It's my wife's birthday next month and thinking of getting her one of those race car experience days.

Anyone recommend one? Ideally in the South or South West

Or have a money off voucher 😆

I think they do them at Castle Combe

There's some good stuff at Thruxton.

What is she (or you) looking to get out of it? Most of the "race experience" days are very tame, and pretty disappointing to anyone with much of a petrolhead streak.

As said Castle Combe do them and from what I've heard they're better than some. What I have done there that was excellent was the skidpan course you can do on the far side of the circuit. They have a special low-friction surface and you spend plenty of time in the cars (both front and rear-wheel-drive) getting a feel for how cars slide in corners and under braking. Lots of fun (you'll be able to hold a good slide by the end) and it's all good training that might save your life one day.

http://www.drivetechltd.co.uk/

i would highly, highly recommend a caterham slalom day or half day. i only did a half day but was pretty tired by the end. superb fun. really quite safe as the speeds are relatively low. look out though, cos it may end up more expensive than you first thought – you may end up wanting one!
i must treat us to another day.
check out the caterham cars website for details.

I bought my missus one of those once.

Buy her a spa day.

Best value is hiring say a Caterham at a track day
Have a look at BookaTrack.com
The experience days are expensive for the amount of track time you get

second Mike with hiring a Caterham with Book A Track.

or you can also hire one from Caterham themselves for track sessions(where you get 5x or 6x 20 min sessions of track time at a circuit over the day) as well as the slalom and drift days

If you go to Thruxton – you could also book a ride with Tiff Needell in a BMW M3

Of course the Ultimate track experiance is the Palmer Sport days (or half days)
no limits, fearless instructors and a great line up of cars to drive.
BMW M3, 911, Palmer Jaguar (2 seater prototype like a radical) Land Rover Defender, Caterham, Renault Clio Cup and Formula Palmer Audi single seater.

I did one in formula fords and they were brilliant fun, we were lapping the ferraris that were out at the same time 🙂 track specific cars are the way forward, way better than a road car

I've driven a ferrari 360 at three sisters. Alright but not amazing. Ferrari's are a bit a shit to be honest, this one was anyway. Like a badly made Fiat inside. Engine was OK though, three sisters is a bit small to properly give something like that a go but it was reasonably quick through the corners and once it got it's breath on the back straight it properly surged forwards.

However, I (and all the other 'super cars') were being overtaken constantly by the single seaters. They looked like way more fun.

So that's what I'm doing on the 19th.

Here's me finding out my foot was too big (quite common I believe – I had to take my shoes off and drive in my socks)

However, I (and all the other 'super cars') were being overtaken constantly by the single seaters. They looked like way more fun.

The Single-seaters are very rapid and responsive.

I did a Formula Ford (with tuition in XR3i) there in the mid 90s. At the time I was 18 and knew that I was the world's greatest driver. They felt phenomenally fast and I can admit now that I was all over the place. Even so, I did manage a couple of small power-slides, much to the delight of the marshalls (who waved their blue flags in appreciation), shortly before I went off 😉

-It would be interesting to have a go again now that I've a lot more experience and know that I'm not actually the world's greatest driver.

-It would be interesting to have a go again now that I've a lot more experience and know that I'm not actually the world's greatest driver.

😉
When I got in the ferrari, the instructor asked me what car I had. When I told him a Honda Accord he smiled and said 'thank god for that, for a minute there I thought you were going to be another one of those gods gift to driving blokes.'

Did you go on to scare him despite the Honda?

I only occasionally drove my Dad's economy model cavalier at the time, so even the XR3i felt quite fast to me. It would be an understatement to say that the instructor wasn't impressed by my furious, exuberant, erratic lift-off over-steering 'style'. I loved it though.

I suspect that, quick cars and fast bikes later, the cars wouldn't feel as rapid to me these days, although the steering would still be sharp and I'd hope that with a lot more experience, knowledge and a much different attitude, I would be a lot smoother.

nah, I expect I was over cautious a lot of the time. The only time he was pressing his slow down button was on the long sweeping bend leading to the long straight when I was just putting my foot down and letting it go. The 360's are a bit prone to spinning round under power apparently so I guess he didn't fancy going into the wall.

Formula Ford (Single Seaters) day at Castle Combe is good