Experience Days - Opinions
Discussion
So, I am thinking of doing an experience day 
.
Any one been on one recently? I was thinking of booking one with virgin experience days as there is a track not too far from my house.
When I looked online, there were lots of comments about unexpected Insurance charges on the day (How much?), and other charges?
I was thinking about maybe a drifting session or maybe a few laps in a super car. I don't want to be a passenger
.
I know they are only a few miles in the car, any advice?
I know there are one or two threads here about the Palmer track days, but I am thinking £300 max, not a grand, and the threads are quite old.
I am guessing the instructors prevent you from doing anything silly?
Thanks in advance
.Any one been on one recently? I was thinking of booking one with virgin experience days as there is a track not too far from my house.
When I looked online, there were lots of comments about unexpected Insurance charges on the day (How much?), and other charges?
I was thinking about maybe a drifting session or maybe a few laps in a super car. I don't want to be a passenger
.I know they are only a few miles in the car, any advice?
I know there are one or two threads here about the Palmer track days, but I am thinking £300 max, not a grand, and the threads are quite old.
I am guessing the instructors prevent you from doing anything silly?
Thanks in advance
I did a day at Mallory in March last year, there's a thread here: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
I went with some friends, we all had a great day out. I think the only extras they tried to sell were photos and on-board videos, but it wasn't too hard a sell.
As I said in the linked thread, I'd do another one but would rather have more laps in fewer cars, rather than just three laps in each of five cars.
I went with some friends, we all had a great day out. I think the only extras they tried to sell were photos and on-board videos, but it wasn't too hard a sell.
As I said in the linked thread, I'd do another one but would rather have more laps in fewer cars, rather than just three laps in each of five cars.
The best ones I’ve ever done where the Mercedes Benz world ones, really good fun, you get to do pretty much whatever you like from dirfting, track and launching
Also enjoyed the Land Rover ones
I did a 6th gear one which wasn’t anywhere near as good but was still enjoyable but the cars where a bit ratty and all you got to do was drive round the track.
Also enjoyed the Land Rover ones
I did a 6th gear one which wasn’t anywhere near as good but was still enjoyable but the cars where a bit ratty and all you got to do was drive round the track.
I did one 5 years ago in a Lamborghini. It was underwhelming, I wasn't allowed over 4th gear and wasn't allowed over 5000 rpm. I felt like I was on my driving test all over again, and that the "instructor" was actually the curator for the car ......
I'm sure I could have driven one harder on a test drive from a dealership.
I complained with words to this affect and was given 3 laps by a "professional driver" which were more fun, but of course, I wasn't driving.
I was at an event at Mercedes Benz world and paid £20 for some time on the skid pan, it was supposed to be 3 laps, but was actually about 15 (as it was surprisingly quiet).
That was very fun! The instructor was very patient despite the fact I kept spinning
I'm sure I could have driven one harder on a test drive from a dealership.
I complained with words to this affect and was given 3 laps by a "professional driver" which were more fun, but of course, I wasn't driving.
I was at an event at Mercedes Benz world and paid £20 for some time on the skid pan, it was supposed to be 3 laps, but was actually about 15 (as it was surprisingly quiet).
That was very fun! The instructor was very patient despite the fact I kept spinning
I did a red letter day experience for my 30th, got to drive a 360. The guy with me was encouraging me to go faster, think we hit 160 on the back straight of Brunters.
My brother bought me a "drive the stars" experience for my 40th. That is a con from the get go, you get to pick the circuit, there is one 5 miles from me. Nope, can't have that as it's a "premium" circuit so had to pay £40, then you either had to pay £50 insurance or hand over a credit card and be relieved of a £2,5k excess which gets refunded but if you have any kind of incident even if not caused by yourself you lose it.
Told them not so politely where they could stick their scam, i wasn't paying £90 for my own birthday present.
My brother bought me a "drive the stars" experience for my 40th. That is a con from the get go, you get to pick the circuit, there is one 5 miles from me. Nope, can't have that as it's a "premium" circuit so had to pay £40, then you either had to pay £50 insurance or hand over a credit card and be relieved of a £2,5k excess which gets refunded but if you have any kind of incident even if not caused by yourself you lose it.
Told them not so politely where they could stick their scam, i wasn't paying £90 for my own birthday present.
I was given a Virgin voucher for 3 Car "Supercar" drive as a gift about 18 months ago.
