So I fancy a day of driving really fast around a track – not necessarily racing, but I want more than 6 laps in some flash car. Maybe some tuition thrown in. Don't really care about the car, but I don't think either of mine would be a lot of fun 🙂

What should I look for?

I think it'll largely come down to budget, tbh. You pay enough you can have what you want.

Caterham/Exige – easier to pick up than some supercar (ie, much easier to go quickly on most circuits with limited knowledge).

But prepare for big ££££££ if you want extended time in the driver's seat – I got three laps and it was over in a flash.

Or the other option is to take your own car on an open day (for example Harewood Hill Climb do taught days where you have the whole morning driving, then classes, then an afternoon learning from your many mistakes). But I am not sure they will supply a car (although other locations may do so).

NOT me – this is a picture I took at a race meeting…

Don't want a supercar. I'd rather spend all afternoon in a Fiesta than have three paltry laps in a supercar. Is that likely to be super expensive? How much could I expect to pay?

I think all the "red letter day" things tend to be a few laps under controlled (i.e. boringly slow) conditions in whatever previous-generation supercar is to hand. For balls (or tits) out fun, reckon you'd be hard pressed to beat a day's go-karting. Helluva lot cheaper too.

I could be interested in that.

Price/package will be similar in an Exige as a supercar (maybe 10/20% cheaper).

But as said above – pay enough and get whatever you want.

I wouldn't suggest go-karting as it is a completely different experience to driving any car.

Hi again molegrips

As others have said it depends on your budget and if you want any training or not. But if you can afford it you wont go far wrong hiring a Caterham and doing a trackday with bookatrack.

http://bookatrack.com/

You will get lots of track time, they are prety easy to drive super fun but also very fast if you get it right. They will easily keep up with most supercars in the right hands.

If you want any more info let me know.

Bazzer

PS downside is its very addictive 🙂

Re: 'Red Letter Days' (other packages are available)

When I last looked at these, it was common for gift companies to simply resell a track's offerings at a premium. It might well be cheaper to contact a local track directly and see what they offer.

This'll give you a good buzz

http://www.haslamraceschool.com/

I'd rather spend all afternoon in a Fiesta than have three paltry laps in a supercar

Then why not do it in one of your cars?

Hmm.. motorbiking – could be also interesting…

Then why not do it in one of your cars?

Cos they'd both be worse than a Fiesta on a track 🙂

Prius would run out of battery after about 10 minutes of being flogged, then you end up with a 76bhp car, and the Passat rolls too much.

Maybe I should ask for Eibach springs for my birthday 🙂

What are Eibach springs….

They will easily keep up with most supercars in the right hands.

I was flying past many Ferraris in the suprcharged Exige (above) – as has been said, much easier to get it right than in a supercar. People only want to drive them so they can say they have done so, not because they want to go quick and understand about lines and entry>exit points etc.

PP does backies on quiet roads 😉
HTH

Eibach is a company that makes aftermarket springs for cars. So you fit them (and possibly shocks too) and your car handles better – then you can take it on a track day 🙂

No.

Formula Ford day at castle combe was good..

got tuition before, then out on your own in a single seater! no engine rev limit – just 'advised' limit

great fun!

not me… in the pic btw

With laps/£ in mind, and not using your own car, I don't think you can beat the Vauxhall VXR days.

I went to Anglesey a month or so ago and got 20+ laps for £99 driving the Corsa, Astra and Insignia VXRs for half a day. Was a real good hoot.

That sounds a good deal.

Pity you have to drive Vauxhalls though. How did you manage with the corners?

Ooh sounds good, £99.

Caterham experience days at Brands Hatch. I got 3 x 6 lap sessions for £150. All instructed, with factory rev limiter waaaaay up and not neccessary as they are V loud when you are right on it and up around 6000rpm.
To be fair tho , buy a 205 / 309 1.9 GTI . remove spare wheel and rear seats, make sure it starts and stops OK. Find some quality tyres that are worn to 2mm and get then fitted.
Book an Easytrack open pitlane trackday , have a 15min lesson, then rag it al day. Sell car.
A well driven 205 1.9 is a very capable circiut car.

I have done about 20 trackdays , beware.- Very addictive

The corners were fine. The Insignia is a bit too big and heavy, the Astra you could feel the front wheels spinning sometimes when accelerating out of corners but the Corsa was a real blast.

Just for pure track time/experience, it was great.

A few friends of mine regularly go to open pit-lane track days where you drive your own car. The first time they bought a couple of cavaliers from the free ads. They've since sold the cavs (one for more than the original price) and bought a prelude and a bmw. Driving a car you don't care about is a lot of fun. The Ferraris tend to get out of your way, too. If its a one off you should be able to get a decent motor with short MOT for next to no money. Lots of tracks do it including Silverstone

Here's a link…they've all sold out this summer I believe but I'm sure you'll be able to sign up somewhere for when they release the next lot:

http://www.vxrpowerevents.co.uk/vxr-track-day.aspx

Oh, and it was £95.

