Ginny Denton
On Saturday March 8, 2025 – International Women’s Day – nine enthusiasts gathered together for the inaugural Motorsports & Mascara event, a full day of driving excitement at the BMW Performance Driving Center in Greer, South Carolina. We were a mixed lot, representing a range of skill levels from experienced track drivers to complete newbies like me. I confess, I had been SO intimidated by the idea of high-performance driving education, as my track experience was almost nonexistent. The opportunity to join a women-only driving event was ideal and I booked my spot immediately. I also planned to include a tour of BMW’s Spartanburg manufacturing plant while I was in town, along with a stop at the attached Zentrum museum. My free day would be spent outdoors on one of the many regional hiking trails. Rounding out my weekend of things I’ve wanted to do for years but never thought I would? Four days in my fabulous rental supercar, a 2016 BMW i8 in Protonic Blue. The BMW Performance Driving School, a plant tour, hiking, and an i8? No question, it would be an unforgettable weekend.
I arrived in Charlotte, North Carolina around noon on Friday and caught the bus downtown to pick up the i8 in its home garage. I spotted it immediately, shining blue in the dim lights and looking like something out of a dream. After a few challenges deciphering drive modes and navigating the parking structure (gated lots are not built with butterfly doors in mind), the i8 and I were off to South Carolina. Most of the Motorsports & Mascara attendees had booked hotel rooms in downtown Greenville, but I took a different path. When I’m traveling solo, I typically prefer the homey experience of a quality bed and breakfast, and I lucked out that there was a great one not far from the BMW complex. The Whole Hearts Bed and Breakfast is on the outskirts of Wellford, a small town near Spartanburg. Fifteen minutes or less from the Performance Center, the welcoming Victorian style home is surrounded by tall trees and flowering plants. (Ask host Sheila to introduce you to the venerable magnolia at the front of the house, it’s truly something to see!) After checking in with my delightful hosts, I took the i8 to Greenville to meet my fellow drivers for an introductory dinner and drinks. Event organizers Mandi and Valerie answered all our questions, giving a rundown of what to expect from our Performance Center day. Learning some of the details helped settle my pre-event nerves. New friends made and information gathered, I skipped out to the i8 and headed back to the B&B to rest up for the next day. We had an early morning start time and I am definitely not a morning person.
BMW Performance Center
A restorative sleep and a delicious homemade breakfast of fresh eggs, bacon, toast, and fruit gave me the energy I knew I’d need for the thrilling day ahead. Arriving at the Performance Center armed with a flask of hot coffee, I found a seat and chatted with the other gals. As we settled down in the classroom, instructors Mike Renner and Bill Snyder introduced themselves and gave us an overview of safety, what we could expect on the track, and what we would be learning that day. We paired up and headed outside to the best part – the cars! There was just enough time to grab bottles of water and exchange a few words with my co-driver Melissa before adjusting our seats, stowing our gear, and setting off. We led the way in car #1, a snappy and quick M240i in striking Zandvoort Blue.
