Palmersport, how good?

Palmersport, how good?

Author
Discussion

whiteonyx

Original Poster:

368 posts

214 months

Monday 5th January 2015
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i have significate birthday looming and want to drive an F1 car but not at 3 sisters, the next option is a palmersport day, any good?
does anyone know if the F1 experience coming back to Mallory of anywhere else in the UK?

rsv gone!

11,288 posts

240 months

Monday 5th January 2015
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On an awesomeness scale of one to ten, it is eleven.

Mound Dawg

1,915 posts

173 months

Monday 5th January 2015
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Very good, well organised and the instructors like to egg you on a bit...

djmotorsport

479 posts

242 months

Monday 5th January 2015
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I've been going every year since 1999 (at least once a year) - It's awesome!

upsidedownmark

2,120 posts

134 months

Tuesday 6th January 2015
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Awesome, but they don't have F1 cars..

nitrodave

1,262 posts

137 months

Tuesday 6th January 2015
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it's immense! i was taken on a full day palmersport day in november and loved it. It was so good we are going back again in april.

8 cars over the day and all are fantastic. the karting and off roading are pretty tame, but the rest are full on race cars. The instructors push you to your limit and let you go for it. I thought they would want us to poodle around, but they really push you hard, to the point it was scary.

I enjoyed the atoms, le mans and single seaters the best. The also have cameras on the single seaters and the atoms and give you a dvd of you driving them.

the lunch and afternoon tea was pretty good too smile

mgv8dave

826 posts

212 months

Tuesday 6th January 2015
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Palmer Sport are the best at what they do. IMHO
Lots of cars
Great location
If it's fun in lots of cars / type it's the place to go.

whiteonyx

Original Poster:

368 posts

214 months

Wednesday 7th January 2015
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looks like Palmersport it is, pitty that there is no Fi drives in the UK other than 3 sisters.

McSam

6,753 posts

174 months

Thursday 8th January 2015
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Absolutely superb. Everything from the instructors to the catering is top notch, it's hard to fault them and I have never seen anything else that comes close, no matter what the price.

There's a large group of PHers who go in the first week of August each year, if you'd be interested.

Pdelamare

659 posts

127 months

Thursday 8th January 2015
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Pretty awesome in 2012.

I that for this year they've swapped the M3s for M4s. Even more reason to go.

jayemm89

4,001 posts

129 months

Saturday 10th January 2015
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I did the full palmersport day with the Caterhams/M3/Formula Jag etc....

Not cheap but TBH it would be the only "drive a car" type thing I would recommend to anyone. Every car was full-on, even though I was only about 21 at the time. had some awesome fun.

djmotorsport

479 posts

242 months

Monday 12th January 2015
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McSam said:
Absolutely superb. Everything from the instructors to the catering is top notch, it's hard to fault them and I have never seen anything else that comes close, no matter what the price.

There's a large group of PHers who go in the first week of August each year, if you'd be interested.
Hi Sam, how you doing? I've been in touch - looks like we have another PHer joining us this year :-)

Kawasicki

13,041 posts

234 months

Monday 12th January 2015
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Excellent

P1ato

339 posts

127 months

Monday 12th January 2015
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Yup - excellent...Going again in the Spring. I was pretty pants the first time I did it.

nickfrog

20,870 posts

216 months

Friday 16th January 2015
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whiteonyx said:
looks like Palmersport it is, pitty that there is no Fi drives in the UK other than 3 sisters.
Not sure how much single-seater racing you have behind you but you would have far more fun in a one of their Van Diemen ex-FPA cars than in a F1. A F1 will be much harder to drive and would take you a good hour to master moving off the line, so not operationally viable.

I am confident that in humble hands, the F1 will be slower than the much user friendly car Formula 3000 that they let the billys drive.


