driving experience...

[oc7]

girlfriend has decided to buy me one of these for my birthday and has told me to decide which one I want. Thing is I'm a virgin to these packages, and really dont know which to go for???? :scratchchin:

Any suggestions??

[goz007]

How much do you want to spend?
www.trackday-gift-experiences.com/

[BrianJ]

By far the best by broad consensus is Jonathan Palmer Experience at Bedford - not cheap at £775 but worth it.

[oc7]

goz007 said:

How much do you want to spend? www.trackday-gift-experiences.com/

£500 max.

[Incorrigible]

Track day + tuition ??

I've done a couple of experience days and they were a bit rubbish (too tame). Although the rally one at Brands was fun

[pablo1602]

Consider this.........excellent value!

www.pistonheads.com/trackdays/index.asp?storyId=10892


Caterham at Silverstone for £495 all in.

[e-mail]
0870 24 25 402

[goz007]

The Supercar VI Driving Experience at Mallory Park - £450.00:
Jaguar Saloon Familiarisation laps
Driving Lamborghini Diablo SV
Driving Dodge Viper RT/10
Driving Mercedes SL55 AMG
Driving Lotus Exige
Driving Noble M12 GTO
Driving Porshe 966
Autotest
and last approximately 5 hours

[icb]

Check out Car Limits as advertised on PH - North Weald in Essex with Lotus Elises.

[GreenV8S]

Forget about all those other ones, get yourself behind the wheel of a race tuscan with a race driver turned instructor beside you giving you advice and encouragement over the intercom, no artificial rev limits and you are positively encouraged to explore the full performance of the car. About £550 to share the car between four of you, which gives you enough track time to be completely knackered by the end of the day.


www.topcatsracing.com

[zumbruk]

I'd agree with GreenV8S. I've done several "experience" days and the instructor spends the whole time telling you to slow down, whereas on the TopCats Tuscan day, it's the other way round. By the end of the day, you're lapping at serious speeds that would have resulted in a huge accident had you tried it in the morning. And it's a proper race car, slicks and all. They'll outdrag a GT3 in a straight line. And road cars are pretty pants on a track anyway. Finally, I was sprinting at Silverstone Stowe a few weeks ago and the cars in the "Silverstone Experience" were going past (on their own seperate track) painfully slowly.

About the only thing an "Experience Day" will do is get you in a number of cars, although you get so little time in them and drive so slowly, it hardly seems worth the trouble.

[anonymous-user]

IMO the thruxton and snetterton 'experience' days are really lame unless you've never driven a fast car before. silverstone looks similar but ive not actually done one there. bedford by far and away the best but v expensive. FAR better to book a trackday with a freind and hire a caterham, and get instruction, well within your budget. infact probably cheaper than using your own car... have fun

[oc7]

Thanks for all the replies. . .

Keep them coming...

[jitsukadave]

I would agree that on the experiance days you are generally reined in as they need to keep the cars nice to make more money on them.

However, the track & tuition days are very good - but make sure you go to one when it's not your car, otherwise you may end up worrying about all the stuff you don't want to - needing new tyres after a couple of hours, general wear and tear etc, etc.

[daydreamer]

Another hand in the air for the Tuscan Experience from Topcats - it really is everything that Peter said - although you want Charlotte instructing if you can get her.

If that one is a little out of budget, one of our racers track days his Ginetta - not sure on prices etc, but check out www.BenElliottRacing.com for more info. Don't worry about the mere 160 bhp in these things, they are seriously quick around a track and Ben's will be set up in real racing driver mode (if a little low - sorry Ben).

Rich

[jitsukadave]

The Ben chap looks pretty good - I may have to give him a call to see if I can have a play in his Noble M400

[d_drinks]

oc7 mail me through my profile if you want to learn a bit more about the Tuscan Experience. Charlotte does still instruct though we also have 2 other ARDS instructors out now. The full GP Silverstone circuit is a great track to drive and with around only 14-20 other cars at the circuit during the day you'll not have to battle for track space.

All the best
Darren
TopCats Racing

[Mark_SV]

Totally agree with everyone about avoiding 'experience days'.

Having done over a dozen of these sorts of thing, two I particularly recommend are:

www.cadence.co.uk

www.donpalmer.co.uk

Have fun

[ninjadave]

Mark_SV said:

Totally agree with everyone about avoiding 'experience days'. Having done over a dozen of these sorts of thing, two I particularly recommend are: www.cadence.co.uk www.donpalmer.co.uk Have fun

I did the Don Palmer course, and I can heartily recommend it too, but only if you don't mind doing it in your own car. For me, that was most of the reason for going, but everybody I told outside of PH thought I was barking to risk wrecking my own car... I didn't of course, but I did need new tyres all round and new brakes by the end of it.

I started at 9am, and we went home about 1630 due to poor light, but apart from the hour or so we had for lunch - with more coaching there too, we each (3 of us) spent about a total of 4 hours on the black stuff