Day at Millbrook
Discussion
Last week my family and I had the pleasure to spend a week in London. London is a fantastic city with so much to do, we could have easily spent another week there. On Thursday I had the chance to spend the day at Millbrook Proving Grounds participating in the Aston Martin Driving Experience. I was definitely on the fence as far as choosing this experience or the track day at Silverstone. In the end I chose Millbrook because I not only wanted to learn how to become a better driver on and off the track, but I wanted to learn a little more about my car as well.
The day started early as I had to catch a train from St. Pancres terminal in London at 8:45 am. The terminal on a Thursday morning was chaos to say the least. Living on the west coast (Arizona) we never travel by rail, so the experience was definitely eye opening. The English countryside is beautiful and the hour and a half journey provided a much needed reset from the daily running around in the city. I arrived at the train station in Millbrook at 10:15. All I can say is that the train station looked like Hansel and Gretel lived there. Very small and very cute. The station is not in operation and you are dropped off outside. Waiting for me was my instructor Steve. He was easy to spot since we were the only 2 people at the station. I was picked up in an Aston Martin racing green F1 edition Vantage. Very cool. This would be my car for the day. Beautiful color in person. I must admit I was not a big fan of the wing at first, but in person it definitely suits the car. My instructor Steve was a very nice guy and easy going. The train station is close to the proving grounds and is literally across the street from one of the testing tracks. As we entered the gates, security stopped us and made sure I placed stickers over my phone camera lenses before we entered. As many of you already know, there is no photography allowed at Millbrook, thus no photos in this post. That is the one regret I have, but understandable. We went to the Aston Martin building and had a nice breakfast of assorted pastries and a quick debrief (approx. 15 mins) of the days activities. I was the only person participating on this day so it was truly a one on one experience. Steve mentioned they usually have smaller groups of 1-3 people.
We hopped in the car and headed out to our first activity. The first couple of activities focused on breaking. We practiced hard braking on the mile straight away from 30,60,100 mph. Before I forget, I did see some great cars at the facility. There were 2 Lotus Emiras testing that day. Both were Seneca blue. Absolutely beautiful cars. Exhaust was a bit tame, but they passed by at a slower pace so not sure how accurate my impression of the exhaust really was. Also got a chance to see a Gordon Murray on the track. Looked like the T50? Unbelievable. That thing sounded just like an F1 car. Steve pointed out the exhaust is very similar to the Valkyrie. Also, saw a Rolls Royce Cullinin testing. It looked huge and a bit awkward on the course. KIA was also there testing their SUV. We had to negotiate around them at times on the track, but everyone was very accommodating when they saw the Aston come along.
Next up was breaking on different wet surfaces to show the genius of abs. Steve even had me hard breaking on wet
surfaces with no hands on the steering wheel to show how abs still keeps the car straight. Pretty amazing. We then did hard turns on a wet surface with ESP on and off to simulate avoiding an accident at an intersection. Huge difference. With ESP off I spun the car into a 720 (which was really cool). With ESP on the car stayed fairly straight after the evasive maneuver. Really impressive.
After that was the mile straight away. At the end of the straight away there is a right hand turn. Steve mentioned if we don't break hard enough we will get airborne and end up back at the train station across the street. Somewhat unsettling. The first run was done in sports plus and I got up to 130 mph. I think I was a little cautious since I didn't want to go full Superman and end up at the train station. After a couple more runs I put the car into track mode and with the paddles hit 155 mph on the straight. The car was so solid at high speeds. No wiggle at all. Definitely felt confident enough to push even harder if we had more room.
Next we moved to the banked oval course. This consisted of what looked like a 4 lane oval highway with a banked 5th. lane. The course was 2 miles long. I asked Steve what the incline was and he was unsure. I would say it was very similar to a NASCAR oval. We hit the oval and built up speed and moved up the embankment. The speed limit was 130 mph on the outer lane. Once we did a couple of laps at that speed, Steve had me take my hands off the wheel and place them in my lap. I must admit that even though I new this was coming, it's still a little unnerving when you are asked to do it. After a while Steve asked me to slowly reduce speed and then increase speed to show how the car will move up and down the embankment without having my hands on the wheel. We eventually made our way from the top of the track and exited the course without me ever having my hands on the wheel. Pretty cool stuff. We broke for about 45 mins for lunch and then back out to the track.
