When I picked up the One at VIR James had warned me, several times, that the car drove nothing like my SpecE30 race car—“the gas could not be treated like an on/off switch.” In a low power momentum car there is little feathering of the gas. Ninety percent of the time you have either the middle or right peddle to the floor.

At BeaveRun, I headed James’ warning and decided to run the first few laps with the traction control on. The electronic nanny was fairly intrusive and kept me from doing anything injudicious. In that first session, I was most struck by the Performance Friction brakes. James had said that they were perfect for OLOA because with its three laps and done format, cold stopping is at a premium. So taking him at his word I tore down the front straight on my first lap and stomped on the brakes way later than was prudent. They hauled the car down without any drama or complaint and I easily made the turn.

My second time out, I went with the DTC function and my nanny now allowed all but the most hooligan of driving styles. Power could be applied, or over applied; until the car was just on the verge of swapping ends and the fun would come to an abrupt end as the car said ENOUGH. I next pulled out of the pits full of confidence and traction control disabled. Between turns 4 and 6 there is a 90 degree right immediately followed by a very steep uphill section. Coming out of the turn I mashed the gas and power poured to the rear wheels. I immediately noted that my rear bumper was trying to pass me. Many of the car magazines have complained about the One’s lack of a limited slip rear. Apparently BMW chose to protect the M3’s performance advantage by making it difficult for a One to put the power down coming out of corners. Diffsonline has solved that problem. At no point did I experience ANY inside rear wheel spin. They did a great job in a very tight window of time.

Overall, the car ran very well. The JRZ suspension is very neutral and extremely confidence inspiring. There is still some suspension sorting to do as the rear end is not as planted as we would like over broken and rolling pavement and the engine is going in to limp mode after it gets very hot. Issues we will (hopefully) address before May 2nd.

I would give a description of the power being made by the Active Autowerke software and Riss Racing down pipes but I think that Vic wetting himself said it all.