25 years of the BMW Snow Experience in Sölden and an overview of the entire driver training portfolio. The BMW and MINI Driving Experience celebrates the anniversary of the classic winter programme, one of the highlights of the driver training portfolio.

Munich/Sölden. A handshake back in 1990 heralded the birth of winter driver training in Sölden. The first training event was hosted by the Austrian resort the following year, since when several thousand BMW Snow Experience courses have taken place there. It all started with six-day events, in which skiing was an equally important element as the driver training itself. Today, a wide selection of models from the current BMW line-up – from the BMW M4 to the BMW X5 – are put to work in a variety of different courses. The constructive partnership between the BMW Driving Experience and the Sölden region has become stronger and stronger over the years since it began.

The handshake, shared by Josef Bücherl – one of the development brains behind BMW driver training – and Hans Falkner, manager of the hotel Das Central in Sölden, represents the opening chapter in the successful history of the BMW Snow Experience. “A handshake was all we needed back then,” Bücherl recalls. “It wasn’t until some time later that we put all the key details of our agreement down in writing.”

The BMW Driving Experience winter training programme in Sölden takes place in a quite unique location. At 2,800 metres (over 9,000 ft) above sea level, it is the highest driver training centre in the world.

An exclusive one-off training event in Sölden will be held to celebrate the 25th anniversary.

The BMW and MINI Driving Experience.
In 1977, BMW became the first carmaker to offer drivers the chance to hone their skills at the wheel, and it has continued to do so ever since. In 2011, what began as a “driving school” was repackaged under the “BMW and MINI Driving Experience” banner to serve up driving experiences of a very special variety. From drifting on ice and snow and the pursuit of the ideal line on the race track all the way to tours through picturesque landscapes – the BMW and MINI Driving Experience offers a broad spread of training courses to suit novices and advanced drivers alike. The basic idea behind the courses has remained the same for the last 35-plus years: learning how to work effectively with the car in a wide range of – sometimes critical – driving situations will allow participants to go beyond their daily driving with well-trained skills and supervision. As the exercises in all BMW and MINI Driving Experience training courses are run in small groups, the BMW instructors can explore the particular strengths and weaknesses of each participant individually.