Welcome back, everyone, to the BMWBLOG Podcast. This week is episode 46 and we’re inching closer and closer to 50 episodes, which is exciting for us. This week, our guest is Nate Risch, a longtime BMW contributor, who took the time to talk to use about his experience at the BMW M4 GT4 Driving School.

As part of the BMW M Performance Driving School, the brand is allowing for a proper M4 GT4 experience, which gives customers the chance to get behind the wheel of the actual race car. Not just a quick of lap in the BMW M4 GT4 but the full racing experience. That means a full racing suit, helmet, seat fitting, instructions, and several laps at the wheel of a genuine GT4 racing car. To put into context how special that is, as someone who’s been writing about BMWs as my job for six years and had incredible access to cars during that span, I’ve never even driven a proper racing car.

Nate breaks down the entire experience, which sounds awesome, and we discuss what it was like to actually drive a proper racing car. It’s more interesting than just hopping in and driving something fast. There’s actually a lot that goes into it and every customer to the BMW M Performance Driving School West gets to experience it.

Unfortunately, the M4 GT4 experience is only available at the west coast driving school, which is located in Palm Springs, California. The east coast school, in Spartanburg, South Carolina, doesn’t have the M4 GT4 experience and likely won’t get it, as the track there is a bit too small for such a car.

He also talks about the experience as a whole; staying at the hotel, eating breakfast at the track, and getting lessons from BMW’s racing drivers; and how it compares to a normal track day. It’s a good interview and we had some fun discussing it all, so check it out.