Red letter day/driving experiences

[hutchyvw 0]

I'm tryin to choose one for my birthday in november and would appreciate any feed back.

 

i'm considering the single seater circuit ones

 

or maybe the supercar eg porsche, noble m12 etc.

 

are they worth the money eg do you get a decent amount of track time as they're all a bit vague.

 

i've got about £295 max at my disposal.

 

cheers

[dinkus 10]

I've done the Palmer Audi one that I was given as a birthday present one year. It was pretty good fun, you got to take a TT round Brands to learn the track and then you were let loose in a Palmer Audi. They didn't like you revving them though 'please keep the revs below 4000rpm or we'll bollock you'

 

Good fun either way, just not sure if it's really worth the money.

[dr_mat 0]

For that money you can do a cheap trackday AND rent a car. Ok, it might only be something like a 205 1.9 GTi, but you'll be able to thrash it as hard as you like and you'll be able to do more like 2-3 hours of actual on-track time. The "driving experiences" as dinkus points out, are quite restricted.

 

Alternatively, you can just take your C on the track, and see what it'll do. :)

 

Take a look at http://www.easytrack.co.uk or http://www.bookatrack.com. Easytrack are renting out Caterhams for £399 the whole day. Get together with a mate, or rent it for half a day and you're sorted. They used to offer Lotus Elise, Pug 205 GTi and some others too, you're better off calling them for more details.

[dinkus 10]

I like dr_mat's suggestion, get your C on the track or rent something instead! :D

 

jimsG60 is suggesting a Corrado track day in November and Donnington IIRC, so that could be a good opportunity. That'll only set you back about £100, but you'll need to sort out track insurance too.

 

Bookatrack are IMHO one of the best track day organisers, as they won't take any reckless driving (doesn't mean you can't go fast!). They also hire out Caterhams ;)

[Jim 1]

I'd rather do a supercar day to be honest dr_mat - I can drive my Corrado any time, but I can't drive a Porsche 911 / Lamborghini Diablo / Noble M12 GTO / etc!!

[dr_mat 0]

I know what you're saying Jim, but you might find yourself desperately disappointed by how much ACTUAL driving you do if you fork out your £250 to potter around the circuit twice at 3000rpm in that Porsche 911. You'll learn more about yourself as a driver by taking a car to it's (and your) limits.

 

But I suppose it depends what you want to get out of it. :)

[Linus Van Pelt 0]

...this is what I'll be mostly doing for my birthday :) (also in November :lol: )

 

http://www.ridedrive.co.uk/sessionsprices.htm

 

...probably more worthwhile and beneficial in the long run, but whatever floats yer boat I guess ;)

 

LvP.

[dinkus 10]

...this is what I'll be mostly doing for my birthday :) (also in November :lol: )

 

http://www.ridedrive.co.uk/sessionsprices.htm

 

...probably more worthwhile and beneficial in the long run, but whatever floats yer boat I guess ;)

 

LvP.

 

Yup, I'm going to do a similar thing with http://www.carlimits.com/ They do days at North Weald airfield, which is nice and close to me and only costs £150. Went down to see the guy yesterday and he does some seriously impressive things with a car! He also does a lot of advanced Police driver training, which doesn't sound that great til he said he has to teach them all to drive from scratch again :lol:

[andycowuk 0]

hutchyvw, you might concider Knockhill sinse its not that far away for you. They dont have the super cars, but you can get a good bit of track time in the Legends or the single seater race cars.

 

http://www.knockhill.com/acatalog/

[Bally 0]

I did Formula 3000 last year at Brands Hatch, was wicked day, came 3rd out of 16 which I was chuffed with :D

[hutchyvw 0]

I like dr mat's suggestion.

 

i've phoned easytrack and am waiting for a call back regarding the caterhams 8)

 

cheers guys.

 

any more recommendations will be appreciated :)

[24V Renshaw 0]

I would not bother with a supercar driving day, they limit you so much that all you feel is shortchanged. You have much much more fun in an Elise or a Caterham, or your C, where they let you actually go for it!!

I did a driving day which was a Ferrari 355, TVR Griffith 500, WRX and an Elise and the best one by miles was the Elise as they actually got you to drive quick. The Ferrari was literally just a drive round.

The best buzz I ever got though was a track day in my own car, you know it and you go as fast as you can!

