Hi guys, looking for recommendations on a proper track day where you get to properly drive other people's cars rather than my own! I have done one such day before with track club - but they seem to have gone bust......

It was £250 for the day and you got to drive a Clio 182, Caterham Roadsport and Lotus Elise around in 20 lap "sessions". They billed it as a "taster" day in the hope that you'd then sign up to become a fully paid up member.

Does anybody know of anything similar that's available now?

Track-Club haven't gone bust - but they have moved away from the membership-style business model and are concentrating on customer-owned cars for track+race now I think. That said, they still have a fleet of rental cars and we still work closely with them on our days and others.

As Tony mentioned, we have a fleet of 10 Caterham Superlights which we rent out for track days. These are race-spec cars, exactly as they sit on the grid for the R300 championship with no restrictions and not de-tuned in any way.

It's not a cheap day (you're looking at closer to £800 these days for a full day in one of our cars) but the car can be shared between 2 or 3 drivers and offers exceptional value for money compared with similar services available elsewhere. It can even work out cheaper than tracking your own car - especially if you've got something big/heavy/powerful that's going to chew through brakes and tyres like vanessa feltz through krispy kreme donuts.

Any specific queries please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Jonny
BaT

VXR Power Events track days.

I've done a few of them, you get to properly drive new VXRs (corsa, astra, insignia etc), with a (race driver) instructor who will push you to your limits(!)

You usually get 1.5hrs track time, there is a "bus stop" system in the pit. Take a car for 3 laps, come in then 5 mins at the bus stop gets you into the next car.

Theres other events through the day - karting / autocross etc all for around £100 squid.

By far the best value track day experience imho. The instructors really do push you and allow you to push the cars.

My friends did the VXR performance school in a roll cage, big braked and more powerful corsa, which was all afternoon and more intense and even better VFM - only £195!

You will have to be quick tho, I think they go on sale in February time and sell out fast http://buyvxrpowerevents.co.uk/

I've actually got a 'relatively' svelte coupé now - although it still eats rear tyres as quickly as the M5 did

Or get yourself to the Nurburgring and get something for the day from Rent4Ring.de

I did a supercar lifestyle experience at the weekend at MIRA.
For approx £135 incl insurance i got three three lap sessions with an instructor and a couple of hot laps in a GT3 Ascari with Mike Wilds.

Cars available on the day were a DB9, XKR, TVR Sagaris, BMW M3, Porsche GT3 by Oakley and if memory serves correct an F430 if you had paid extra. There was also an Atom which wasn't circulating when i was there.

The experience was sold as a "taster" day and there was a bit of a sit down where you were told all about the company to see if you were interested in joining as a member. There wasn't too much of a hard sell and I didn't really mind this part of the morning as i felt that i had got good value for money from the experience.

I did the DB9 once and the GT3 twice and the GT3 was a great experience, especially trying to learn to use the sequential box properly. The instructor was very good and he measured up my level of experience and really let me have a go, well to my limits at least.............

Ascari was a decent way to end the experience and it really gave me an appreciation of how much i would need to learn to get anywhere near driving the thing properly and also the kind of forces these cars generate.

Having done plenty of Trackdays, a couple of experience days where revs are regimented and a couple of palmer sport days i would say this was more of a middle ground between the two in that if they felt you were capable of having a go then have a go, if you werent then have a bit of a go and if you just wanted to say you had driven the car then i think they were probably quite happy to let you pootle round.

Again I would say best value ate the caterhams from book a track I have used them many times.

I recently also hired an atom from atomhire.com that was really good but does cost a bit more if your budget can stretch to it

It's still hiring a car at a track day, but Javelin track days hire out MX5s and E30 BMW for half days and whole days. Flinging a MX5 around for a morning ought to be pretty decent fun.

Hi,
I have done both the Palmersport and used Johnny several times for Caterham hire. I must say I was pleasantly surprised by both. Palmersport are brilliant and you can see why its the best of its kind. There is a range of cars and you tend to get about 6 laps in each. Its brilliantly organised and the day flies by. Johnnys Caterhams are in a different market and in my opinion in a different league. You arrive and at 9.30 & he hands you the keys and basically says bring it back at 5pm (except for refueling) You really can drive the car however you want as you are on your own with no instructor sat next to you. As the car seats 2 you basically 1/2 the advertised cost which is not bad value. Obviously you get far more driving time with the Caterhams than at Palmersport but both are excellent.

Another vote for BookaTrack's Caterham's, by far the best value track day. Better value for me than owning a track orientated car by a long way.

D