You may know Pennzoil as a fine purveyor of motor oil. You may not know that the legacy company has started a neat little side hustle crafting Hollywood-caliber car films that showcase all manner of awesome vehicles, all pushed to the limit and beyond by race driver and drift master Rhys Millen. And the latest installment, Escaping the Ring, picks one heck of set piece to cap things off: The famous Nurburgring, and a hardcore BMW M4 CS.
The 460-horsepower BMW M4 CS is one of the most track-capable cars the company sells, and also one of the more focused cars on the market today. Powered by a riotous, twin-turbocharged straight-six engine, it’s got a stripped-down interior with cloth pull loops on the inside of the doors and manually-adjusting seats. It also happens to be incredibly well-balanced, which is a good trait when you’re trying to drift down one of the most technical racetracks in the world.
Of course, with Rhys Millen behind the wheel, there is no try. Presented here a day ahead of its official premiere, Escaping the Ring follows Millen as he makes his way from one of the Nurburgring’s inner facilities to the Autobahn post haste in his incredibly yellow ride. What follows is over two straight minutes of the BMW M4 CS speeding, sliding, and yes, jumping through the Green Hell. Toss on some headphones and crank it up.
For the record, the official Nurburgring lap time for the M4 CS is 7:38, and while Millen’s might have been a hair slower thanks to the extravagant smoke show, we can all agree that it looked way more fun. Millen told The Drive that the crew burned through a few sets of tires every day of the weeklong shoot, and described the car as incredibly fun—and much easier to drift than the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon, for what it’s worth.
And though both Millen and Pennzoil executives referred to this as the “final” film in the series, the mysterious cliffhanger plus their all-too-visible winks make it likely we’ll be seeing more in the future.
If you’re wondering about any outtakes, Millen said he managed to mostly avoid any pucker-inducing moments—though he did confess that the jump ended up giving the front bumper a few battle scars that BMW wasn’t too thrilled about. If you’re looking for more on how it came together, check out this extra behind-the-scenes clip Pennzoil produced below, and don’t miss the crazy Porsche 968 camera cars used to film some of the high-speed scenes.
