To ensure that training is consistent with worldwide standards, our instructors were sent for training and certification at M GmbH, the Driver Training and Motorsports Division of BMW AG in Munich.

CB: How important is the programme as a marketing and branding tool?

DC: It is important because it places into practice the values that BMW stands for – sheer driving pleasure. Safety is an integral part of this. To help our customers fully appreciate their investment in BMW cars, we want them to understand how the cars will react in emergency situations plus the advantages of new technology.

Buying a BMW is not just the mere purchase of a product but a lifestyle that extends to safer driving on the road. Our target is to supply drivers with the correct mental stimuli that enable them to assess their driving ability and personal potential more accurately, and develop their skills in specific ways.

CB: What was the rationale behind the decision to open up participation to non-BMW customers?

DC: This programme has proved to be very beneficial to BMW owners. Over the years, we were approached by many non-BMW owners interested to join the training. As the programme grew and BMW car sales increased, we were able to justify a larger car fleet, training team and more facilities. This has allowed us to share BMW Driver Training to non-BMW owners.

CB: Have you won over new customers as a result of their participation in the training programme?

DC: The programme’s focus is not acquiring new customers but creating more skilled drivers. The hands-on driving experience is of course further verification of BMW’s approach to building cars – powerful yet safe, dynamically capable machines that keep the driver in control, simulated emergency situations emphasise these traits. So ‘conversion’ of prospective customers is certainly inevitable.

CB: Do PML’s partners offer special insurance packages to owners who have successfully completed the ADT?

DC: We believe that active safety is the key consideration here. The BMW Driver training programme is in itself a form of insurance through knowledge gain. Better skilled and
more aware drivers tend to be safer ones.

THE COURSE

THE BMW DRIVER training programme consists of five tiers, of which the ADT is the second. BMW also runs an introductory half-day course, aimed at beginner drivers.

The remaining three courses consist of the Intensive Driver Training programme and two ‘Perfection’ stages. You need to successfully complete ADT before progressing to the Intensive course and so on, and you aren’t given an automatic pass at each stage. Students are certified based on their ability to carry out the various exercises satisfactorily and instructors have failed people in the past.

The ADT is conducted by four highly experienced instructors, led by veteran Keith Nunis, who’ve all received training and certification from BMW’s famed Motorsports division. The day-long course itself is held at Johore’s Pasir Gudang Circuit, and uses top-of-the-line BMW 330i sedans.

Performance Motors maintains a permanent facility at the circuit, and (as if the chance to drive a 258bhp 3 Series wasn’t incentive enough) this also allows the company to lay the hospitality on pretty lavishly, with cool drinks and proper food in plentiful supply throughout the day.

The course is focused on what to do during those moments when panic would otherwise freeze your limbs solid. This requires some knowledge of how a car and the on-board safety systems that most modern vehicles now come with, behave in emergency situations.

Therefore, the session kicks off with an hour-long theory lesson, which covers everything from proper seating position to the physical forces at play when you experience a loss of control. Here are some of the other important areas that are covered in the course.

DRIVING POSITION
The first thing you’ll probably notice is that most of us sit much too far away from the steering wheel. Better, as Keith Nunis says, to sit in ‘granny’ mode, by making sure that you’re back is straight and that your arms are not at full stretch when gripping the steering wheel.

The same goes for your legs, which should remain moderately bent at the knee even with full application of the brakes and throttle, minimising injury in case of a crash.

Happily, the instructors dispense with the unintuitive ‘shuffling’ method of steering espoused by many other driving schools, sticking to the easier and more natural ‘overhand’ method.

EMERGENCY BRAKING
If you happen to be in a car that isn’t equipped with ABS, this technique could potentially save your life. Traditionally, people are taught to cadence brake or basically to apply rhythmic pressure as slamming on the brakes in a car without ABS will make the tyres lock up, depriving you of any steering control.

Unfortunately, cadence braking is difficult to get right in most circumstances, and even more so in an emergency, so throw that out the window. Your first priority is to slow down, so the instructors teach you to jump on the brakes as hard as you can, locking the tyres in the process.

If you’re still about to hit something, the instructors show you how to avoid it. Without letting up pressure on the brakes, you’re taught to haul the steering wheel hard over, which you’ll find has little effect with the wheels locked.

When you’re ready to change direction, release the brakes and the car will literally dive towards the direction you intended, and away from the trouble in the first place.

BRAKE, SWERVE AND STABILISE
All the lessons learnt find application in the day’s final brake, swerve and stabilise exercise, which is pretty self-explanatory.

The point is that the most important skill the course imparts is the ability to properly assess an emergency situation and to apply corrective action without lapsing into ‘panic mode’. The instructors are ever watchful for this and constantly give words of encouragement.

The ADT has also been given the thumbs up by none other than MediaCorp actor Tay Ping Hui, who’s also brand ambassador for Tag Heuer.

The actor praised the instructors as being “highly professional and proficient,” adding that he enjoyed the course so much that he expressed interest in taking part in BMW’s Intensive Driver Training Programme as long as his schedule permitted. “I’d like to be a part of this so that I’ll be able to execute any car stunts in TV dramas or movies myself!”