Backtobasics

1,182 posts

182 months

Monday 19th January 2015
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Is there a pistonheads day? I remember contributing to a thread that mentioned its a regular thing each August, sadly I heard no more.

poppopbangbang

1,785 posts

140 months

Monday 19th January 2015
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nickfrog said:
Not sure how much single-seater racing you have behind you but you would have far more fun in a one of their Van Diemen ex-FPA cars than in a F1. A F1 will be much harder to drive and would take you a good hour to master moving off the line,
While your point is somewhat valid, experience of a milder single seater first will allow you to have more "fun" the last bit is bks I'm afraid. We regularily stick people into proper, actual, real, modern grand prix spec F1 cars having never driven one before after no more than a briefing and 75% of them get them off the line first time. Modern stuff with proper anti stall is easy to get moving. Ignore the stuff that gets shown on TV of various celebs clipping the AS time and time again, they're either stupid or putting a show on. Bury the throttle, get it on the static rev limit and release the clutch paddle over the course of a second, it will pull away just fine with a little bit of wheel spin if your engineers have put the time into setting up the clutch pack and control electronics. The really late stuff just release the clutch button and it will pull away for you at whatever launch rate we have configured.

To get the best from it you need some experience of proper racing cars or karts. If you have a reasonable basic skill level then a day in an FF, FR or in a gearbox kart will give you enough basics to be able to drive an F1 in a manner sufficent to understand what it is capable of. To move from that point to fast laps is a lot of time, study and work but most people in decent health with a good level of fitness can be taught to be quick if they spend time working at it and have a bit of natural talent.

A good F1 to a decent level ran by a proper set of people will be around £40K for a day with tyres, fuel, brakes, team, consumables and track hire. At this level it will be prepared well and you will be able to run it at speed with all the revs, you will have an engineer dedicated to you and there will be a DAG to work with you plus a team of eight guys + admin working on the car. That would get you around 1.5hr total running split across four to six sessions. A crippled car with a low rev limit and cheap bits transplanted onto it will be around £10K for a day with a similar lay out to the above but without the level of team available to you. A ste old well used thing with eight people a day having a go on it around £1.5K but to be honest they're best avoided. The other option is if you're handy and have experience of a similar thing chat to some owners about having the last few KMs of the day in something decent in return for paying the tyres and fuel for the day.

Oh and insure it or ask the team to sort it with a sensible excess. A floor is 20K and a corner 40K. Also don't listen to anyone who doesn't give you a KM target for the day. If the team is good and the car well prepped they will know exactly how many KMs they can run in a day for you and have the spares and people to ensure you get that many. If you wimp out before that target that's your issue though wink

For a good day with some single seater stuff ran professionaly with decent tutors Palmersport is excellent. You could also speak to them regarding just doing a single seater day if that is what you really want. They are very accomodating and could likely sort you something out. We work with them regularily and they are really an example of how this stuff should be done!

Kawasicki

13,041 posts

234 months

Monday 19th January 2015
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nickfrog said:
Not sure how much single-seater racing you have behind you but you would have far more fun in a one of their Van Diemen ex-FPA cars than in a F1. A F1 will be much harder to drive and would take you a good hour to master moving off the line, so not operationally viable.

I am confident that in humble hands, the F1 will be slower than the much user friendly car Formula 3000 that they let the billys drive.
A friend of mine drove an old F1 car and said it was pretty easy.

nickfrog

20,870 posts

216 months

Wednesday 21st January 2015
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poppopbangbang said:
While your point is somewhat valid, experience of a milder single seater first will allow you to have more "fun" the last bit is bks I'm afraid. We regularily stick people into proper, actual, real, modern grand prix spec F1 cars having never driven one before after no more than a briefing and 75% of them get them off the line first time.
Well, it looks like my opinion based on having spent a few years in that industry up to 2005 is pretty obsolete !

I remember then when the only decent F1 experience was with AGS and by all accounts it was pretty poor at the time, and that's feedback from Corporate clients and guests.

Happy to have been corrected. Not sure the bks bit was strictly necessary, but this is PH after all !

Itsallicanafford

2,759 posts

158 months

Saturday 24th January 2015
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Don't brake.....don't brake....BRAKE...now power, power POWER..COME ON FASTER