race car live

[wildman0609]

anyone here been to race car live before or planning on going this year?

whats the deal with driving cars on the circuit. do you just rock up sign on and find someone to let you drive their car?

i have a national b licence what are the chances of me getting some track time?

sorry if my questions are a bit naive but i've not heard of this event before and now i have free tickets is it worth me driving from coventry to brands hatch.

[Sibby]

I saw this event last year but was unfortunately busy.

Anyone know if it's worth going?

[JButler]

I did track time at the show a couple of years ago. Im interested in getting some time this year but cant find any information about it? Will there even be any public track time this year?

[Kevp]

The wife says we can go (and it was her idea). Although free entry helps.

I have never been, but you can drive on the circuit (not sure which course) for £20 pre register or £30 on the day. You can even book your ARDS course & do it the weekend. Long list of exhibitors as well.

Hope we wont be disappointed.

[Syndrome]

If you have a competition licence you can do a "try before you buy" session in the cars around the indy circuit. if you need a comp licence you can book a medical and ARDS test on the day. There's always a good selection of club level motorsport represented, and sometimes they have an F1 car doing demo laps as well. Andy Priaulx did a demo of a BMW F1 car and they also had the 2 seat Minardi a few years back.

[nj09]

I hear KTM are going with a selection of their New Xbow's. Anyone know anymore?

[TimCrighton]

We've got our new Fiat 500 Trofeo on display along with our SEAT Leon Eurocup car which will be out in the Eurocup and Spanish Supercopa next season. I think we are in garage 12 (Advent Motorsport).

[andyc.]

so when is it?

[muhuha]

This weekend... will have a nose into garage 12... see those there tomorrow..

[wildman0609]

cant wait, looks like the weather might be a bit crap but hope to get a few laps in.

[brierleys]

What a complete waste of time. Completely disorganised. Couldn't find an opportunity to drive anything. I went to the Mini Coopers. They said it would be £100 for a drive but it didn't materialise. I signed on, did the briefing and chatted to them about driving the car. I wish they'd have been honest from the start and said 'look, we're not that bothered about you driving our cars but even if we were, we couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery, nevermind a list of drivers and their session times'. So I hung around in the garage for a while looking like a plank, whilst the car just sat there, till I eventually gave up.

I really don't mind if people don't want their cars to be driven. I don't have a right to have a go but I wish the organisers had been realistic about the availability of drives and that I hadn't get strung along by the Mini people.

I'd be interested to know how many people who registered actually got to drive a car. I won't be going again.

[wildman0609]

i have to agree, the organisers advertised it as 'a try before you buy'. i could not find anyone willing to let me try a car. which is fair enough as its their cars but the advertising for the event let me to believe i would be driving cars.
i paid and signed on as a driver and went to a briefing. not happy.

we had some pretty amazing passenger rides in the mx5's. made me realize how good some drivers really are, i thought i could really drive until i saw what they could do.

[brierleys]

I was lucky in that they forgot to take my 30 quid! Otherwise I'd have been demanding a refund.

[muhuha]

Totally agree, arrived at 9am on saturday. Went in... was dead till about 10am when cars went out on track. Passanger rides in that lotus for 30quid..... dream on. Expected to be a good little day out sitting in cars and have a good look around. Asked someone and they were saying sponsors only... and left at 12 to try and get something else done in the day. Couldn't really understand the point of the public being there. Unlikely i'll be going next year.

[Steve@oms]

brierleys said:

What a complete waste of time. Completely disorganised.

I have to agree also. Having spent an hour in the car we arrived at about 9.45am and after getting over the initial fears that I must have got the wrong weekend, we deliberated for some time before going in. I could get in free with my license, but my friend with me had to pay £15 (which we knew about) but from the outside we struggled to see what there was for the money, especially £15.

Anyway, we bit the bullet and went in - it seemed nothing more than a few companies/teams having a season end blast around the track. I expected to see quite a few trade stands but all there seemed to be was a rail of race suits in the demon tweeks garage and a bloke flogging helmet cases.

I took my helemt along in the hope (but not expectation) of getting a blast in a car or two - so was not surprised that no rides were going, but I was disappointed. What I really wanted was to have a good look at some racewear and compare a few things from different suppliers - I was very disappointed.

Overall, this event was very badly organised (IMHO) and is a bit misleading with the promotion. I would have thought there might at least have been some demonstrations and maybe some top class race cars on display. London Motorsport Show?!

Anyway - rant over. Will probably give it a miss next year.

[TimCrighton]

Its a tricky one. As an exhibitor at the show we found it useful and it is a great way to get people to look over the cars etc. We ran a car last year, but it was relatively fruitless as all the engine management systems are located in the passenger floor footwell so we couldn't run a passenger seat, so it was really just an opportunity to see the cars in action. We have found the show a good way to introduce people to the sport, and again that was repeated this year. We only ran the car briefly over the weekend for VBH on the Saturday, but that was more due to the fact that car is already allocated for next season and we wanted to put minimal mileage on it.

We had some good enquiries for the 500 trofeo which was great and next season is looking very good.