[blackholescion]

Before we begin, I want to apologize for some of the potato quality vids. Also, shout outs to my wife, who has the patience of a saint and detail of a microscope when we were putting the painter's tape on.

I picked up my car on 06OCT2016 after an 11 month wait from deposit to pick up. I will never forget the moment of rolling up to the performance center in the hotel shuttle and seeing my car sitting in a delivery bay. I really wish I had pictures of that but it was amazing seeing the car and knowing it was mine.

During this 11 month adventure, I avoided seeing an M2 in person. I wanted that first moment to be magical and it absolutely was.

We arrived at the hotel on 05OCT and were treated to a 3 course (steak) dinner which I will not post pics of because this isn't instagram . It was quite delicious. After that we were on our own until the following morning when the shuttle left (0745) for the performance center.

In the room, the Marriott has a 7 series book, describing all of the features of the new 7 series. It's pretty nuts what BMW can cram into a car these days in terms of electronics and luxury.



The next morning, we had a buffet breakfast on BMWs dime and were hanging out outside of the hotel when my shuttle to the performance center arrived...




... I wish... But the hotel van wasn't bad either . This GTS would later come to the performance center, the driver would just hang out in the car, and then they would leave 30 minutes later. Weird.

Anyway, we did our performance driving which included panic braking, skid pad, and short course track laps with a slalom, esses, and a sweeping right hander that was basically a straight into a sharp right hander. The only videos with me driving on the track include personal information (wife and instructor having a chat) so I won't post those and I also don't want you to see my terrible lines.

My wife did take this picture which I think is probably the best picture of the entire experience. I really liked that I was able to drive an MG M2 for the performance driving. They have them in all colors so I'm sure they try to coordinate as much as possible.



This was my first track driving experience. In the past I've only been involved in karting and playing a lot of Gran Turismo . The instructor was actually surprised at my abilities for a first timer so there's that.

The instructor was only in the car for the skid pad portion. The others he stood and watched and we had radios.

This first video is when we turned traction control off on the pad and he told me to floor it and go for a ride, trying to do a 360 (in a 340i):

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bx...nVUcnlSWm95RVE

Next was traction control on, and trying to keep foot to the floor and keep the car in line (vid isn't exciting, but traction control is amazing, never having owned a car with it before).

Finally, he took me out for a special lap with traction control off to attempt car control. I spun once but after that kept it relatively dialed in:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bx...EhoSF9TbmxoM3M

Next were hot laps in an M3 but the videos my wife took didn't turn out that well since they were from quite a distance. It was a slideways experience and the instructors are quite good at this whole driving thing. It was an eye opening experience as to what the M3 can do.

After that, delivery started. We went over the features I wanted to go over and I was able to spend some time walking around the car and taking it all in.




And the cleanest engine bay ever:



We had 45 minutes to kill after delivery before lunch and so we got started on taping up the front.

After 45 minutes, the hood was nearly done, the rear flares were almost done, and the passenger front fender was done.

When it was time for lunch, the delivery person (who happened to be the instructor as well) let me fire the car up for the first time and drive it out of the bay. He told my wife later that I was trying to play it cool but he saw my face and eyes light up when I heard it for the first time (MPE).



We had lunch with the instructor and a colleague of his and it was time for the off road portion which was a lot of fun. The X5's AWD is quite capable, coming from a Subaru myself. The water crossing was closed but we went up and down hills, rocks, 30 degree sideways inclines, etc.




After off roading, we finished taping up the car.



This was a comical amount of taping. Pro tip: get the 2 inch wide painter's tape if you're doing this or just get track wrap even though it's expensive. It took us about 2.5 hours but we were able to cover EVERYTHING.

Here's what it looked like from the front after arriving back in Raleigh:



AS you can see, the car is actually painter's tape blue. the MG is just an optical illusion

Bonus pics at friends house:




All in all, the performance center delivery was an amazing experience. They took care of us, Justin, my instructor/delivery person was fantastic, to the point where I'm only going to go to more schools when he's instructing. We hit it off from moment one.

I can't say enough on how well they took care of us and made the experience fantastic. We were even able to get bottles of water and soda for the trip home after they had closed up shop in the cafe.

The performance center delivery made up for the delays in getting my car that had nothing to do with BMW themselves. It also made me want to purchase another BMW in the future (the M2 is my first).

After having had the car for 11 days, and 550 miles, It continues to blow me away every time I drive it. I'm getting used to the rev matching (have to almost side step the clutch) to make the drive smoother.

After paint protection, tint (45% tint + factory made it end at 37ish), and removing the pesky 2 on the trunk to make it more like the 1M:

[PackPride85]

Good to see another M2 in Raleigh. You'll actually be the rare one with MG here. I have LBB, a friend of mine is picking up his LBB Wednesday, and I've seen another LBB around as well.

[Jackie Chiles]

Nice write up!

Can't wait to see the photos.

Question: What time of day did the PCD delivery wrap up? I've got an 11 hour drive home, so I'm trying to plan an overnight somewhere between Spartanburg and upstate NY.

[blackholescion]

Originally Posted by Jackie Chiles

Nice write up!

Can't wait to see the photos.

Question: What time of day did the PCD delivery wrap up? I've got an 11 hour drive home, so I'm trying to plan an overnight somewhere between Spartanburg and upstate NY.

I think it depends on when you take delivery. I took delivery before lunch and then did off roading after so we were done by 1330. This other guy who was in my driving group did delivery after lunch and he wasn't done until close to 1500.

