first day my instructor kept calling me a "*****" because I would not keep the throttle pinned until the braking zone in 10A. In fact, he said that until I was hitting 155 when cresting the hill he would be yelling "*****" at me. He yelled that on just about every lap on Sunday. Needless to say, I had a blast and have been hooked every since!

No PCA instructor has every called me a "*****" while on track At least, those that were sitting in the passenger seat; I have no idea what the instructors in the cars around me are saying

gbaker

He had a different choice of wording, but when I took the PDE there in 2000 Haywood politely noted that I was braking too soon into 10A. Next lap he said, "Follow my instructions...not yet...not yet...not yet...BRAKE! BRAKE! BRAKE!

Thought I was gonna die.

RedlineMan

Ha!

I got an e-mail from this Yaskin guy. Who? Said there was more to it than meets the eye. I said. Great. let's hear it! I'd hate to be wrong for the first time and break my streak, after all.

Given the circumstance, what was anyone to think other than the guy is a nutball? Given the context... or lack thereof, one man's enthusiasm is another man's insanity. The key is having an open mind. Mine's a revolving door!

My gut told me there was no way that someone would post this, and take credit for it, unless there was another agenda afoot.

tontobird

This is my home chapter of the BMWCCA. I know both the student and instructor and I thought the video was hilarious.

I personally like an instructor that will push me hard, 'cause I'm a bit of a wussy. Not entirely a wuss, as I do race.....

Joel, that was the DelVal group that shared Monday on Summit Point Main with your Porsche club on May 1 of this year. Of course, we also get a lot of participation by the NJ Chapter, so you would've seen a bunch of their members in attendance.

I think all of the various organizations will vary in attitude from region to region. As far as the BMWCCA in this area goes, I think DelVal is pretty laid back.