BMW Performance Center Revs Up for 2004

New Driving School Schedule Features More Class Offerings

SPARTANBURG, S.C., April 13 -- Driving enthusiasts now have more opportunities to tune up their skills behind the wheel with more class offerings added to the 2004 driving program at the BMW Performance Center. Located in Spartanburg, SC, the Performance Center offers driving experiences and schools for enthusiasts of all levels and abilities.

"We've expanded our classes to accommodate more participants for our one-day and two-day clinics and the extremely popular teen driving school," says Diane Nevelle, manager of driving programs and events. "With a maximum 6:1 student/instructor ratio, our customers receive individual attention from instructors as they pair up for advanced driving experiences. Participants will take on water walls, braking exercises and slippery skid pads in a safe, controlled atmosphere where they can improve their skills and learn how to handle real-life emergency situations on our professionally-built driving course."

The BMW driving school instructors, some of whom are former race car drivers, go through rigorous training and are all certified in Munich, Germany, before they teach at the South Carolina facility, according to Nevelle.

The BMW Performance Center Driving School road course can be configured 35 different ways and uses special features not found in most driver training programs. For example, students learn how to control a vehicle on an ultra- smooth concrete skid pad, which produces a slippery surface that simulates "black ice." Accident avoidance maneuvers are taught on a water wall corridor -- one of only a few in the world -- where drivers are "surprised" when obstacles suddenly "appear" in front of their moving vehicles.

An emergency braking zone gives students the opportunity to learn the relationship between speed and stopping distance and how to brake with an ABS- equipped vehicle on both wet and dry surfaces. The ABS can be turned off to teach control for those drivers that don't have ABS-equipped vehicles.

Gift certificates are also available for each driving program. For more information on the BMW Performance Center and its programs, call the Center's toll free number, 888-345-4BMW (4269).

  BMW Performance Center 2004 Driving Program
  (Note: schedule is subject to change)

   * Z4 Drive - June 2-4. Cost is $2,450 and includes accommodations at a
     local bed & breakfast, one day learning the handling characteristics of
     the Z4 at the BMW Performance Center and a second day on a twisty back-
     roads drive through the Carolinas.

   * M Experience - May 26-28; July 15-17; August 26-28. Cost is $3,650 and
     includes meals, hotel accommodations, a BMW racing helmet, jacket and
     M-School shirt.

   * Advanced M Experience  - August 30-Sept. 1; November 8-10. Located at
     Charlotte Motor Speedway.  Cost is $4,650 and includes track time,
     meals, hotel accommodations, and transportation from hotel to track,
     jacket and M school shirt.

   * X Driving School -April 21; June 28; September 9. Cost is $550;
     features off-roads course and driving exercise with BMW X5s and X3s.

   * X Driving Experience - August 25-26 Cost is $2,450 and includes meals,
     accommodations at a mountain bed & breakfast, one day at the BMW
     Performance Center learning about the X drive characteristics of the X3
     and X5 and a second day road trip in the famous Blue Ridge Mountains.

   * Teen Driving School - April 17; May 22; June 5, June 9; July 8, 27 and
     31. Cost is $400.

   * Two-Day Teen Driving School - June 21-22; July 1-2 and July 13-14. Cost
     is $700.

   * One Day Car Control Clinic - April 27; May 22; June 5, June 9 and June
     14; July 27 and July 31. Cost is $550.

   * Two-Day Advanced Clinic - April 14-15; May 17-18; June 21-22; July 1-2
     and July 13-14. Cost is $895.

   * Women-Only Clinic - April 17 and June 17. Cost is $550.

  BMW Group In America

BMW of North America, LLC has been present in the United States since 1975. ROLLS-ROYCE Motor Cars NA, LLC began distributing vehicles in 2003. The BMW Group in the United States has grown to include marketing, sales, and financial service organizations for the BMW brand, the MINI brand, and the ROLLS-ROYCE brand of Motor Cars; DesignworksUSA, an industrial design firm in California; a technology office in Silicon Valley and various other operations throughout the country. BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC in South Carolina is part of BMW Group's global manufacturing network and is the exclusive manufacturing plant for all Z4 roadster and X5 Sports Activity Vehicles. The BMW Group sales organization is represented in the U.S. through networks of 340 BMW passenger car centers, 327 BMW Sports Activity Vehicle centers, 148 BMW motorcycle retailers, 76 MINI passenger car dealers, and 25 ROLLS-ROYCE Motor Car dealers. BMW (US) Holding Corp., the BMW Group's sales headquarters for North, Central and South America, is located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.