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Experience Days - An Experience!
Hi guys
Well, it was my 21st last Monday (5th) and my parents were kind enough to buy me one of those track day experiences. You can do them all over the country, but I wanted to do mine at Thruxton as it is probably the best, fastest track in the UK.
My experience included a instructional ride in a Mazda3 MPS (amazing actually!) and driving the Porsche Cayman, Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 and a Formula Renault.
Lets start with the Mazda, the Mazda was pretty scary quick for a hot hatch, it has over 250bhp or something and is so smooth, the ride is brilliant and we were going round corners at 90mph+ with no problems at all. i don't know how much they are, but they would definately give most 'super' hot hatches a run for their money, I think it is certainly quicker than a Golf GTI and can't be far off the speed of the Clio V6.
The instructor drove the Mazda and showed us the track, giving us guidelines on what gear, speed, turn in points for all the corners and also other general stuff like checking mirrors, overtaking and general ettiqutte on track.
So on to the Porsche. This is an amazing car, it is so solid, handles the track brilliantly and is pretty quick too! Looks nice as well, it is basically a coupe Boxster and i think the Cayman looks better tbh.
It was a lot of fun!
I did 5 laps in the Porsche, just learning the track for myself, honing my skills and getting some speed up. Maximum speed was about 100mph on the back straight, but it could have gone a lot faster! It was information overload at points, driving on track with lots of cars around you is a lot different than driving on the road. Easier in a way as there are no cars coming the other way, but there are cars going very fast everywhere! Average speed at Thruxton is 70mph.
So, onto the Lambo, this was pretty special beast. The noise is incredible, just incredible and the power delivery is brutal. This is a 640bhp beast and the tyres are something to behold! They are 355/30 R18 on the rear (Pirelli P-Zero) and cost £1500 ea! But the grip they provide is truly remarkable, you can feel the car bite down as the tyres warm up and you floor it. The flappy paddle gear box is brilliant, but agian brutal...is very cool when you change down as it blips the throttle so you get a fantastic noise as you break. You don't want to get out of this car!
All the photos are taken at club chicane, you can see the car is perfectly balanced and to give you some perspective, the chicane is right at 90 degrees, left @ 90 degrees and then right @45 degrees onto the pit straight. The lambo was doing these corners at over 40mph whereas the Porsche could only manage 25mph with the tyres squeeling! The whole chassis in the Lambo is incredible, the tyres are something else and if you have the right gear and the TC off (brave!) you can just slowly add in the power to push you round with the 4WD. Truly awesome car and although you cannot see it in the pictures, I managed to get the Lambo up to around 150mph on the back straight, reason i say i think is because you are looking at the road ahead at that speed and not the speedo! That is what the instructor said tho, Martin Shaw, the owner of the car! I know Martin Shaw from somewhere in racing but couldn't place him on Saturday.
If you ever get a chance to drive a Lambo, make sure it is on a track, they are wasted anywhere else. The power is brutal, the suspension and chassis is magnificent, and the sound is just heavenly. Absolutely brutal.
Right, my favourite car of the day, the Formula Renault. This was probably the fastest accelerating, best handling, slowest top speed but biggest grin factor of the day. Although the car 'only' did 90mph, the feeling of going 90mph with your ass on the floor and looking down that long bonnet is just mind blowing. You could do every corner a little bit quicker in the Formula Renault, bringing down my lap times to the best of the day, it was a full 2 seconds faster than the lambo, despite the lambo doing 150mph on the back straight, simply because the Formula Renault went quicker round the corner! Truly awesome, again, highly recommended!
God knows what that crap French car was doing behind me
It couldn't keep up!
]
So yeh that pretty much concludes my day. If you ever have the opportunity to go to one of these experiences, then do it!
Graham
EDIT: Ringo closed down, so photo's died...photobucket now hosting! lol!
Well, it was my 21st last Monday (5th) and my parents were kind enough to buy me one of those track day experiences. You can do them all over the country, but I wanted to do mine at Thruxton as it is probably the best, fastest track in the UK.
My experience included a instructional ride in a Mazda3 MPS (amazing actually!) and driving the Porsche Cayman, Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 and a Formula Renault.
Lets start with the Mazda, the Mazda was pretty scary quick for a hot hatch, it has over 250bhp or something and is so smooth, the ride is brilliant and we were going round corners at 90mph+ with no problems at all. i don't know how much they are, but they would definately give most 'super' hot hatches a run for their money, I think it is certainly quicker than a Golf GTI and can't be far off the speed of the Clio V6.
The instructor drove the Mazda and showed us the track, giving us guidelines on what gear, speed, turn in points for all the corners and also other general stuff like checking mirrors, overtaking and general ettiqutte on track.