 

Jay

[Jim 1]

I didn't realise they were so restrictive with the supercars, though I can understand why they do it.

 

Ho hum. Nothing is ever quite as it seems.

[Henny 0]

I did the red-letter Tank driving day for my 21st and had such a laugh it was untrue! There ain't no restrictiors on Tanks!

 

Oh, and tomorrow I'm doing this... 8)

[Dilated 0]

I've had a £250 voucher sat in my name for the last like 4 years or something stupid... Yea, i'm crap ok, but i'm gonna do it soon. Was thinking to chip in the extra £75 or whatever it is and do the 6 hours rally driving experience. Sounds pretty good. I thought about the ferraris to start with but then realised they would probably not enjoy you thrashing them round the track much.

 

Anyone done the rally day?

[Henny 0]

Anyone done the rally day?

 

Nope, but it's on my list for my 30th next year! :D 8)

[VR6 0]

You a biker then Henny?

[Henny 0]

You a biker then Henny?

 

Not since I was 16... :| I'd like to get back into it though, although I have a nasty feeling I'd end up killing myself if I got a sports bike, so I've been looking at stuff like Bandits/monsters and Harleys... 8)

 

Need to get my licence first though, but this day should give me an indication as to if I'm likely to be any good! :lol: 8)

 

It's for a mates 40th, there's 10 of us going and I'm the only one without a bike licence... :| :oops:

[G60Dan 0]

I did a Porsche day in a carrera 2 race car the in August. Wicked day!! Defiantly recommend the super car day!! Awesome car! 8)

[del68 0]

The wife got me a Virgin Thrill Experience for my birthday earlier this year, choices between Rally, 4X4 or single seater. Not too sure how much she paid but all three only gave "2 to 3 hours at the site, to include briefing, instruction and time out on your own" I went for the single seater, bit daft of me as I'm not exactly small, either way, I only got about 25mins actual track time with an without the instructor at Goodwood. Most of the time was taken up, with the briefing, (braking, racing lines etc.) and alot of time was wasted as an instructor took 2 people at a time out on the track, while this is going on you are just stood around.

 

I went back to Goodwood a month or so later with a mate who has a Porker 944 for a track day and had a better time, more time on the track both as a driver and a passenger. That was about £195.00 for the day and included lunch!

 

I would not go for the Virgin thing again but it all really depends what you want out of it. I wanted more time actually driving on my own.

[seanoVR 0]

I did the Ferrari 355 day at Silverstone. You got to drive a TT 3.2V6 for 3 laps to learn the track, then an Elise for another 3 laps and then the 355 for 3 final laps. So only 9 laps in all but still a great day out. Like G60Renshaw says, the elise is wicked as you can really go for it round the bends and hit the limiter while upshifting (or get close to it!!) The more expensive cars they tend to be a little more wary of you, obviously.

But still a great experience for 250 quid.

[Joe M 0]

Personally I wouldnt bother with Red Letter Day as there is a large mark up on them. Find out what you want to do then go direct to one of the tracks that do it, cut out the middle man. (My work accepts some of the Red Letter Day vouchers so I know what they add on.)

[PhatVR6 0]

I'm going on one in a fortnight.

 

caterham

 

ferrai 348

 

then a ferrari 355

 

all for free! my mate gave me the ticket as he can't go as he's away on business!

 

oh joy :mrgreen:

[vr6storm 0]

I'm going on one in a fortnight.

 

caterham

 

ferrai 348

 

then a ferrari 355

 

all for free! my mate gave me the ticket as he can't go as he's away on business!

 

oh joy :mrgreen:

 

and the words jammy git also spring to mind :-P

[RadoAds 0]

My wife bought me the Elise track day at Donnington some years ago, it was brilliant and one of the best days ive ever had, I thought the instructor would have only let you go fast up to a point, but surprisingly he wanted me to nail it silly which was ok by my :lol: , after an awesome afternoon he then tried to scare me by really pushing it himself for a final lap but i think I upset him by asking him questions about the state of tune of the Elise rather than holding on for dear life, anyway i'd highly recommend it, but like someone said earlier contact your local track first as they do tend to offer the better deals and i dont think that they would let you push a 100k ferrari round a track like they did the Elise, I liked it that much we ended up calling our daughter Elise, good job i didnt take the Peugeot 306 gti which was also on offer or she'd have got picked on something rotten at school :(