£200 to spend on a single seat experience?

[paolow]

I was so fired up by the recent (horribly resurrected) thread on single seaters I have decided now is the time to explore racing. Best way I thought I could work on this is with a single seat experience day and as brands is local I thought the single seat experience for 185 quid was the way to go? has anyone been? I would love to hear from anyone that has......
The other option is to do my ARDS which although slightly more expensive does at least remove this hurdle and guarantee a good fair run in a car as opposed to the single seat experience which I am worried might be watered down with rev limits/close gearing/horrible understeer....
Thoughts?

[EDLT]

They are usually rev limited, but if you've never driven one it will still feel quick. It will go round corners just as fast too.

You could find two other drivers and get an hour long test session in a Club 100 kart for £140:
http://www.club100.co.uk/testdays.htm

[blumoontets]

I bought the single seater experience for my sons 21st, went to silverstone last saturday and he thouroghly enjoyed it. They are limited to 5500 revs and top speed of 140. Even though it was very wet he managed 108 and frightened himself silly. They also have a sale on at the moment £179 down to £129, heres the link
http://www.silverstone.co.uk/experiences/Spring-sa...

simon

[miniman]

Keep in mind that Silverstone use the Stowe circuit which is completely separate to the GP circuit and is tiny.

[davislove]

blumoontets said:

I bought the single seater experience for my sons 21st, went to silverstone last saturday and he thouroghly enjoyed it. They are limited to 5500 revs and top speed of 140. Even though it was very wet he managed 108 and frightened himself silly. They also have a sale on at the moment £179 down to £129, heres the link
http://www.silverstone.co.uk/experiences/Spring-sa...

simon

+ 1 I've done the same experience and would recommend it

you won't want for anything quicker and they really let you overtake and have a bit of fun out on the circuit which I wasn't expecting

it feels crazy when you first drop down into the seat!!

[johnaachen]

Do they give you laptimes? I would like to do it but would like to genuinely know if I was any good or not!

Cheers,

John

[paolow]

Thanks for the tips all I weighed up the pros and cons of brands vs silverstone though and brands came out on top which is unfortunate given the pretty fair pricing of the silverstone experience!
Trouble is my parents live in Kent and where I am on the south coast it would mean a stopover in northants as opposed to just driving to brands if we did silverstone.
Also ive always wanted to drive a single seater round brands
I did consider going straight for the ARDS but reasoned that A) ive never driven a single seater let alone on a race track and B) looking at it as saving a few quid down the line when/if i ever do take this up is going to pale horribly into insignificance when costs are compared....

[dpbird90]

davislove said:

blumoontets said:

I bought the single seater experience for my sons 21st, went to silverstone last saturday and he thouroghly enjoyed it. They are limited to 5500 revs and top speed of 140. Even though it was very wet he managed 108 and frightened himself silly. They also have a sale on at the moment £179 down to £129, heres the link
http://www.silverstone.co.uk/experiences/Spring-sa...

simon

+ 1 I've done the same experience and would recommend it

you won't want for anything quicker and they really let you overtake and have a bit of fun out on the circuit which I wasn't expecting

it feels crazy when you first drop down into the seat!!

I went on the same experience too, it was epic. If you want you can get an onboard video done, is a little pricey but my parents said I needed a memento from the day, looks a lot slower than it feels!

[vtecstu]

johnaachen said:

Do they give you laptimes? I would like to do it but would like to genuinely know if I was any good or not!

Cheers,

John

Certainly do at Silverstone - I did the one mentioned above last year, and would also recommend it. You each get a print out at the end showing your times.

One note of caution - they do have a strict rule that if you spin you're straight out of the car. Most people in my session were fine, but the instructor kept mentioning a group he'd had the previous weekend where 3 people had lost it in the first couple of laps. Makes it a very quick way to blow 200 squid...

[anonymous-user]

speak to the long circuit racing kart club at darley moor about their test days. i can guarantee you that a day in a 250 gearbox kart will be way more fun than an old formula ford with a restricted engine....

[davislove]

vtecstu said:

Certainly do at Silverstone - I did the one mentioned above last year, and would also recommend it. You each get a print out at the end showing your times.

One note of caution - they do have a strict rule that if you spin you're straight out of the car. Most people in my session were fine, but the instructor kept mentioning a group he'd had the previous weekend where 3 people had lost it in the first couple of laps. Makes it a very quick way to blow 200 squid...

that wasn't my experience, one or two spins were fine

[The Black Flash]

Yeah they always say that, to keep idiocy in check. As long as you're not being a pratt, you'll be fine.
Rev limited or not, overtaking a Lambo and F355 in one move in a Formula Renault at thruxton is an experience I'll always remember. And the cornering speeds are just silly.

[mikefacel]

+4 for Silverstone. Very good value for money.

They did warn us about spinning too - the cars are so responsive though - great fun catching the tail as it stepped out.

[vtecstu]

davislove said:

that wasn't my experience, one or two spins were fine

They said when I went (in October 2010) that they'd had to get more strict on spins for their insurers - a couple of people did spin about 2/3 of the way through the session and had to go straight back to pits and were taken out of the car.

[.R2D2]

blumoontets said:

I bought the single seater experience for my sons 21st, went to silverstone last saturday and he thouroghly enjoyed it. They are limited to 5500 revs and top speed of 140. Even though it was very wet he managed 108 and frightened himself silly. They also have a sale on at the moment £179 down to £129, heres the link
http://www.silverstone.co.uk/experiences/Spring-sa...

simon

Just booked mine up, doing it this Saturday, canny wait man!