A night at the BMW performance center: Part 4

The next event for the night was a hot lab in an M5. Unfortunately we couldn't drive the car's but I'm not sure if I would be able to safely control the 507hp going to the rear wheels. Anyways I strapped on my racing helmet and go in with one of the BMW professional drivers. I asked him how I could get his job and he told me, "Go spend $300,000 on a race team and maybe BMW will get in contact with you." Doesn't sound to promising... Oh well I'm not sure my neck could take the ridiculous G-forces on a daily basis.

Soon we were headed off in the M5 though a series of locked gates that lead outside of the performance center. Back there we found about a 1.5 mile high speed track, complete with banked corners. He put his foot down and my head slammed against the headrest, chirping the tires in 1st, then again in 2nd at 45, then again in 3rd gear at somewhere around 80. 90... 100... 110... 120... 130... 140... 150... the speeds were growing at a frightening rate. We ended up shifting into 6th gear around 150 and hit about 155mph before he just about shot me through the windshield with the braking forces. Soon I was sucked up against the side of the car as we were taking one of the banked corners at close to 100mph. What a car! Soon we were back on the straight away... back up to 155 again. I glanced over at the navigation screen which told us we were averaging 6mpg. Good thing I don't have to fill these things up (or pay for the tires). It was great to back out of the car so I could catch my breath.