I didn't have great expectations, however I really enjoyed the day.
I would say that if your voucher is for just the one car experience, then you will not get the opportunity to do much with the vehicle. But you will get plenty of opportunities to pay for additional vehicles and laps.
The instructors assess you, and if you do what your told, then that gets passed on to the next instructor who will push you that bit more. So essentially, if you want to drive a Ferrari 488 really fast, leave that car to last, and listen to the instructors.
You will get asked if you want to purchase insurance, along with various other upgrades, but it's not really a hard sell.
I paid extra to drive a 800 bhp GTR ,and have a couple extra hot laps over a free lap as a passenger in a supercharged Atom. That redefined my experience of a fast car.
The instructors were really good, i even got an extra free lap in a 911 because i was held up for a lap by another car.
Skip to after 6 minutes in the video below, i was pushed on by the instructor a fair bit, enough that i had sweaty palms at the end of it.
https://youtu.be/LxZ90U9sovo
I didn't have great expectations, however I really enjoyed the day.
I would say that if your voucher is for just the one car experience, then you will not get the opportunity to do much with the vehicle. But you will get plenty of opportunities to pay for additional vehicles and laps.
The instructors assess you, and if you do what your told, then that gets passed on to the next instructor who will push you that bit more. So essentially, if you want to drive a Ferrari 488 really fast, leave that car to last, and listen to the instructors.
You will get asked if you want to purchase insurance, along with various other upgrades, but it's not really a hard sell.
I paid extra to drive a 800 bhp GTR ,and have a couple extra hot laps over a free lap as a passenger in a supercharged Atom. That redefined my experience of a fast car.
The instructors were really good, i even got an extra free lap in a 911 because i was held up for a lap by another car.
Skip to after 6 minutes in the video below, i was pushed on by the instructor a fair bit, enough that i had sweaty palms at the end of it.
https://youtu.be/LxZ90U9sovo
The Land Rover Experience days are usually very well run. Good instructors, well prepped cars, challenging terrain and plenty of 'seat time'. The 'junior' off road teaching is also excellent - Our 11yr-old who'd never driven anything before had a whale of a time in brand new Evoque.
What about a day rallying in Wales? https://www.philprice.co.uk/courses/1-day-intense-...
Sad to see Phil Price died this year, though.
What about a day rallying in Wales? https://www.philprice.co.uk/courses/1-day-intense-...
Sad to see Phil Price died this year, though.
Fact is, nobody's going to let you cut loose on a circuit without liability. You can argue for ever about who's to blame for a "racing incident" so you're going to be on the hook for any damage to the vehicle you're driving regardless of how it happened and also for any damage to the circuit equipment you may cause. No choice but to pay up for insurance or accept a potential hit on your credit card if things go wrong.
If you take your own car to a major circuit for a "track weekend" you can expect an insurance bill for many hundreds of ££. Which is why so many people choose to thrash a modified 3-series worth very little money. And they're the ones who scare people with £100k sports cars away from the whole trackday scene. Best IMO to hire the cars and suck up the insurance cost.
If you take your own car to a major circuit for a "track weekend" you can expect an insurance bill for many hundreds of ££. Which is why so many people choose to thrash a modified 3-series worth very little money. And they're the ones who scare people with £100k sports cars away from the whole trackday scene. Best IMO to hire the cars and suck up the insurance cost.
Lexington59 said:
I've done one of these and would highly recommend it.Never bothered with any of the other offerings.
Baldchap said:
Lotus do a multi-day package in Elises and Exiges that is genuinely excellent.
You are in the cars for ages every day, and encouraged and trained to get faster, faster, faster every session. It isn't cheap, but it's the best motoring experience I've ever come across.
Agreed! Top day at the Lotus factory driving their Elise 220 and Exige 410 depending on which course you do. Really high level of instructors - the days I did mine they were all BRDC members with really impressive racing CVs. But most importantly they explained everything really well and encouraged you to really push the cars to (and at times beyond) their limits. You are in the cars for ages every day, and encouraged and trained to get faster, faster, faster every session. It isn't cheap, but it's the best motoring experience I've ever come across.
A significantly cheaper day which was still also good fun was the single seater experience at silverstone. It’s on the Stowe circuit but that is plenty for those little cars. From memory I think you get 2 x 20min sessions and you can really press on in them.
