DrivingSchool: 30 years of the BMW driver training academyFor three decades BMW has run its renowned driver training academies around the world: next year it will start one here. Daniel Attwoodreports
It is unlikely that many companies would celebrate 30 years of running a loss-making arm of its business. But this week, this is exactly what BMW is doing. Three decades ago the Bavarian carmaker was convinced of the benefits of establishing a driver training academy by rally legend, Rauno Aaltonen.
BMW management board member Dr Klaus Draeger describes the company's decision as "visionary". At a time when BMW was selling just 180,000 cars a year, some would describe it as a suicidal decision.
However, BMW persevered and prospered. It now sells almost 1.4 million cars a year and has trained more than 200,000 drivers since that decision was taken. Thirty years on, Aaltonen returned to BMW's academy at Munich Airport, which is one of dozens of such centres dotted throughout the world (although none are currently in Ireland), to applaud BMW for continuing with its driver training schools despite losing money hand over fist.
Aaltonen was also there to reveal how advancements in vehicle technology over the past three decades have made driving safer. But despite these advances, he points out that it is still driver error that causes more than 95 per cent of all crashes.
This is why BMW continues to teach the principles of safer driving - "better and safer" is a mantra you hear often at the academies. BMW also now teaches economy driving - it claims a 20 per cent fuel saving while still allowing the driver to enjoy the experience - and, confirming its performance heritage, it also reveals how to perfect race driving skills.
Laudable as this is, it is not the only reason that the carmaker is willing to fund these loss-making academies. Customer retention is key and providing BMW owners - and potential owners - with the opportunity to sample the abilities of high performance cars like the 340bhp Z4 M Coupé in a safe environment under the watchful eyes of skilled instructors is a marketer's dream.
And this is why BMW Ireland will be introducing a driver training school here, on a trial basis, by next year.
With courses starting from as little as €90 for young drivers, it is little wonder that the academies lose money. Not only are the cars - there are 250 of them, all of which are performance models such as the 130i, the M3, the Z4 M and the Mini Cooper S - provided and maintained by BMW, but the company must also fund the training and wages of its 120 full-time instructors who fly across the globe to provide training.
Thirty years ago, cars lacked the active and passive safety features that we now take for granted. No better way to prove this than to jump behind the wheel of a 1980 320i with no power steering, no ABS or brake assist, no dynamic stability or traction control and no airbags.
Under the instruction of Aaltonen - the king of the World Rally Championships in the 1970s - the slalom course taken at 55km/h proved how much motorists now rely on modern safety systems.
Few of the motoring journalists managed to prevent the 320i's rear from fishtailing. "When we established the academy in 1977, we found that 78 per cent of single vehicle crashes on country roads involved the car going off the road and into the ditch after a bend," explains Aaltonen.
"The press said it was due to high speed but this is nonsense. It was the fault of the driver: he did not recognise when the vehicle was becoming unstable. This is the essence of our training - to show drivers how to spin the car safely so they recognise the early warning signals. Then we can show them how to prevent the car spinning."
But the need to teach skills such as counter-steering during oversteer situations, have become less important thanks to technology like dynamic stability control.
This doesn't stop BMW teaching these skills, although the academies have tailored their agendas over the decades to suit the changing needs of the customers and the new technology in their cars.
The majority of courses - about 80 per cent - are carried out at below 60km/h, as it is in urban areas when travelling at this speed that most crashes occur.
However, it wouldn't be a BMW academy if there were not the opportunity to be taught race driving. BMW's engineers have worked for the past two years and spent an unspecified (read substantial) amount developing its Track Trainer.
This revolutionary system uses GPS and a secondary ground-based vehicle locator to accurately track a vehicle to within 10 centimetres. An F1 race driver was then employed to allow the system to map the ideal race line on three European racetracks, including the infamous Nürburgring.
It would be enough for most companies to settle for knowing the raceline and allowing an LED system in the car to indicate deviations from the line to the driver. However, BMW has gone further and has created a fully autonomous 3-Series automatic that can propel itself around the track exactly on the race line at race speeds so the "driver" can experience where he should be on the track, when to accelerate and when to brake. When he has learnt this he then takes control and compares his line against the perfect line in a debrief. Then it's back out to try to perfect the areas of most deviation.
Sadly, for those hoping to follow the perfect line on the way home, the system will never be fitted to production cars. However, what Track Trainer does prove is that, despite losing money on driver training, BMW remains committed to improving the driving skills of its customers.