The Performance School looks good value for money too and £195.

So.. if I bought the car, then ragged it, had a great time.. would I be able to sell the car again…? Technically yes – but would I..? 😈

Get yourself over to the Nurburgring, anything else is just weak by comparison…

There and back in a day

My father in law is thinking about selling his Westfield (same design as a Caterham/Lotus 7) with a 180bhp Puma engine and geared/tuned/prepared for hillclimbs (ie, 0-60 in around 3.5 seconds).

I am so tempted.

No.

I don't see the attraction of the Nurburgring – much too long to learn all the corners in a day. I would rather have more laps on a much shorter circuit personally.

Oulton Park used to do a good deal, I worked there for a short while and from memory, you'd get a couple of laps with an instructor in an XR3i, it was a while ago, to show you the lines and teach you how to drive. You'd then get sent out driving with the instuctor to see if you'd learnt anything then released in a single seater. Emphasis heavily on racing lines and driving properly in timed laps, hooligans and wannabe racers were flagged or pulled in for driving to fast, I was the timekeeper 😆 .

I've done a few "race school / experience" type things and most are rubbish – pointless, nannying, way too little time on track and seem solely designed for middle aged men to brag about later on down the pub. Anything that involves a single seater means they dictate exactly how fast you'll go so you can't get anywhere near the limits in the wet, let alone the dry.

The one exception was Palmersport. Pricey (at about £600 for the day when I went) but absolutely excellent. The instructors are great – mostly current racing drivers, one of mine was a British GT champion. They try to push you as far as they can in the time they have – if you're not going fast enough their brake override allows them to take the brakes off as well as on! Everything is timed with prizes at the end, the cars are driven very hard, but all maintained very well indeed. I worked up through Clio Cup racecars, 911, Caterhams, Jaguar XKRs, bit of a break for karts, then the Palmer JP1 (lemans-style racecars) which felt ballistic in comparison before being allowed out in the single-seater Formula Jaguars, which are so far removed from any road car you'll ever drive it's hard to explain. After that, a bit of Caterham head-to-head slalom racing and off-roading.

It was my 30th birthday present to myself and worth every penny – I'd go every year if I could afford it. Maybe next year. They do evenings and half days now so you can get into the JP1 / FJ cars plus a couple of others for a few hundred quid.

Else Bookatrack as mentioned with their Caterham hire are very good. More so if you go for a quieter track or weekday when they do open pitlane rather than sessions – they're happy for you and a friend to share a car which brings the costs down a lot.

Mol – one minute you're banging on about emissions and slow cars being safer then you want to do a track day – madness!

Personally,and this may just be me, I always prefer driving something with less than perfect handling and braking at the edge of it's limits and within mine, than something stupidly fast with great handling and braking nowhere near it's limits and beyond my reflexes. I find it a lot more challenging and a lot more fun. you may not.

I reckon it's a good way to go till you get used to driving fast.Most people's reflexes and ability to drive consistently fast and sideways being nowhere near as good as they actually think they are. For a first few track days, you want to enjoy it and learn something rather than simply scare the shit out of yourself.:)

Everyman racing let you drive the car to it's and your limit at Prestwold Hall. I had a belter of a day there, I 'won' most of the day for ' Employee of the month' 😳 or something daft like that a few years ago and topped it up myself to £500.

As someone says above, the instructor will push you to go faster and in my case he was saying overtake a classic supercar experience that was happening at the same time, any crash would have cost them a fortune!

I got in a gallardo, 550, exige, viper (mental) and 911 Turbo.

Was one of the best days ever :-).

Palmer Motor Sport.

The comments regarding Palmer are very fair, but it is a fair old whack, but will not disappoint.

mastiles_fanylion – Member
My father in law is thinking about selling his Westfield (same design as a Caterham/Lotus 7) with a 180bhp Puma engine and geared/tuned/prepared for hillclimbs (ie, 0-60 in around 3.5 seconds).

I am so tempted.

Or you could buy my turbo charged Hayabusa Westfield 🙂

300bhp under 500kg full T45 cage carbon seats full data logging blah blah blah 🙂

Its fairly quick around a circuit 🙂 Was built to be a reliable car at Spa so more than able to deal with UK circuits.

Bazzer

Yeeeessss – that does sound fast. How do you keep it on the ground????

Its funny you should say that as Westfields can suffer from front end lift at high speeds 🙂

Its an awesome car but still very easy to drive I would post some pictures but my web server is down at the moment.

Bazzer