We headed over to the short course. Steve took the wheel and basically went over the layout. Now it was time to put all of it together on the track. I must say there is a noticable difference in handling between the F1 edition and my 2020 Vantage. The F1 definitely feels more planted. We were in sport + for both settings. The first few laps Steve told me when to break a little harder and when to cut the corner a little closer. We would then pull over and discuss the laps. He would critique what I did right and wrong then we would head back on the track to apply the corrections. As we completed more laps, Steve eventually went silent and let me figure the course out on my own. We then again stopped and I was asked when and where I made mistakes. To me this was the most valuable aspect of the experience. I was now able to spot my deficiencies and more importantly knew how to correct them.
Lastly, we made our way over to the alpine course. Basically this is a one way two lane highway on a mountain. Obviously, there were many twists and turns, but now we added a third dimension of hills. There was one particular hill where the descent is completely blind and enters into a hard left turn. First time around was a little unsettling. To me this was one of the harder courses to complete correctly because there is so much coming at you at such a fast pace. It's a lot to process. At the end of the day, Steve took the wheel for a couple of hot laps on the Alpine course which were truly amazing before I headed back to the train station at 4:30 pm.
Overall I couldn't have been happier with the experience. This was not my first time on a track, but the instruction I received was invaluable. I also got to learn more about how wonderful these machines truly are. I highly recommend going to Millbrook if you have the chance.
The day started early as I had to catch a train from St. Pancres terminal in London at 8:45 am. The terminal on a Thursday morning was chaos to say the least. Living on the west coast (Arizona) we never travel by rail, so the experience was definitely eye opening. The English countryside is beautiful and the hour and a half journey provided a much needed reset from the daily running around in the city. I arrived at the train station in Millbrook at 10:15. All I can say is that the train station looked like Hansel and Gretel lived there. Very small and very cute. The station is not in operation and you are dropped off outside. Waiting for me was my instructor Steve. He was easy to spot since we were the only 2 people at the station. I was picked up in an Aston Martin racing green F1 edition Vantage. Very cool. This would be my car for the day. Beautiful color in person. I must admit I was not a big fan of the wing at first, but in person it definitely suits the car. My instructor Steve was a very nice guy and easy going. The train station is close to the proving grounds and is literally across the street from one of the testing tracks. As we entered the gates, security stopped us and made sure I placed stickers over my phone camera lenses before we entered. As many of you already know, there is no photography allowed at Millbrook, thus no photos in this post. That is the one regret I have, but understandable. We went to the Aston Martin building and had a nice breakfast of assorted pastries and a quick debrief (approx. 15 mins) of the days activities. I was the only person participating on this day so it was truly a one on one experience. Steve mentioned they usually have smaller groups of 1-3 people.
We hopped in the car and headed out to our first activity. The first couple of activities focused on breaking. We practiced hard braking on the mile straight away from 30,60,100 mph. Before I forget, I did see some great cars at the facility. There were 2 Lotus Emiras testing that day. Both were Seneca blue. Absolutely beautiful cars. Exhaust was a bit tame, but they passed by at a slower pace so not sure how accurate my impression of the exhaust really was. Also got a chance to see a Gordon Murray on the track. Looked like the T50? Unbelievable. That thing sounded just like an F1 car. Steve pointed out the exhaust is very similar to the Valkyrie. Also, saw a Rolls Royce Cullinin testing. It looked huge and a bit awkward on the course. KIA was also there testing their SUV. We had to negotiate around them at times on the track, but everyone was very accommodating when they saw the Aston come along.
Next up was breaking on different wet surfaces to show the genius of abs. Steve even had me hard breaking on wet
surfaces with no hands on the steering wheel to show how abs still keeps the car straight. Pretty amazing. We then did hard turns on a wet surface with ESP on and off to simulate avoiding an accident at an intersection. Huge difference. With ESP off I spun the car into a 720 (which was really cool). With ESP on the car stayed fairly straight after the evasive maneuver. Really impressive.
