Track Experience

[Mighty306]

Got given a 'Race Experience' at Thruxton for my birthday and went this morning.  Got 3 laps in a Porsche Cayman followed by 5 laps in this.  Not the easiest thing to drive (controls felt pretty agricultural tbh).  Although I'll admit I'm never going to make it as a racing driver, I felt the final lap went pretty well.  Had a definite buzz on!!!  Had to get out of Tiff Needell's way a couple of times as he drove round like a loon!

   

What have other people done and what can they recommend?  I loved this morning but just felt I was getting the feel of each car when I had to come in.  I guess that's part of their business strategy ....it gets you buying extra laps!!!

[Eeyore]

Ive done thruxton in the cayman, ferrari and gallardo. Then went out with Tiff also... he got past me as well! D:

To be honest if you can get a gti6 and put some decent tyres and pads in it then you can go and have some fun on track yourself. There are some full day track days at snetterton etc for only £75 at the moment which is a bargain!

[cully]

best driving experiance i have done is half adays tuition on a skid pan in an old betean up ford sierra i would pay to do that again!

[paulgtt]

Iv done a couple of experience days and it does vary massively as some places reign you in with rev limits etc....but the Ariel Atom experience is fantastic

[Eeyore]

So there seem to be two types. The first is proper days like thruxton. The second is the stuff you usually find on groupon where they rent an airfield and then all the cars are privately owned and you do like a 10 meters in each one not going over 3k... Id definitely recommend thruxton!

The ex got me a rally groupon experience and not going to lie as soon as I heard about it I knew it was going to be lame and when we got there we were unimpressed, spoke to others and turned out we had paid 300% more than other people and it was a nightmare. I got a few laps in but the cars were so trashed and the course so bumpy and rutty that you couldnt actually put much effort into it... The worst part was getting into a brand new rally suzuki swift with this young "pro" driver who strapped me in with only 4 of the 6 point harness because i was the last person of the day and it was only a few minutes...

[Mighty306]

Ive done thruxton in the cayman, ferrari and gallardo. Then went out with Tiff also... he got past me as well! D:

To be honest if you can get a gti6 and put some decent tyres and pads in it then you can go and have some fun on track yourself. There are some full day track days at snetterton etc for only £75 at the moment which is a bargain!

Cheers Eeyore, I'm sure you're right that that's a good routes to a lot of on-track fun.  Finding a good gti-6 seems like a bit of a mission these days and I'm not sure I've got the will to travel half-way across the country to look at what might turn out to be tappers.  Not only that, I'm not sure I can justify buying yet another 306.  The girlfriend would certainly roll her eyes and take the piss mercilessly!!!

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best driving experiance i have done is half adays tuition on a skid pan in an old betean up  ford sierra  i would pay to do that again!

Now that sounds like fun!  It's a shame the Track Experiences seem to focus on selling drives in prestige models of car.  It would be great if they did more extended tuition but in more standard, but a bit sporty, models of car.  If they put you in something that was 5 years old and only worth £8k they could let you drive it close to its limit without anyone worrying so much about you damaging it.

I got mildly criticised yesterday for going too fast in to the corners in the Cayman, but to me it didn't feel fast at all.  I could feel there was sooooo much grip left!!  I guess they have to protect what is a significant investment and I would have felt bad if I'd wrecked £50k's worth of car.  It does take the edge off the excitement though.

Someone did crash one of the Formula Renault's yesterday btw.  It was being towed off when I was doing laps in the Cayman!

[7057sam]

I did a Ferrari experience at Silverstone in a 360 modena.was about 6 years and my first track experience wasnt the best instructors didnt really let me totally floor it and felt like i was being hold to drive slower just so they can protect the cars.

Fast forward 6 years after doing many many track time slots and days and i dont like i ever do another experience day as i drive total different with my own car.aswell as having much more fun and freedom to push as much as i like.

[Mighty306]

Ohhh, I so need to sort out a car for doing some track days!

[Alan_M]

Done a couple some years ago but they tend to get a bit boring after a while. Best one was a Lotus Elise at Silverstone for the day. Nice to try different cars, some of which are probably unaffordable to me, but the experience days aren't the same as honing the 205 round a circuit.

I had a session with Tiff too some time ago. Really nice chap, and when he found out it was my birthday he pretty much stretched the session to a couple of hours. I kid you not, twice he stopped to have new tyres fitted. Last part he stopped doing the sideways stuff, and went full race mode in the M3. I was gripping on for dear life approaching the back chicane (Thruxton), didn't think he'd pull up in time.