"Supercar Drivers Days" - Are they worth doing?

[face]

I've done a Rally Day with Shropshire Rally School which was great fun, throwing a Mk2 Escort around. Also got a Single Seater experience at Castle Combe. 1600cc Ford engines but rev limited to 5k. Sadly as I'm broad shouldered I didn't fit in the school cars so had to take an instructors car which was sans limiter. Just told to keep it under 5k, which I didn't. Thoroughly enjoyable

 

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Crikey - when did you go? 1965?

[Skizzer]

Crikey - when did you go? 1965?

I think the clue is in the word 'Shropshire'.

 

[mercedade]

Not that it helps you make any decisions to trade your gift for another, but I spent bloody weeks researching all these things and concluded that the perfect overlap of 'Power', 'Driving time' and 'Getting sideways' was doing the AMG experience at MB world.

 

I'm by no means the biggest AMG fanboy (and if you close your eyes and imagine what everyone else there on the day looked like, you'd be exactly right) but I didn't fancy hanging about some Welsh forest for 4 days and coming away with 6 minutes of handbrake turns and a quick blast in a Subaru.

 

It was ACE. I did the 'First/Last' version which is basically a few quid cheaper because you go at the beginning or end of the day. I opted for the end, reasoning that they'd be under less pressure to get you out of the way for the next group and might let you stay out.

 

I was a C63 for the full hour (luck of the draw from what I could see, some got Es) (plus a bit - I was right about ^) and after a few minutes on the 'handling' track, the instructor concluded that I wasn't an enormous tool, so could be trusted to have a blast around the 'speed' track. The fool.

 

For the next 50 minutes, I shifted between driving faster than I have at any point in my life, in a more powerful car than anyone could ever need, to doing massive (low speed) drifts on the silicone circle, full bore launches and the like. Nothing detuned, no 'third gear only' nonsense.

 

The only criticism I could make is that the instructor could have been a bit more engaging - I felt like I had freedom to do what I liked, but I reckon he could have told me to push on a little more. But maybe it's good that he didn't.

 

AA++A+ Would recommend

[Matt]

I did one of these at Rockingham,I was really impressed about how the instructors were constantly on at you to give it the beans and brake later and later as the course went on.

 

Definitely thought I was heading for the Armco at one point, the brakes on the Chevy V8 touring car I was driving were mental.

 

Yeah for sure, I hadn't really thought about it but it felt like they were pushing me right from the off. The Audi R8 instructor was proper laid back though, really calm (unlike the V8 Vantage instructor). Look at the photo, he's not even looking out the window! I don't know if that was because I was rubbish or if I was just going like stink by myself. It was super easy to drive quick so could well be the latter. 

 

 

It's cool that you got to drive the touring car yourself, the Holden V8 that was there when I was was a passenger ride only. The Ferrari instructor had to tell me that I wouldn't be able to catch it at one point lol.

[Station]

Don't forget to post the video on facebook (with the title 'me going round the track') so nobody will watch yet another video of someone doing a slow lap in a sports car.

Bonus points for posting a picture on facebook or dating website of you sitting in the car.

[dave21478]

I got one of these for my Birthday last year. It was.....ok, but waaay too short.

 

6 of us at a time got bundled into a Nissan Pathfinder for a "sighting lap" of the circuit and then there was lots of standing around waiting for my turn. There were dozens of cars there from a Clio 182 type of thing up to the supercar stuff. I was supposed to be in a Porsche but they were running late so I got a Saleen Mustang or something along those lines...it was certainly the best sounding car of the day. 

 

1 out lap trying to get used to the car and remember the track, 1 fast lap, and then the in lap.

 

The instructor encouraged me to press on a lot, but kept telling me off for turning in too early.

 

Some poor woman was there with her boyfriend and she looked terrified. She got into a Ferrari just before I started and she just trundled round in third gear. It felt good ripping past a Ferrari on track, but the reality was it was all incredibly slow. I got a video of it as mentioned above with multiple viewpoints, but its incredibly tedious to watch, with no sensation of speed at all.

Im glad I did it, but wouldnt pay for the same again.

[sierraman]

So if I did a lap in a Ferrari or something and then for whatever reason I ended up in the Armco am I liable?

[egg]

So if I did a lap in a Ferrari or something and then for whatever reason I ended up in the Armco am I liable?

 

I think you sign some scary form at the start that says you are insured - but with a large excess to pay! I think you can pay more to reduce the excess.