The 2012 One Lap of America starts on May 5 in South Bend, Indiana, and this year the BMW Performance Driving School Team will drive the new BMW M5 entered by BMW North America and will see the reunion of the team which competed in the 2010 event with a BMW X6M. The team comprises of Mike Renner, Steve Maguire and Tom Lappin. Mike has competed in six One Lap events driving a multitude of BMW’s including a variety of M3’s, an X6M, and a 335d. Steve has accompanied Mike on the last four events, and Tom once before when we entered the BMW X6M in 2010.
The Monte Carlo Blue BMW M5 will complete in a totally stock configuration, in other words exactly as you could walk into a BMW Dealership and purchase off the showroom floor. The only modifications we’ve made to the car is the installation of high performance brake pads and high temperature brake fluid. Powering the M5 is the new twin turbo V8 offering 560 horses and 500 lb. ft. of torque through a 7-speed M DCT transmission. And responsible for transferring all that power to the road is a set of Michelin Pilot Super Sports mounted on optional 20” wheels. Incidentally vehicles must be complete the entire event on ones set of tires.
This BMW M5 is no lightweight either with a full complement for options including: Heated Seats & Steering Wheel, Navigation, Night Vision, Soft Close Doors, Comfort Access, Side & Top Cameras, Heads-Up Display, Premium Hi-Fi System, Rear Seat Entertainment, Blind Spot Detection, Lane Departure, and Sunshades. Yes we certainly have a luxurious ride!
The focus for this year’s grueling One Lap of America is race tracks in the Mid-West states. Starting in South Bend, Indiana the 3200 mile route will take us through 11 states including Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Wisconsin over a period of 8 days.
Each day competitors will visit at least one race track and run multiple times trials, autocross, or drag strip. The complete schedule can be seen below, though it may change during the course of the event. As Brock Yates Jr often comments “The definitive route is determined after the last event”.
The event is open to any road legal vehicle, and crewed by two or three drivers. There are twelve classes split by capacity and vehicle cost, with specific classes for SUV’s, classics, and alternative fuel vehicles. New for this year is a class for stock vehicle which is open to automobiles that has not been modified with the exception of wheels, tires, and brake material.
Our BMW M5 will fight for honors in two classes; the over $50,000 luxury class where we’ll be up against the likes of BMW M3’s, Porsche Panamera’s, and Cadillac CTS-V’s, and the stock class which includes a Porsche GT3 RS, BMW X6M, Mini Cooper JCW, and Dodge Challenger.
You can follow our progress through the list of social media outlets below, or for up to the minute progress follow us on Twitter with the hashtag #onelapm5
