Best driving experiences under £100?

[Ruffy94]

So my dad fancies some sort of driving experience for his birthday this year. Just wondering if anybody can recommend any under or around the £100 mark.

All seem to have the issue of being really poor value in terms of time behind the wheel. I did the v8 touring car experience at Rockingham last year which had the same problem (but was on offer at a very good price at the time).

Seen some good looking things from Everyman Racing and had some offers emailed from Driftlimits (not convinced about their track). Ive just never used anybody thats not been based at an actual circuit.

[Rakoosh]

For that budget I would suggest karting offers the best bang for buck...

[Sir Bagalot]

The cheapest half decent one is the 1 hour AMG Experience at Brooklands. More than £100, but less than £200

[A900ss]

I haven't done of of these but it's under £100 and a bit different to the racetrack.


http://www.gaydon.landroverexperience.co.uk/Experi...

[R6VED]

I did a full day stunt driving day a few years ago it was about £130 from memory at the Northampton raceway and it was awesome.

[Tickle]

6th Gear have the Ariel Atom experience on offer at the moment for £79

[Benrad]

Silverstone single seaters, much more track time than a super car experience and proper car rather than kart. If not a session in a club 100 kart, 2 stroke, 20HP (5 in your average corporate kart) makes them very entertaining!

[MC Bodge]

How much does the Porsche Experience at Silverstone cost?

What about a skid car session?

Quad biking -does anywhere rent out decent quads these days? (In the early 90s, a place in Cornwall used to have Yamaha Banshees!)

Motocross/enduro?

I had a Formula Ford session when I was 18. It was fantastic, but probably more than 100quid. It was probably that price 20 years ago.

Ps.
Leftfield: an uplift day at a downhill mountain biking venue? Superb experience

Edited by MC Bodge on Wednesday 18th February 20:06

[55palfers]

M6 Toll Road early mornings

Lots of trips for £100

[TheFinners]

Did a driftlimits atom experience and it was good fun, yes the track was quite short and basic but the instructors were encouraging and got the most out of you. The only think that let it down a bit is you were in one gear for the whole track, which is understandable and not really an issue in an supercharged atom but a little frustrating in the boosty 4wd impreza I 'warmed up' in. Having said that the actual drift experiences they do looked very lively and would probably be more interesting.

[Pit Pony]

Banger Rally ? Buy a car for £50, get sponsorship, attempt to drive it to Naples or something equally stupid.

[Ruffy94]

Apologies for not replying, been at work most of the day....and night.

He's done a skid pan session before at silverstone. I was thinking single seater as he always reminds me of how he did something at Silverstone 25yrs ago where he was supposed to drive one and due to 'a change in circumstances' it was changed to a track prepared mg maestro! although he is very borderline on the height limit for them...

Ive also seen the stunt and racing experiences advertised in Northamptonshire and they're pretty local for us, sound like a good idea for something different, id be tempted to tag along! Pity about driftlimits being so small (1 gear etc) as they've been sending some very tempting deals for driving a 430 challenge

[mybrainhurts]

55palfers said:

M6 Toll Road early mornings

Lots of trips for £100

....you daft truncheon

[MC Bodge]

Ruffy94 said:

Apologies for not replying, been at work most of the day....and night.

He's done a skid pan session before at silverstone. I was thinking single seater as he always reminds me of how he did something at Silverstone 25yrs ago where he was supposed to drive one and due to 'a change in circumstances' it was changed to a track prepared mg maestro! although he is very borderline on the height limit for them...

Ive also seen the stunt and racing experiences advertised in Northamptonshire and they're pretty local for us, sound like a good idea for something different, id be tempted to tag along! Pity about driftlimits being so small (1 gear etc) as they've been sending some very tempting deals for driving a 430 challenge

I'd stick to lightweight cars/karts rather than "thoroughbred" supercars.

[andy-xr]

Ruffy94 said:

Seen some good looking things from Everyman Racing

I did the Leicestershire one on my stag do. For what it was, and what we paid it was alright. The instructors are more there to stop you doing anything daft than instructing like you'd see on a track day, and they're fairly strict. I can appreciate that as they dont really know who you are, dont much care as you're only with them for 5 minutes, they just want to be sure you're probably not going to try and kill them

The cars are alright, I loved the 911 and the GTR. The 911 because it was probably the lowest powered one out of my four I'd chosen, but you could drive it fairly flat and not feel like you're being a wker with it. The GTR mainly for the acceleration.

