CLARK, THE PHILIPPINES -

When you buy a BMW, you don't just get a car. In Singapore at least, given the exorbitant prices we pay, brands such as BMW go all out to give customers an all-round ownership experience. In some cases, these may include a track day of sorts, to help customers discover the full potential of their rides, as well as educate them on how to bring the best out of their finely-tuned machines. It also helps customers understand the philosophy behind the brand, which can only serve to build up loyalty if the experience is positive.

CarBuyer were recently invited to one such event, when BMW organised its Dynamic Drive Experience in The Philippines. The primary objective for the event was to offer customers, specifically those who have purchased a high performance BMW M model, a chance to pick up a few driving tips and tricks, which can only be useful in helping them maximise the performance potential from their cars.

Participants were exposed to a number of driving challenges, including the art of smooth driving and high speed braking. And at the end of the day, an opportunity to take the new BMW M4 Coupe out for a quick lap around the Clark International Speedway awaited all participants. You couldn't offer a better carrot than that surely.

For the media group, i.e. us, the day began with a simple slalom challenge. Now, if you've undergone one of these before, you'll understand that the best way round is smoothness. Gentle steering input, constant throttle, and a smooth run will get you the best time. For the most part, most of us got the drift, but there were still occasional displays of exuberance from overly-enthusiastic journos. We just can't help it really...

Next, we were asked to do some high speed braking. Easy enough on its own, just stomp on the brakes right? But then we were asked to perform an emergency braking manoeuvre while taking a high speed corner at 90km/h. That required a slight change of mindset, because the proper procedure is to stomp on the brakes, then release to get the car back in line, and then brake again to get the car to a stop. Under ordinary circumstances most people would just keep their foot down on the middle pedal, and the result would see the car simply understeer and veer off the road, so this turned out to be an extremely useful tip indeed.

Training done, it was party time, and now we get to do some hard driving. Before we were unleashed in the M4 however, we had to familiarise ourselves with the circuit in its lesser brethren, which meant of course a standard 4 Series. After a few laps, we got our lines down pat, and now it was time to have some fun.

We won't spoil it for you, for that you will have to read the full story in our magazine, but let's just say that even though our time with the M4 was brief, it was no less exciting than we expected. Certainly, it was a well-deserved reward after a day of driver training, and made us glad we went through all that effort to learn how to handle the M4 properly.

To read more on our Ben's exploits with the M4 Coupe in The Philippines, pick up a copy of CarBuyer issue 227, out on newsstands in mid-October.