I forgot to follow on that.
M School: What a blast! I had an amazing time. BMW makes you feel special from the pickup at the airport in an 5-Series Wagon, to the Marriott accommodation to the wonderful instructors at the Performance Driving facility.
Driving the M3, M5 & M6 around the track in various exercises was a lot of fun as well. The M3 was definitely the best of the bunch. I wished they had a few 6 speeds but all the cars were SMG/DCT. It was cool to drive the DCT though. I liked it quite a bit, although I could tell I would miss the 6 speed after a while.
A highlight was definitely the big track ride with the instructor at the end of the day. Full drift in an M5 at about 80 MPH!!! I had my little USB stick plugged in so I cannot wait to receive the DVD with the videos of my day!
We also lucked out with the rental car the next day and got a brand new 2010 Mustang. We got a bunch of comments about it. The Tail of the Dragon was a blast: 318 curves in 11 miles. Wow. The Mustang although underpowered and with an automatic transmission was pretty fun to drive and handled okay. Traffic was not too bad and we got some good stretch of motorcycle free roads.
Here are a couple of pics:
And some photos from one of the many photographers who snaps shots on the road:
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/orde...S000811&po=811