Final option, get a mate or two together and hire something for a track day. We recently did this with a Ginetta G40 - not the most powerful of cars but only 800kg and you’re free to push as hard as you want.
Edited - sorry OP, just saw your £300 budget. I’d suggest the silverstone day
https://www.simplyrace.co.uk/
£20 for an hour and I was sweating by the end - pick your track/car etc.
Alternatively, my 15 year old with no driving experience did a track day with "car chase heroes" which was really well organised and lots of different packages to choose from. He did about 120mph in a gallardo, drove an Aston V8 and a Nissan GTR amongst others. He complained that "Dom's Charger" from the fast and furious films had terrible understeer .....ffs that's the first time he has driven anything!
The ones I have enjoyed the most involved a full day of assorted skills. Palmersport (I think) used to do a day that involved, single seaters, offroading, rallying, HGV driving, autotesting, caterhams and hot hatches.
Of course, if you are a powerfully built company director type that already owns a premium brand then there are often customer days that the like of AMG do where they rent a circuit for the day and invite customers to test the full AMG range.
£20 for an hour and I was sweating by the end - pick your track/car etc.
Alternatively, my 15 year old with no driving experience did a track day with "car chase heroes" which was really well organised and lots of different packages to choose from. He did about 120mph in a gallardo, drove an Aston V8 and a Nissan GTR amongst others. He complained that "Dom's Charger" from the fast and furious films had terrible understeer
.....ffs that's the first time he has driven anything!The ones I have enjoyed the most involved a full day of assorted skills. Palmersport (I think) used to do a day that involved, single seaters, offroading, rallying, HGV driving, autotesting, caterhams and hot hatches.
Of course, if you are a powerfully built company director type that already owns a premium brand then there are often customer days that the like of AMG do where they rent a circuit for the day and invite customers to test the full AMG range.
ntiz said:
Interesting that the Lotus days are good, just up the road from me.
Which one have people been doing? They never seemed that good from the website.
Last year I did both the silver and the gold days. The silver was exclusively in an Elise 220 the gold had a track session in the Exige 410 as well. Both days saw two people per instructor/car although I don’t know if this was standard or less due to Covid restrictions. You basically spend the morning doing different skills exercises, slalom, trail braking, skid pan, heel & toe etc and then in the afternoon you’re put on track to put on track to put into practice what you’ve learnt.Which one have people been doing? They never seemed that good from the website.
The sessions are split into 20min slots so you’ll be out for 20mins then swap over for the other guy to do his and so on. They aren’t the cheapest of days but were really worth it - I came away with significantly improved skills and understanding of car dynamics and it was also just really good fun. I would definitely consider doing the gold day again. Instructors on the day were Rob Barff and Adam Wilcox - really knowledgeable guys with a good motorsport background.
Avenicus said:
Alternatively, my 15 year old with no driving experience did a track day with "car chase heroes" which was really well organised and lots of different packages to choose from. He did about 120mph in a gallardo, drove an Aston V8 and a Nissan GTR amongst others. He complained that "Dom's Charger" from the fast and furious films had terrible understeer .....ffs that's the first time he has driven anything!.
i did the Car Chase Heroes a couple of years back. I'd lined up the General Lee, KITT, a James Bond Aston Martin and the 'Bumblebee' Chevy Camaro.Sadly the General Lee was unwell that day so i was put into "Dom's Charger" instead. .....ffs that's the first time he has driven anything!.KITT was fun but a bit of a half-arsed replica, the Aston was great but didn't feel particularly fast and had a dashboard full of warning lights, so for me, the technically 'best' car of the day was the Camaro, which was a real hoot and went like stink.
As to Dom's Charger, the scene was set when I got in and the instructor chap said - "We're not going to break any track records today; we're just going to coax the old girl round". It was hot, slow, smelly and wallowed like an elephant on a trampoline. It was also hugely noisy but, oh god the noise! I did my hot, slow, laps with the biggest grin on my face I've ever had - it was my favourite car of the day!
Reminds me - I must go back again and do the General...
The Mrs bought me an LP670 experience at thruxton about 10 years ago, I was always joking when she "made it" I was getting an orange lambo. Was fun to experience but like said you don't get anywhere near thrashing it - another guy didn't follow instruction/"went a bit mad" in an Aston and was basically thrown out according to the Mrs who was observing. The single seater which was also included was thus more fun cos you just got to drive it as intended. The contrast did give me pause to think about whether I'd have a supercar if it were an option.
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