Roebling Road Bound

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One of the benefits of using the M2 as a daily driving track car is the amount of stuff you can load into for a weekend trip. This weekend I headed from Atlanta to Savannah to participate in the Peachtree Chapter of the BMW CCA’s driving school at Roebling Road Raceway. This was the first track weekend that was far enough from home to warrant driving on my OEM wheels/tires and switching to my track wheels/tires after arrival.

I managed to get my 18” wheels with track tires to stack in my backseat for the trip down to Savannah

This did require a bit of a change in my normal seat position and since I will be doing this often, I set the 2nd memory function to tire carrying mode. In addition to the tires, all my tools and racing gear fit “nicely” (read those as air quotes) in the trunk. My cooler and my luggage road shotgun in the front seat.

I had one person at the track who saw my OEM wheels stacked up beside my car in the paddock ask, “did you bring those with you in your car?” And another person suggested that I needed a small two wheel trailer for all this stuff.

I have some personal pride in being able to maintain my car in 1/2 of my small two car garage and get to the track without the need for a trailer. The later then requires a vehicle to pull the trailer and I am happy with my current situation.

When I make it to the club racing level, then it will be time for the truck and trailer, until then I  will stick with the status quo.

First Road Trip In My 2017 BMW M2

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After picking up my new to me 2017 BMW M2 in Houston, Texas, my wife and I hit the road for home. Since it is a 12+ hour drive to Atlanta, GA we decided to make an overnight stop in New Orleans, LA. Thanks to COVID we were able to get a hotel room right in the French Quarter during Mardi Gras with just a few days notice.

Leaving the dealership in a high performance car you have only driven once for 5 minutes to head out on a road trip is a bit un-settling. The roads around Advantage BMW in downtown Houston were under construction and in terrible shape, coupled with the stiff suspension in the M2 it didn’t add much to the driving pleasure at this point. For the first 10 minutes I was wondering if I made a mistake giving up the adjustable suspension in my old M235i for the more driving focused setup in the M2.

Hitting the on ramp, running the M2 through its gears as it quickly builds speed and darting into the flow of traffic make the M235i a distant memory. It becomes like most of the traffic, a fading image in my rearview mirror! Unfortunately, it started raining shortly after we left Houston and I didn’t want to push a new car in the wet on my first drive. This provided a great opportunity to put cruise control to the test and safely make our way to the Big Easy.

One of the things I was looking forward to in the 2017 M2 was the addition of Apple Car Play to the BMW iDrive system. I don’t know if it was operator error or cell signal interference being surrounded by tall buildings, but as we made our way into New Orleans it seemed like Siri was giving me turn-by-turn instructions a little too late. After a few extra trips around the block we made our way towards our hotel.

The narrow and rough roads in the French Quarter are not the best place to drive in a new car. I was quickly reminded of the stiff suspension in the M2 after hitting a pot hole while trying to avoid vehicles and pedestrians on either side of the road. We made it to the hotel safe and sound with no damage to the new car and then I was hit with the reality of having to hand over the keys to my new toy to the valet. With thoughts of the scene from Ferris Buller’s Day Off of the valet drivers racing around in the Ferrari, I reluctantly handed over my keys.

After a few beignets at Cafe Du Monde and a couple drinks on Bourbon St my mind was at ease and I could enjoy our night out. Aside from the absence of parades you might not know that COVID caused Mardi Gras to be cancelled. The French Quarter was packed with people in the carnival spirit and we ran across several groups having their own parades.

After a fun night out we headed back to Atlanta the next morning. Being a New Orleans native I couldn’t leave town with out a King Cake so we headed to Metairie to find a Tastee Donuts that sells McKenzie King Cakes during Mardi Gras. These taste like my childhood and there isn’t a substitute. This also gave us a chance to head home via the Lake Pontchartrain Bridge, the worlds longest bridge over a body of water. I have crossed the Causeway many times as a kid, but my wife had never seen it, so we took the long way home.