Each exercise began with a slow drive-through and an explanation of our objectives. The morning session included four challenges, starting with High-Speed Braking and Emergency Lane Change exercises, and a fast and fun slalom. Melissa and I took turns driving, listening to directions and feedback from our instructors over walkie-talkies clipped securely in a pocket of the driver’s door. Instructors Mike and Bill walked us through every part of the day with humor and encouragement. Their directions were clear and easy to follow, and it was a nice bonus to hear everyone else’s coaching and feedback via the walkie-talkie setup. After our morning adventures in our beautiful blue M240i, a quick break and car change to a sharp Dravit Gray M340i led us to the skid pad to learn and practice Correct, Pause, Recovery (CPR) techniques for oversteer and understeer recovery. This was the part of the day I had been anticipating with an interesting combination of excitement and dread. For this exercise, an instructor joined us in the passenger seat to provide immediate feedback and course correction if needed. Melissa drove first with Mike in the passenger seat and me riding along in the back. It was a bit like an amusement park ride initially and I was surprised to feel perfectly safe, even as the car spun around a time or two. As she practiced, I was impressed by how quickly Melissa progressed in her ability to respond to the loss of traction and regain control of the car. We headed back to the line and I got in the driver’s seat to take my turn. Melissa had the presence of mind to shoot video from the back seat, so there is a record of several of my more exciting turns around the skid pad. My favorite clip ends with instructor Mike Renner telling me to “brake, brake, brake,” and as the car comes to a stop just barely into the grassy center of the skid pad you can hear me cheekily say “ta-daaa,” like I’d just executed an impressive and perfectly planned maneuver. While I can’t say I ever stopped being intimidated by practicing this kind of CPR, my outlook completely changed once instructor Mike mentioned that losing grip on the skid pad was not unlike driving in snow. A Michigan winter – now that’s something I understand! I can’t begin to count how many times I’ve gone out on a winter day, looking for the snowiest places to “test” my snow tires and slide around for fun. Reframing the skid pad exercise in that way helped me to overcome my hesitancy and re-focus on what I was learning.
At midday we stopped for a much-needed break. Over a delicious lunch, we chatted about the day and what we’d learned. From our most experienced driver to our least, each of us had learned some new skills and we already felt more confident in handling our cars. Refueled in both body and mind, Melissa and I headed back out to our M240i for the first of our afternoon sessions on the small but technically challenging autocross track. Roughly 0.3 miles long, kidney-shaped, and a whole lot of fun, this track included a variety of corners to navigate, a 4-cone slalom section, and a simple chicane. For many of us this was our first exposure to track driving, and the basics like how and when to brake and accelerate, cornering techniques, and optimal driving lines were new concepts. Mike Renner first led us on a slow drive-through, all five student cars in a row, talking us through the best ways to approach each section of the track. Once we had a clue, he let us loose to try the course for ourselves. Each set of drivers ran a handful of warmup laps – all five cars flying around the track at once – before heading back to the pit lane to set up for our timed runs. This was by far my favorite part of the day. I was having so much fun zooming through the track sections and improving my technical and time performances that the last lap was finished before I knew it.
The final exercise of the day was a competitive one – the Rat Race. We took the M340i out an oval-shaped, watered skid pad, where two drivers at a time raced against each other in 3-lap heats for the coveted title of Rat Queen. The day was capped by hot laps in an M3 Competition driven by instructors Mike and Bill. Now THAT was a thrill ride!
Exhilarated and exhausted after a full day of Freude am Fahren with The Ultimate Driving Machine, we stopped into the gift shop for some new gear and then headed back to our own cars for an informal photo shoot at the BMW Zentrum Museum down the road. The i8 was a hit! Our small group reconvened for food and drinks in Greenville that evening and spent a delightful few hours reliving the day, getting to know each other, discussing our past, present and future cars, and planning our next steps to help bring more women into the motorsports community. Heading back to the B&B afterwards, I thought about how energizing it is to be among a group of supportive, friendly, and encouraging women.
Hiking Day with the i8
On Sunday I spent a cozy morning in the historic home’s comfortable parlor, sipping coffee and chatting with my host Sheila. After days of driving, flying, and sitting, I was eager to explore the local scenery and greenery. Sheila suggested a handful of local outdoorsy options for the afternoon, and the i8 and I headed to nearby Paris Mountain State Park to explore a trail or two. I put the i8 through its paces, winding up curvy roads and hairpin turns to the hiking trails at the top of the mountain. It was a beautiful day, partly sunny and warm with a bit of a breeze. Perfect hiking weather! My chosen route took me down portions of the Brissy Ridge, Kanuga, and Sulphur Springs trails, an easy-to-moderate ramble that took me a little under two hours to complete. Portions of this park suffered considerable tree damage from Hurricane Helene six months before, and much of the destruction was still visible along the sides of the trail. Surrounded by beautiful pine trees, giant rhododendrons, spiky holly shrubs, and other staples of the bioregion, my flora-loving heart was happy. Back at the parking lot, the i8 and I headed down the twisty road to the main highway. The drive back from Paris Mountain was the most fun I had all weekend – on a public road, that is! Plenty of curves and few other drivers on the road made for a joyous time that had me smiling all the way back to the B&B.
