Carmon Carsidy

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Sunday Night

Tonight is sunday night... I don't like Sunday nights, mostly because of what I know is coming in the morning. Work at 7am... back to the daily grind tomorrow. Goodnight!

A night at the BMW performance center: Part 3

So as you have been reading I had an awesome chance to visit the BMW Performance Driving School and raise money for cancer at the same time. I went with a few of my friends from BMW and we got there early and started off on the off-road course they have there. It's a massive course with several man made mountains, bridges, rivers, and potholes.

Wading through a few feet of water in a BMW X5

It was great to see how the cars I work on everyday preform off road. I wasn't disappointed, it was very controlled and didn't have any problems, even when we had it up on 2 wheels during part of the course.

BMW X5's headed up a steep hill

We also had a section of the course which brings the cars on a steep sideways gradient. These cars can just about reach a 45° angle without flipping over.

Trying to flip over an X5

The best part was the frame testing section where the car gets up on two wheels and teeters on top of this huge hill. It's incredible how the X5 routes the power from its 360hp V8 to the wheels that are on the ground only. Side note: It's also very difficult to take clear pictures and drive off road at the same time.

Tilting an X5

Overall it was a great experience, especially knowing that it only cost me $10 and all that money went for cancer research.

BMW X3 up on 2 Wheels

A night at the BMW performance center: Part 2

Here's a few more images from the night at the BMW performance center. I took these before the Off Road drive in the X5, which was the first event of the night.

Sunset over BMW Performance Center in Spartanburg, SC

BMW M5 Fender

335i flyin around the track

For the people that can't drive the real cars

BMW Alpina B7

335i Screaming Around the track

BMW M6 Sunset

Twin Turbo BMW 335i

Hm... what M5 do I want to take?

A night at the BMW performance center: Part 1

So I had the awesome oppurtunity to do two of my most favorite things at once last night. Take some awesome pictures, and drive some fast cars on roads with no speed limits. BMW and the American Cancer Society got together to come up with an event called Relay for Life. If you have heard about those all-night long events where people walk around a track to raise money and awareness for cancer, this is pretty similar, but with a big twist.

E46 BMW M3

Being hosted at BMW's performance driving school, many driving events were setup. All the proceeds went to cancer. There were three events, an off-road course with X5's, a hot-lap in an 507hp M5, and match racing with the amazing twin turbo 335i's. Needless to say I signed up for each one!

The beautiful rims on the brand new BMW M3

Needless to say this was one of the most fun nights of my life. I'll go into more details later about each event but let me just say that each one totally blew me away.

Fender vents on the new M3

There were also tons of beautiful, rare, and expensive BMW's just laying around. Sounds like heaven for someone that loves photography and cars.

A BMW 135i

I found a row of wrecked cars in the back of the center. Proof that these car's are not invincible and that seat belts, roll cages, and helmets might actually save some lives out here.

It wasn't me....

Welcome to my blog!

Welcome to my blog! I'm new to this whole thing but I plan to update this a few times a week (I know everyone says that)! I'll include my latest pictures, insights on life, and things about photography and cars. I plan to fill it with tons of pictures because a lot of the time they better describe things than words. So please stay tuned to the posts that follow and hang on tight as I take you though the vortex that is my life.