Yes, you are correct. That is my lovely wife tearing up the track in her Volvo wagon. Having agreed to go mostly to humor me, she ended up having a great time. It was fun to watch as she improved throughout the day. I wasn’t driving. I was helping out with the class for a change. It was good to see the old Volvo get an Italian tune-up and head full-throttle into a quick lane-change maneuver, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Once a year, the local BMW club hosts a Highway Safety School at Summit Point. This was the first year they’ve had it on the Shenandoah Circuit. The benefit of having it there on the longer course is that you can split the course in two and conduct two different run groups at the same time.

One group conducted slalom and lane change maneuvers down the pistol grip, range straight, and through the hook. At the same time, another group was on the rest of the course conducting various threshold braking maneuvers. A third group was at the skid-pad. Each exercise lasted 50 minutes and was repeated in the afternoon. That’s quite a bit of driving time for the money.

At the skid-pad they didn’t have the front-wheel drive students turn off traction control, so I don’t think she got much out of it. The Volvo traction control works very well. You cannot force much under-steer at all. When you do force it, the car hooks-up very quickly and goes into over-steer and a spin. Not really what you want to build confidence in a beginning student.

At the end of the day, she got to do some lapping with her instructor in his E46 M3. (He was driving.) They were supposed to be going at 80% so as not to frighten the students. I timed his laps with and without a student in the car. Not 80%…. Nonetheless, she had a great time.

On Friday I drove an instructor’s E36 M3 on the skid-pad for a good 20 minutes. I managed to go from pathetic to pretty average which is encouraging. I find most of my instincts are wrong when it comes to large-angle over-steer and rear-wheel drive, but I have to master it to graduate from the instructor program. Hopefully I’ll have the 325is done by the next class. I had driving someone else’s car — all I can think about is going off and bending a control arm or worse.

I feel like I’m braking more smoothly now and my laps are gaining in consistency, but I need to do some more work on my brakes if I take the MINI out again. I had EBC Red pads in the front and EBC stock pads in the rear. With the new rotors, that was a bad combo. The brakes started to fade after only a couple of runs. On Sunday, I switched to EBC Green pads in the rear and noticed a considerable improvement, but I think I’m still overheating the pads. It didn’t help that the ambient temp as almost 100 degrees.

Since I’m heading back to Shenandoah in the Fall, here’s a turn-by-turn description (the CCA doesn’t run the pit straight, they take the cut-off before the pits and head into the pistol grip.

Turn 1: Coming out of the pits, head toward the bucket and about where the apron is on the outside of the track, allow the car to go just a bit past mid-track, lift, and head back to the apex. Full power at the apex and track out, but be aware that the drop off is high at the end of the track out so be a bit conservative with power.

Turns 2-5: This is a start of a triple apex 3-5. Straight line 2 going from the outside to the inside, braking hard in a straight-line, and hit the apex of turn 3. Trail-brake to keep the car tight to the apex of 4. Hold the arc and let the car swing out to mid-track and control track position with the throttle. This will point the car in a straight line from 5 to 6. The apex at 5 is blind.

Turns 6-8: In this configuration, 6-8 forms a chicane. If turn 7 is in use, stay off of the curb in 6. If you’re going straight from 6 into 8, it’s ok to hit a bit of the curb in 6. It won’t unsettle the car and it allows for a better line from 5 and setting you up for the braking zone for turn 8.

Turn 8: If you get 5-6 right, you’ll have to brake a bit harder and sooner to get the car to turn in to turn 8. Normally, I brake hard, and trail brake just to get the car to turn in to turn 8, then manage position with the throttle. I don’t have that much power anyway so I don’t seem to be able to use all of the track-out.

Turn 9: Turn 9 is taken flat out. Position the car so that as you crest the hill you are to the extreme left of the track. As you go over the top and un-weight the car, give the car a quick turn to the left. This is blind, but it will position you for a straight line to the entry to the Carrousel.

Turn 10: The Carrousel. If you enter from the left, it’s a bit of carrier landing. To far to the right and the car will hop under hard braking. Catch the V with the right wheels and drop slightly to the left for the best transition. Make sure to downshift and unload the clutch well before the hardest braking to maintain stability. Listen to the tires in the turn and adjust power. It will take a lot more power than you will be comfortable with, but try to maintain speed.

Turns 11-12: This is a quick right under hard acceleration. Use left-foot braking to weight the front end to turn back for turn 12. Accelerate again over the top of the hill. Go deep into 13.

Turn 13: Have to be patient with 13. Going deeper and turning sooner will allow you to get on the power sooner and enter 14 at higher speed. Be patient to get the car to come back to the apex before hitting the power or you’ll blow the set-up for turn 14.

Turn 14: Late apex; steady power; track out; shift into 4th; get the car headed to the apex before full power, then power through 15.

Turn 15: Full power sweeper; use all of the track, but come back to mid track down the straight. There’s lots of dirt on the right of the track after the dip; and the track is very rough to the left in the dip. Set up for turn 16 from mid-right on the track.

Turn 16: Go deep; brake hard early; trail brake to get the car to rotate; late apex; full power and track out. Be careful with the trail-braking as the surface is rough.

Turns 17-18: Set up for 17 from the outside, head with left wheels to the rough patch; hold a steady arch; hit the curb on the right for apex for 17; let it drift to the apron on the left and come back to the curb on the right for the apex to 18. Power up the hill; track to the right; lift and get the car turned in for turn 1.