The Atom, the way they get you out onto the track is to just raise the clutch at idle through first to fourth, then bang it in sixth, and that's you for the laps. It'd be nice to be able to appreciate it a bit more, but the range of driving ability that's going to be in the car, for safety I think they're probably doing the right thing. It's frustrating when you know you should be banging it into third and hoofing it up a straight, but thems the rules.

Queues and organisation are a bit hit and miss, everyone gets a slot, you stand next to a flag with 10 other people and chances are you'll miss your slot anyway, but still get a drive.

I'd like to have been able to do 2 more laps in each car. I'm not sure if they offer it but it'd be worth asking. How we did it seemed to be a sighting lap, then a boot it up the hill and then slow down and come in lap.

Very upselly on the whole, you dont have to buy anything, but the usual certificates and photos are available. It's an experience day more than a driving session. If I wanted more driving I'd probably go to Palmers or something like that

[mrtwisty]

I did a single seater experience with Everyman at Prestwold (Leicestershire) last year. You follow an instructor around for a few laps, ours was happy to let us go as fast as we liked really - the faster we went, the faster he went to stay ahead. Better value and more visceral than the supercar experience I thought.

Think I paid about £40ish, I'm sure you could pay a little more for a few more laps. The track was ok - a re purposed airfield, but with some decent corners grafted on.

[Camoradi]

Caterham 7 or Lotus Elise for under £100 here

http://www.intotheblue.co.uk/driving-experiences/s...

[McSam]

andy-xr said:

The Atom, the way they get you out onto the track is to just raise the clutch at idle through first to fourth, then bang it in sixth, and that's you for the laps. It'd be nice to be able to appreciate it a bit more, but the range of driving ability that's going to be in the car, for safety I think they're probably doing the right thing. It's frustrating when you know you should be banging it into third and hoofing it up a straight, but thems the rules.

That's absolutely appalling. I've dealt with Everyman at Prestwold a little before, but not as a customer and a few years ago. The instructors seem a little variable but I have never heard of anything like that.

Treating you like a ten-year-old is not doing the right thing. The right thing is to build your pace gradually and gauge how competent a driver you are, and use that to decide how hard you should be pushing. This should be done throughout your day with notes from each instructor, so the next has an idea what to expect. The only explanations for your treatment are that you had the worst instructor in the world, Everyman have become really really st, or you drove like an arse at some point in the day.

I've driven 6th Gear's Atom 300 at Kenilworth, as an ordinary paying customer. There was no question of restricting my use of the performance. I was pushing by the second lap, and kept going harder and harder until I eventually overstepped the limit at the end of my last lap and spun it. The instructor thought this was bang on!

The real answer to the OP's question is that there's no "best" experience, and for £100 your travel/effort to driving time ratio is going to be poor. But if you insist, and it just needs to be a "blow you away with a really awesome car" thing rather than a driver development day (for which you need Palmersport), then the correct answer is an Atom. Apparently not with Everyman

Avoid supercars, these are aimed at the "look at these photos of me driving a Ferrari" crowd, not drivers. I would say avoid single seaters too, because unless you're doing it as part of a complete (and much more expensive) day, it'll be a bit crap.

[Ruffy94]

I was just simply asking whether anybody knows of anything that's better value than what ive seen (for example I think everyman let you 'double the distance' for an extra £50-60). Im not sure that spending a lot of money on a driver development day for a 58yr old that has not and I doubt ever will do a proper trackday, is worthwhile.

[Shaoxter]

Went for the supercar experience at Driftlimits in a F430 Challenge and Scooby. The track is a bit short and they tell you to stay in one gear all the time (which is understandable I guess) but for the price I thought it was good value. They do let you rev to the redline but are a little conservative telling you when to brake, accelerate, etc. But I guess that's because they do get a few nutters, saw a few spin outs during the session. Here's a vid.

Overall they're a great bunch of guys (one of them services my MR2) and I would be keen to go back for a drifting session which will probably be more fun. Keep a look out on Groupon or google some voucher codes because you can get significant discounts.