The Dynamic Treads, the winning team of the second assignment in the third-year Marketing Management Practical Project module, were treated by Bridgestone South Africa (BSAF) to a BMW Advanced High Performance Driving experience (worth R2 500 per person) on Wednesday, 28 September 2016. The winning team consisted of Geena van der Vyver (team leader), Jennifer Came, Robyn de Wet, Georgia-Anne Essey, Andrea Ingle and Samantha Tutton.

 

The purpose of the second assignment was to develop a digital marketing campaign concept which could be used to emphasise the brand synergy between Bridgestone and Supa Quick, as well as to create awareness and knowledge of Bridgestone products available at Supa Quick.

 

Read more about the winning team’s experience below – written by Geena van der Vyver, team leader of the Dynamic Treads:

 

Speeding around corners on the Zwartkops racetrack in a BMW M3 DCT, being a passenger in a vehicle that is moving at over 160km/h and skidding a BMW 3-series vehicle around hazards on the skid pan were some of the amazing activities we, the Dynamic Treads team, experienced during the BMW Advanced High Performance Driving experience.

 

Waking up at 05:00 on the morning of 28 September was no small feat, but the excitement of what the day would bring motivated us to meet our lecturer, Dr Michelle van der Merwe, and two Bridgestone representatives, Charl Kruger (BSAF Sales Specialist) and Guthrie Blain (BSAF Brand Specialist) at 06:30 to head for the Zwartkops Raceway in Pretoria West. On the way there some of the team members started feeling nervous, while others could not contain their excitement!

 

Upon arriving at the BMW Driving Experience Academy, we were greeted by friendly BMW staff before attending a briefing session. BMW driving instructor Dion Ruppert briefed us on vehicle safety, the centre of gravity in a vehicle and the reasons why people lose control of a moving vehicle.

 

After the briefing, we were assigned to our respective BMW driving instructors and BMW M3 vehicles. The session began with our instructors driving us around the racetrack to familiarise us with the track’s eight bends and understand the dynamics of each bend. Then each team member was given the opportunity to experience the racetrack and learn how to control a speeding vehicle around sharp bends. After practicing some techniques, we were allowed to race around the racetrack as fast and accurately as possible to show our instructors what we had learnt.

 

The next activity was a demonstration by our instructors to show how quickly (or in fact, slowly) a speeding vehicle with ABS brakes can stop after traveling at various speeds. The results were astonishing. We learnt that a vehicle traveling at 30km/h takes 10m (approximately three vehicle lengths) to stop, while a vehicle travelling at 60km/h takes approximately 30m to stop. Vehicles travelling at 160km/h take over 150m to stop! We were taught that, when doubling your speed, you must multiply your stopping distance by four car lengths to allow enough space to come to a dead stop. This information really opened our eyes as to why short following distances are actually extremely dangerous.

 

Next we were treated to two laps around the racetrack, with our instructors driving as fast and accurately as they could. On a very short straight my instructor reached 190km/h! The advanced skills required to drive at such high speeds were evident, reiterating that high speeds are best left to the professionals.

 

Finally, lunch was served! Everyone on the course enjoyed a lovely meal and a chat about the events of the day so far. Once our lunch had settled, we drove in BMW
3-series sedans to meet our next instructor, Lucas Monyanyedi, at the skid pad.

 

While Lucas demonstrated the first activity – how to dodge hazards at 80km/h in wet weather – we wondered how well we would fair and whether we should send our parents a quick “I love you” message, in case we did not succeed with the exercise. To our relief, once we were in the vehicles, we experienced how easy it was to maintain control of such dependable vehicles, especially since they were fitted with reliable Bridgestone tyres. We all enjoyed the activity and had so much fun racing up and down the skid pan.

Our last activity taught us how to correct an oversteer in wet weather. This exercise was the most difficult one, as most members ended up spinning ‘doughnuts’ instead, but we absolutely loved the exercise!

 

Although nervous at the beginning of the day, all six Dynamic Tread team members left this experience having learnt useful vehicle control and safety techniques. This experience is something that we will remember for the rest of our lives and will be able to implement every day on the roads. We had so much fun that, if given the opportunity, we would most certainly do it again!

 

We would like to thank Bridgestone South Africa for this wonderful prize, and Guthrie, Charl and Dr Van der Merwe for joining us for the day and putting up with all the girly giggles and screams.

 

The Dynamic Treads
Left: The team standing beside the race track.
From left to right (top): Group photo on the skid pan: Dr Michelle van der Merwe, Robyn de Wet, Andrea Ingle, Jennifer Came, Guthrie Blaine, Charl Kruger, Geena van der Vyver, Samantha Tutton and Georgia-Anne Essey; the skid pan.
From left to right (bottom): Georgia-Anne Essey, Jennifer Came and Andrea Ingle; Group photo with the instructor: Robyn de Wet, Andrea Ingle, Lukas Monyanyedi (Instructor), Jennifer Came, Samantha Tutton, Geena van der Vyver and Georgia-Anne Essey.