We’d have to guess that race car drivers kind of love giving ride along experiences to people. The ability to run your car at 75% and not wear out the machine or your skills while basically giving the person in the passenger seat a set of sensations that they’ve never experienced before has to have some entertainment value. When SEMA was called off for 2020, the fine folks at Optima stepped way up and created the Hi-Performance Expo which was held at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas. As part of the immersive motorsports experience, there were ride alongs with various Optima ambassadors. One of those was James Clay who has a 1,100hp BMW that was built to tackle Pikes Peak. Now, with all that power and ability on relatively flat ground at COTA, you know the fun level is going to be high.

Watch all the passengers in the car and how they react to the various forces working upon their bodies. We see fun, we see fear, we see terror, we see astonishment, and most of all we see the kind of visceral experience that only a truly high performance car can deliver for driver and passenger.

This is not a video designed to mock those in the passenger seat, this is a video designed to have us smile along and want to be in their spot. Boy do we! Yes, this BMW is a beast and it’s a beast that starts with the juice from an Optima Yellow top battery every time Clay hits the starter button.

The speed, the fury, and the fun. This is great.