BMW Spartanburg Tour
I awoke bright and early on Monday morning, excited for breakfast (let’s be honest) and my highly anticipated tour of BMW Plant Spartanburg, home of the X. I packed up the i8, had a final photo shoot with Sheila as my trusty photographer, and headed out through town.
Arriving at the BMW Zentrum Museum, I parked the i8 at the far edge of the lot and headed inside to check in. I had a look around the small collection of classic and new BMW cars, SAVs, and motorcycles while waiting for the tour to start, hoping I would see some of my favorite models. I was absolutely thrilled to discover that their tiny collection includes a beautiful E36 in Montreal Blue, a gorgeous shiny E30 M3 in Alpine White, and a Topaz Blue Z8. Once I’d snapped pictures from every conceivable angle, I walked down the glass-fronted hall past the gift shop where I could see a small café, a butter-yellow Isetta on a pedestal, and a collection of newer X vehicles. A few minutes later the guides arrived, divided the milling horde into two groups, and issued the headphones and safety glasses we would need for the tour. The guided Discovery tour is one hour long and walks you through a body shop, assembly hall, and paint shop. BMW’s Plant Spartanburg opened in 1994, and has built 3-series, Z-series, and X-series models. The first car produced here was an E36 – a shiny white 318i sedan that drove off the line on September 8, 1994. Production of the X models began in 1999 with the iconic E53 X5, and today the X3, X4, X5, X6, X7, and XM models are born here.
Extremely clean, shiny, and new looking, this manufacturing site is something to see. As we stood listening to our guide explain what was happening at each stop, vehicle bodies in various stages of assembly trundled along around us, moving by a complicated and impressive skid conveyor system of individual load-carrying platforms. The level of care and precision at work was impressive, to say the least. My favorite fact: all vehicles produced by BMW Spartanburg are pre-ordered and made to spec. Every single vehicle we saw belonged to someone, either a dealer or an individual buyer. Left-hand drive, right-hand drive, color, interior and exterior options, each car on the line was special.
The mere hour allotted for the Discovery tour went by in a flash and we trooped back to the Zentrum, thus ending my fabulous Spartanburg BMW experience. After a quick stop in the gift shop and to the café for some hot coffee, I ran out to the i8 under a light rain and we headed back to the Charlotte airport. Saying goodbye to the i8 was tough. We had become friends over our days together, and I knew I would miss it. The i8 had been more than up to the challenges of the weekend, from winding mountain roads and small-town driving to flying down freeways and navigating construction like a pro. Each day of the trip had been so full, and the time had flown by. As I flew back to Detroit and reunited with my X for the drive home, I thought back on the weekend. I’m grateful to have been a part of every bit of it, both for the performance driving and for the connections I’ve made with my fellow female BMW enthusiasts. I know I’ll be spending the next months with visions of race cars dancing in my head.
For a more on the Motorsports & Mascara event, see our collaborative article in BimmerLife: https://bimmerlife.com/2025/03/20/bmw-cca-motorsports-mascara-2025-celebrates-international-womens-day/
About the Author:
I’m a lifelong car enthusiast, with a particular love of German cars. I bought my first BMW in 2008, fulfilling one of my wildest childhood dreams. My E36 dream car was a beautiful 1995 325is 5-speed manual in Boston Green with dove gray interior and I adored it. These days I am the delighted owner of a black-on-black 6-speed manual E91 (2006 325xiT) that has been my beloved daily driver and pretend racecar since 2012, and a silver-on-gray E53 (2006 X5) that came to live with us in August 2024.
