Pictures are at
http://photos.yahoo.com/glenlalonde then driver training.
(photopoint seems to be dead today)

20 students, 2 instructors.

I was a little concerned about the weather before I left since they were calling for rain and heavy rain for the day, but this did not end up being a problem. The course started at 8:00 with a light breakfast, followed at 8:30 by a one hour classroom session which covered things like:
Seating,
Mirror position(no blind spot)
Steering(hands at 9 and 3)
Abs/dec,

It was raining rather heavy at this point which made it a bit noisy in that tent but the speaker had a mike. They did a little demo of the seating settings in the car which was inside the main area of the tent. Then it was off to our cars. They had pre-arranged the car assignment, which was ok with me but I guess you would need to tell them if you and a friend were taking it the same day and wanted to be in the same car. It was 2 students per car and they communicated with all the students via a radio in the car. The radio system worked well almost all the time, it was not the kind you wear but was just placed in the driver side door pocket. Each instructor took half the students and worked with them on the items, switching back and forth as they went trough the day.

Driving item covered.

Under light rain, First off was the salum, which was designed to get you accustom to the car and they handling. They also watched you to insure you did the proper 9/3 hand position on the steering wheel, and hand over hand movements.

Rain and stopped by now, but it was wet. Next up was the under(over?) steer. They had cones set up in a circle, about 50 feet across. Two cars at a time you went around at about 40km/h, holding the steering angle constant you increased speed. Notice car starts to slide outward. Slow, it starts to come back. This was a tight circle, much tighter and faster then I have ever gone in 15 years of driving.

After this we went to the skid area. Turn off all systems(abs, dsc etc). Go 50 hit the breaks HARD. Try this at 60km/h, hit breaks, try to turn wheel after you lock up the wheels. Notice it did not change the movement of the car. Turn on systems(abs), hit breaks again going 50/60 and notice you still have control now. This is nice in that it gets you accustom to the feedback of ABS, which is not trivial.

I think we had lunch at this point. Which was ok, not great. Then again you did not want to over eat given what you were in for. They had 3 salads, steak, pasta, buns. Pop, water.

Luch as 45 minutes.

Next up was the over steering. Turn off ABS/DSC, get it up to 40km/h on the circle of cones, then off the gas for 2 seconds and back on the gas HARD. Rear of car starts to slide out, try to recover. 25% of the time you loose it and spin the car. I did twice I think. Then try it with abs/dsc, almost impossible to loose it. I do not think anyone did with dsc on.

Next up was collision avoidance. Cones setup to make a lane, then just after the stop a cone in the middle of the lane. The cone in the middle of the lane is not VERY far from the end of the lane. Come down at 50?(60?) and WITHOUT hitting the breaks go between the end of lane cones and the one in the middle. Do on left, then right.
Then they have the instructor/helper stand on the sides. Come down and wait until you see the instructor/helper raise a flag, then go in the opposite direction.

We had a break, then they combined the circle of cones and salum, plus skid stuff into a course. Drive it as fast as possible, switch drivers and drive it again. Elapse and individual time was recorded.

General comments.
It was VERY cold out that day, possible 8 Celsius, or so with the heavy wind. I had dressed warm but they had called for much better weather so I was somewhat cold at times. Also, the heat was off in the bmw building at night, so it was VERY cold in the AM. I think they made an error in turning it off the night before they said. Rain did not cause a real problem since it stopped not long after we were in the cars. They had a water truck standing by if they needed the course to be wet(not needed that day). I don't think if it continued to rain it would have been a problem as along as it did not get very heavy.
I also managed to finally find a Canadian 330I brochure, the dealers did not ever have these yet as of two weeks ago in Canada! They had about 6 under a glass display, but I managed to get one. 5/7 serial stuff was just out for you to pickup. I have a 330I but wanted the brochure anyway.

Main instructor was VERY VERY good(he did the classroom part), his helper instructor was very good.

Location:
Fancy tented building, see pictures. Two rooms, classroom and main area. The main area had a few displays(tires from michelin, which was a sponsor) Very nice color/interior char board.

Cars:
330ci with SP, PP, DSC(which is not a standard item in Canada). They seemed to have about 1000KM on them. They had one special switch, a "all driving safety system off switch" I think this was needed since the DSC button does not turn off ABS. This button did turn off DSC, ABS etc. ALL with Pilot Sport tires, which is obvious given Michelin was one of the official sponsors.
5 with step, 5 cars with manual.