PCD includes a dinner at the Greenville Marriott, a night in the hotel and breakfast the next morning. The hotel dinner was better than we expected as the food at some Marriott restaurants can be dreadful. BMW customers order from a 3-course 'performance' menu. Steak, chicken, fish or vegetarian main dish, salad and dessert. Breakfast is the normal Marriott buffet. Not worth what the hotel charges, but fine when BMW is paying.
We couldn't sleep in. The delivery day starts at 8:00 sharp and the hotel is about 15 minutes away. We went out to the Miata at 7:40 and found it covered in ice. I started the car and scraped off as much ice as I could with a credit card. With the de-icing delay, we arrived at the Performance Center a few minutes late.
We found the Performance Center lobby just about empty. There was our X3, another customer car and a couple of BMW employees. One set of guests, The Slows, were holding up the hotel shuttle. We were the first to arrive.Performance Delivery includes a few hours of driving instruction and demonstrations and a 2 hour delivery of your car. They kept us busy, but we did manage to take a few pictures.
Debbie on the skid pad in the middle of a 720 spin. We each got a turn spinning out a 335i sedan. I nearly blacked out. Debbie had a blast. You have to turn the stability control completely off to get the car to spin. With DSC on, the car will not spin. It hardly even slides.
After the skid pad we switched to a school X3 for panic stop training. On the way over I spotted a new 135i sedan and a 128i convertible. These cars won't be at dealers for a few more months. They were at the Performance Center as part of a CA and Service Technician training programs. I snapped a few quick photos. The car on the left is a beautiful and rare 1974 2002tii.The panic stop training was quite good. We made progressive runs starting at 0-20-0 and ending with 0-60-0. The course had a turn in it so we both got a good feel for how the X3 handles with the brake pedal down as far as it will go. True to form, The Slows never made it to 60mph.
After the panic stop training we got some time on an autocross circuit. This was the first time we'd autocrossed an X3 without the sport package. It was a blast although we both wanted more time on course. I wasn't going that fast but I kept running up on the car in front of me. It would have been nice to have some time on the track with fewer cars.
Lunch was on BMW at the center cafe. It was food. During lunch we talked with the other guests and the staff. One of the instructors had just come back from 2 weeks at the Nürburgring with the new M3.
Wanting to keep lunch down, I declined a post-lunch hot lap in a 500HP M5. Debbie went out. I took photos.
Drifting in the M5.
Powering out of a wild slide.
Full throttle reverse. Note the backup lights. Driver did a 180 and then coasted into the parking area like nothing had happened. Debbie came out all grins.Factory tours are closed until the X6 is released sometime this spring. In lieu of the factory tour, we took an X3 on the off road demonstration course. I wanted to hop out and take pictures while Debbie was driving, but she needed a second set of eyes to help keep the car out of the fence rails. BMW's off road course takes an X3 just a little short of the design limits. The course starts out easy, with some little hills that balance the car up on 2 wheels. After that we drove through a water trough. The water just covered the exhaust pipes on the X3 in front of us. That's about an inch short of the 20" maximum. Way more than I'll ever put our car through. The next bit was a little unnerving. We drove up a very steep hill. So steep you couldn't see anything but sky. Debbie watched one edge of the road out the passenger window and I watched out mine. Just past the crest of the hill, they dug a pit under the left track so that the car would fall in and pitch over at a 40 degree lean. YIKES. Perfectly safe, but unlike anything else we did that day it was a bit scary. Your mind is telling you the car is going to roll over. It has to roll. But it doesn't. I wish had a photo or a movie clip.
The Performance Center closed off the lobby during our delivery presentation. A delivery specialist spent over an hour going over every feature of our new X3.
There is a full service department at the Performance Center. The main function is to provide maintenance and service for the local fleet. They told me BMW NA has about 4000 cars between company owned and employee leases. I'd guess the techs there are among the best in North America. The Performance Center provides training for other BMW technicians. They also get an early look at cars coming over. Besides the 1series I saw, there were also some other cars hidden away in tents. My best guess is 5-series diesels and an X6 or two.
The PC techs perform the pre-delivery inspection on Performance Center Delivery cars. If you buy any dealer installed accessories, they install it. The service is first rate. Somehow my car key memory form never made it there. I asked, and we filled out a new form in the lobby. I asked for several things not on the standard form. A tech appeared out of nowhere, pulled our car around to the shop and put in the changes in about 10 minutes. Not even a word about my hand written requests. He just did it.
The detail work was first rate too. Our car was quite dirty at drop off. I'm sure it got even dirtier on the trip over. As you can see from the photo, they did an excellent job cleaning it up.
We had some time while we were waiting for the car/key memory programming. I asked if they would open up the 1 series car for us to look at. Much to my surprise they said yes.
First time I've sat in a pre-production BMW. I liked the 128i convertible. It is a much better looking car than the 3 series. BMW has gone back to a cleaner design with simpler smoother lines. Front seat was great. The back seat is a bit cramped.We took a short stop at the Zentrum accross the street. They let delivery customers park on the lawn. I wish I'd taken a photo of our two cars there. It was a nice day, so I drove the miata back with the top down. Debbie drove the X3.
