Charlotte & Spartanburg

The day after finding out our car was good to go we thought we would spend it in automotive spirit. This was more Billy's day but I surprisingly liked the testosterone adventures he had planned.

The morning started with a tour of Charlotte Motor Speedway, formerly the Lowe's Motor Speedway. For $10 we rode with two other couples in a 15 passenger van around the Speedway and finished with a loop around the 1.5 mile 24 degree course. The speedway includes a drag strip, kart course, reverse eight course, and dirt track. Having never been to a race before this was a quiet way of experiencing the excitement.

In the winner's circle!

After our morning touring the speedway we visited the local Nascar racing teams of Hendrick Racing, Roush, and Joe Gibbs. None of the teams give tours but they do have windows in the lobby where you can view the garages. We also met Kyle Petty at Hendrick Motor Sports. It was media day there.

The afternoon was topped off by a tour of the BMW plant in Spartanburg. This BMW plant produces the X models including the X5, X6, and soon to be X3. There were no photos allowed in the plant was the hour tour was better than I expected. The body assembly process is all automated using robots who move with the gracefulness of a ballerina. The paint process is largely done by associates, at least the sanding and final finishing. BMW said that the computers don't have the human touch to detect all small imperfections and surface impurities. The final assembly process is all completed by hand as the car moves through the plant on a track. This is the only factory in the world that produces all X5's and X6's so many coming off the line had the stearing wheel on the "wrong" side.