They do say no later than 1500 for the events. I'd contact your CA and have him ask them if you can take delivery in the morning before lunch so that you can just go soon after lunch.

[Jackie Chiles]

Originally Posted by blackholescion

I think it depends on when you take delivery. I took delivery before lunch and then did off roading after so we were done by 1330. This other guy who was in my driving group did delivery after lunch and he wasn't done until close to 1500.

They do say no later than 1500 for the events. I'd contact your CA and have him ask them if you can take delivery in the morning before lunch so that you can just go soon after lunch.

Thanks! Now I figure I could put in 4 hours of driving in before grabbing a hotel room somewhere.

[mike@x-ph.com]

Nice, thank you for sharing

[M2_Driver]

Thanks for sharing, MG ist the best original colour.

[PARTS@STBMW]

Congratulations! Looks amazing.

[rosky1]

Great writeup...timing is perfect...I go to SC tomorrow for delivery on Wed...LBB M2...DCT...exec...carplay...on the list since the video came out last Oct. Mine is only the second locally in VA

[swilliams]

LOL @ the tape. Good god, man!

[Frank16M]

Originally Posted by PackPride85

Good to see another M2 in Raleigh. You'll actually be the rare one with MG here. I have LBB, a friend of mine is picking up his LBB Wednesday, and I've seen another LBB around as well.

Ha! I'm doing PCD this Friday for my LBB. I'm in Cary. Maybe I should of went with Alpine.. Doh!

[D CHOI]

tape game strong!

[Pol]

Congratulations!
What's the reason of taking away the "2" on the back?.

[blackholescion]

Originally Posted by Pol

Congratulations!
What's the reason of taking away the "2" on the back?.

I missed out on the 1M (not good timing). I really liked the way it looked and thought the single M on the trunk was fantastic. Since this is the "successor" I channeled it's inner 1M and got rid of the 2

I usually don't like badges on my cars in general but I'm stuck at the moment with the front badge. So if I had it my way, all the badges would be gone. But, I do also like the single M on the trunk.

[David1]

I thought I had a lot of tape on mine! I still had something go all the way through 4 layers of the stuff on the lower bumper. The tape probably prevented the paint getting a big chip, it just dented the finish and I was able to wet sand 3/4 of it out and the clear bra covered the rest. People at the Marriot were like, "what are you guys doing?" I think we answered that 20-30 times.

[omasou]

Are the events part of PCD or was some of that a driver's school?

[blackholescion]

Originally Posted by David1

I thought I had a lot of tape on mine! I still had something go all the way through 4 layers of the stuff on the lower bumper. The tape probably prevented the paint getting a big chip, it just dented the finish and I was able to wet sand 3/4 of it out and the clear bra covered the rest. People at the Marriot were like, "what are you guys doing?" I think we answered that 20-30 times.

Sorry to hear that but glad it wasn't anything more serious! We only did one layer but it was well overlapped so it was close to 2 layers. I figured that was enough to get the worst of it. I was also able to beat rush hour traffic and didn't follow anyone at less than 300 feet so I guess I probably got lucky.

I'm sure the XPEL installer had a great time removing all of the tape. Though they did tell me I was smart and that they were used to it.

It was definitely a conversation piece. We did the wrapping at the Performance Center and basically everyone who walked by stopped to chat about it. I also parked it right by the front door

Originally Posted by omasou

Are the events part of PCD or was some of that a driver's school?

All of those events are part of the PCD. 2 hours of track time, broken up pretty evenly between braking, skid pad, short course, and about 45 minutes of offroading (2 laps of the course, driver change with my wife in the middle).

My wife didn't want to do the track events except the braking so I got a lot of seat time for the course and pad. Although I suppose if you went alone, you'd get a lot of seat time regardless. We were also in a smaller than usual group (they usually do groups of 4 cars, there were 2 in mine). I suspect time of year matters for these things.

[drexplode]

Impressive tape job! Here is my M3 from 2 months ago haha:

[AlexCirci]

Originally Posted by PackPride85

Good to see another M2 in Raleigh. You'll actually be the rare one with MG here. I have LBB, a friend of mine is picking up his LBB Wednesday, and I've seen another LBB around as well.

Might have seen my LBB around Raleigh as I drive everywhere in this car. blackholescion eager to see MG in person. Us 3 need to set something up very soon

[blackholescion]

Originally Posted by drexplode

Impressive tape job! Here is my M3 from 2 months ago haha:

Thanks! Being my first BMW and car worth more than 30k, I wasn't taking any chances.

Originally Posted by AlexCirci

Might have seen my LBB around Raleigh as I drive everywhere in this car. blackholescion eager to see MG in person. Us 3 need to set something up very soon

MG in person is better than MG in pics, if that's even possible! I was sold on it from the moment I test drove an M235 in MG (to get a feel for size, if I could see out of it, etc.). I'm usually free on weekends so I'm available for any meets and whatever else. My friend John, who you met, is usually way more in the know for BMW or car related events so he's my go to.

[rosky1]

Took delivery today...amazing experience...my LBB M2 was in the entrance to PCD... very organized process. Here's a remarkable chance encounter...guy who sold me my 1M 4 years ago was here today to pickup his new M2 just back from euro delivery...also LBB...small world but a great one. Hot lap in the M3 with the racing instructor was spectacular

[kj_revan]

I'm in the Raleigh area too, and I'll be getting my MG m2 in a couple of months, so I'll join in on local m2 meet ups in the future