BMWNA and the BMWCCA have officially responded to our recent story on one chapter banning certain new BMWs. Both have now distanced themselves from any individual chapters who have banned any cars with colesion avoidance systems from track days. Now in a complete 180 the BMWCCA chapter that started the debate is officiallly reversing its decision on the ban.

Uh oh.

Uh oh.
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Earlier this week, we inadvertently distributed a statement to participants of our HPDE events regarding the acceptance of BMW’s and vehicles of other manufacturers equipped with certain safety features. Unfortunately, this premature statement was made public before our discussions and research had been concluded.

While advancements in safety features are certainly issues to consider as HPDE schools continue to evolve with technological advancements, we’d like to emphasize that our post was in no way meant to reflect BMW CCA’s position or policy at a national or chapter level.

The BMW Car Club of America and the Genesee Valley Chapter have no HPDE event vehicle ban for BMW’s equipped with the drivers aids in question. BMW CCA continues to work with BMW NA to educate and develop a nationwide procedure for including BMWs with drivers aids in HPDE schools.

We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

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Excellent news and exactly what we had hoped would come from us publishing this story. BMW of North America and the BMW CCA went event further and provided an update to BimmerFile that should help to both clarify these rules and provide a sigh of relief for some BMW owners in the future.

The Genesee Valley BMW Car Club of America (BMW CCA) Chapter created and published an unauthorized policy banning BMW’s with Driver Aids from participating in their High Performance Driving Education (HPDE) schools. The national BMW CCA office does not share their opinion and is discussing the issue with the chapter.

BMW of North America LLC. is working closely with the national BMW CCA office to educate and develop a nationwide procedure for including BMWs with driver aids in HPDE schools. Advanced driver aids like Lane Departure Warning and Blind Spot Detection and Lane Keep do not affect the ability of the driver to control the car on-track at high speed. In addition, the systems can be shut off so that they are also not a distraction to a novice student.

Some drivers may find Frontal Collision Warning w/City Collision Mitigation to be intrusive on-track but this system can be adjusted in the iDrive menus to warn the driver later or completely shut off by pressing and holding the Driver Aids button on the dash until the green light goes out. The system defaults to ON upon re-start so this switch would need to be pressed at the beginning of each on-track run. It should be noted that Driver Aids Button in the OFF mode also indicates that all other Driver Aids installed on the car are also shut off.

This is a fantastic update to a story that none of us wanted to read. track days are a right of passage for BMW enthusiasts and provide one of the best and safest ways to full understand what a car is capable of. Kudos to both BMWNA and BMWCCA for stepping in and giving us some clarity on the matter.