Dhe tires are squeaking, the brakes are glowing, the gray Mini John Cooper Works is flying like a pinball through the Hütchengasse on the former military airport just outside of Munich, and at the latest when the other cars in the rear-view mirror are getting smaller and smaller, Tina Schmidt-Kiendl is grinning from ear to ear ears.
Until then, everything is as usual at BMW M GmbH driver training. But the 46-year-old, who leads the pack of Minis and M models, is no ordinary instructor. Because Tina Schmidt-Kiendl has been paralyzed from the waist down since an unsuccessful operation on an intervertebral disc, and when she is not sitting behind the wheel she is dependent on a wheelchair.
But she didn’t want to give up driving and her job either. That’s why she’s not only probably Germany’s only driving instructor in a wheelchair. Rather, she made a virtue out of necessity and immediately developed her own training course for the disabled, with which she wants to bring those who share her fate back onto the streets.
Technically almost everything can be compensated
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s paralysis, amputation or deformity: whatever limits the extremities, almost everything can be compensated for technically,” says the instructor and gets behind the wheel of her 230 hp driving school car, which at first glance looks like any other Mini. It is only when you try the seat that you notice the second ring, which is placed around the steering wheel and replaces the gas pedal, as well as the large lever next to it, which Schmidt-Kiendl uses to regulate the brakes by hand. The pedals, on the other hand, are locked with a solid rail so that their uncontrollable legs don’t interfere in the heat of the moment. Drivers have to adapt a bit if they want to drive the trainer’s Mini with their hands alone, and think they’re back in the driving school for the first few meters. “But many disabled people don’t know any different,” says the instructor.
She wants to teach the special driving skills to ten participants in more than a dozen courses per year at heavily subsidized prices of 150 euros. And in a similar program to the usual courses at M GmbH: “Of course, the focus is on mastering the vehicle, steering and braking correctly. But even with us, tires squeak from time to time, and the fun is guaranteed not to be neglected.” It is not for nothing that she only drives with John Cooper Works and also has M3 and M4 in her fleet.
security and self-confidence
Instructor Schmidt-Kiendl is primarily concerned with the safety of her protégés. Because disabled people are often unable to free themselves after a crash, accident avoidance is even more important than usual. But those who dare to get behind the wheel again also gain more self-confidence. “In the end, unlike in a wheelchair, he no longer needs help from others.”
On the contrary, she enjoys the tormented, smoking tires and the lateral forces perhaps even more than any other driver: “Because as long as I’m sitting behind the wheel of my Mini, my wheelchair no longer makes a difference. So for me, driving is freedom.”