A Few Short Laps

A few months back I had an amazing opportunity presented to me from a very generous coworker. My buddy Davis was picking up the new Mini Cooper JCW Coupe in South Carolina, and needed someone to tag along to drive the other car back. Being a car nut, I of course agreed, got the OK from my boss and we took off.

This wasn’t your ordinary “get it and go” trip. We were getting a very cool car, that few people had seen, and Davis managed to have the car delivered to the BMW Performance Driving School. The school is nothing short of amazing, and the staff was of course world-class. While standing around looking at our new toy, and answering questions by curious passersby we were asked, “You guys want to see the track?”

Any gear head will tell you that the words “see the track” bring joy to the deepest parts of your petrol-fueled soul, and the answer is always an enthusiastic “yes”! What followed was nothing short of awesome. We spent the next few hours putting the Mini through its paces along with one of the new M3s. We were accompanied by a BMW Master Instructor who promptly showed us that the Mini would hold it’s own on the short track we’d claimed as our own.

Despite the rain, we had a blast, drove the wheels off both cars, and learned a lot about the new JCW Coupe.