After that was the mile straight away. At the end of the straight away there is a right hand turn. Steve mentioned if we don't break hard enough we will get airborne and end up back at the train station across the street. Somewhat unsettling. The first run was done in sports plus and I got up to 130 mph. I think I was a little cautious since I didn't want to go full Superman and end up at the train station. After a couple more runs I put the car into track mode and with the paddles hit 155 mph on the straight. The car was so solid at high speeds. No wiggle at all. Definitely felt confident enough to push even harder if we had more room.
Next we moved to the banked oval course. This consisted of what looked like a 4 lane oval highway with a banked 5th. lane. The course was 2 miles long. I asked Steve what the incline was and he was unsure. I would say it was very similar to a NASCAR oval. We hit the oval and built up speed and moved up the embankment. The speed limit was 130 mph on the outer lane. Once we did a couple of laps at that speed, Steve had me take my hands off the wheel and place them in my lap. I must admit that even though I new this was coming, it's still a little unnerving when you are asked to do it. After a while Steve asked me to slowly reduce speed and then increase speed to show how the car will move up and down the embankment without having my hands on the wheel. We eventually made our way from the top of the track and exited the course without me ever having my hands on the wheel. Pretty cool stuff. We broke for about 45 mins for lunch and then back out to the track.
We headed over to the short course. Steve took the wheel and basically went over the layout. Now it was time to put all of it together on the track. I must say there is a noticable difference in handling between the F1 edition and my 2020 Vantage. The F1 definitely feels more planted. We were in sport + for both settings. The first few laps Steve told me when to break a little harder and when to cut the corner a little closer. We would then pull over and discuss the laps. He would critique what I did right and wrong then we would head back on the track to apply the corrections. As we completed more laps, Steve eventually went silent and let me figure the course out on my own. We then again stopped and I was asked when and where I made mistakes. To me this was the most valuable aspect of the experience. I was now able to spot my deficiencies and more importantly knew how to correct them.
Lastly, we made our way over to the alpine course. Basically this is a one way two lane highway on a mountain. Obviously, there were many twists and turns, but now we added a third dimension of hills. There was one particular hill where the descent is completely blind and enters into a hard left turn. First time around was a little unsettling. To me this was one of the harder courses to complete correctly because there is so much coming at you at such a fast pace. It's a lot to process. At the end of the day, Steve took the wheel for a couple of hot laps on the Alpine course which were truly amazing before I headed back to the train station at 4:30 pm.
Overall I couldn't have been happier with the experience. This was not my first time on a track, but the instruction I received was invaluable. I also got to learn more about how wonderful these machines truly are. I highly recommend going to Millbrook if you have the chance.
Great write up. I did it the AM PDC (as it was then called) at Millbrook three years ago. It was a birthday present from Mrs Minglar. When I booked it I asked if I could do it in the same car as mine but they told me it had to one of the current range. At the time they didn’t have a manual Vantage available so I plumped for a DBSS. What a beast that car is. I got it up to 175mph on the mile straight, and driving around the bowl at over 100mph with no hands on the steering wheel felt very strange at first. As you say the instructors there are absolutely first class and it really is a full day of one on one tuition. It’s very draining and I was pretty tired at the end. It’s not cheap, but imho it’s worth every penny, especially if you can get your wife to pay! If you get the opportunity to do it you absolutely must do so.
Best Regards
Minglar
Best Regards
Minglar
Great write up. My wife and I did it in DB11s a few years back and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. Expensive but definitely worth it and amazing what the cars can do. The standing mile was cut short for resurfacing at the end but still managed 167. Really enjoyed drifting on the skid pan too if they still do that.
You clearly had a great day. Thank you for describing it to us.
I too enjoyed my day at Millbrook a few years ago.
One of my memories was a demonstration of the immense torque of the V12 engine.
Using paddles and plenty of revs, on the one mile straight from a standing start, reached 165 mph.
Repeat by moving away from the start, then immediately changing in to top gear. Reached 155 mph.
It was surprising that my efforts on the first run, to change up at the right moment, made so little difference.
Yes, the Alpine course was quite a challenge, when faced with it for the first time.
Desperate not to encounter disaster, so therefore great caution with the blind brows.
Ref. St Pancras.
The pandemic (resulting in working from home) has now reduced the number of regular train commuters into London, but I think more people are moved into and out of London each day, than probably any other city in the world. If everyone used cars for their commute, it would be impossible.
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