So on to the Porsche. This is an amazing car, it is so solid, handles the track brilliantly and is pretty quick too! Looks nice as well, it is basically a coupe Boxster and i think the Cayman looks better tbh.
It was a lot of fun!
I did 5 laps in the Porsche, just learning the track for myself, honing my skills and getting some speed up. Maximum speed was about 100mph on the back straight, but it could have gone a lot faster! It was information overload at points, driving on track with lots of cars around you is a lot different than driving on the road. Easier in a way as there are no cars coming the other way, but there are cars going very fast everywhere! Average speed at Thruxton is 70mph.
So, onto the Lambo, this was pretty special beast. The noise is incredible, just incredible and the power delivery is brutal. This is a 640bhp beast and the tyres are something to behold! They are 355/30 R18 on the rear (Pirelli P-Zero) and cost £1500 ea! But the grip they provide is truly remarkable, you can feel the car bite down as the tyres warm up and you floor it. The flappy paddle gear box is brilliant, but agian brutal...is very cool when you change down as it blips the throttle so you get a fantastic noise as you break. You don't want to get out of this car!
All the photos are taken at club chicane, you can see the car is perfectly balanced and to give you some perspective, the chicane is right at 90 degrees, left @ 90 degrees and then right @45 degrees onto the pit straight. The lambo was doing these corners at over 40mph whereas the Porsche could only manage 25mph with the tyres squeeling! The whole chassis in the Lambo is incredible, the tyres are something else and if you have the right gear and the TC off (brave!) you can just slowly add in the power to push you round with the 4WD. Truly awesome car and although you cannot see it in the pictures, I managed to get the Lambo up to around 150mph on the back straight, reason i say i think is because you are looking at the road ahead at that speed and not the speedo! That is what the instructor said tho, Martin Shaw, the owner of the car! I know Martin Shaw from somewhere in racing but couldn't place him on Saturday.
If you ever get a chance to drive a Lambo, make sure it is on a track, they are wasted anywhere else. The power is brutal, the suspension and chassis is magnificent, and the sound is just heavenly. Absolutely brutal.
Right, my favourite car of the day, the Formula Renault. This was probably the fastest accelerating, best handling, slowest top speed but biggest grin factor of the day. Although the car 'only' did 90mph, the feeling of going 90mph with your ass on the floor and looking down that long bonnet is just mind blowing. You could do every corner a little bit quicker in the Formula Renault, bringing down my lap times to the best of the day, it was a full 2 seconds faster than the lambo, despite the lambo doing 150mph on the back straight, simply because the Formula Renault went quicker round the corner! Truly awesome, again, highly recommended!
God knows what that crap French car was doing behind me
It couldn't keep up!]So yeh that pretty much concludes my day. If you ever have the opportunity to go to one of these experiences, then do it!
Graham
EDIT: Ringo closed down, so photo's died...photobucket now hosting! lol!
I'm trying to get a murcielago only day soon - very jealous lol
I say, totally agree with the grin factor of the single seater!!
I did the Ferrari 355 version of this driving day, and if I went back I would just do as many laps in the single seater as they would let me!
Fantastic fun.
I did the Ferrari 355 version of this driving day, and if I went back I would just do as many laps in the single seater as they would let me!
Fantastic fun.
Turtle4288
I say, totally agree with the grin factor of the single seater!!
I did the Ferrari 355 version of this driving day, and if I went back I would just do as many laps in the single seater as they would let me!
Fantastic fun.
I did the Ferrari 355 version of this driving day, and if I went back I would just do as many laps in the single seater as they would let me!
Fantastic fun.
Same, I wish they gave us 2 laps in the Porsche, 2 laps in the Lambo, 7 laps in the Renault, 3 laps in the Porsche, 3 laps in the Lambo kinda thing.
I swear your driving is so much better after driving the Formula Renault!
Looks like an amazing day. I've done one experience day - it was a stock car racing one with Incarace. Not so upmarket but I enjoyed it as much as you seemed to enjoy your session. I'm doing the same thing again this summer but at a different track. I'd love to do a day at a proper track though, that Renault looks so much fun - uber jealous.
namtlade
I'm doing a lambo drive on the 25th of july, can't wait. From driversdreamdays.com
You will love it, the car is amazing!
Petrolcarhead: The Renault was a lot of fun, best car of the day, if only they didn't limit the engine revs to 4,500rpm life would be better! Mind you, If they let everyone out in a full blown Forumula Renault, i think there will be accidents everywhere due to wheel spinning!
Do you know anywhere you could get a go in a Caparo T1? 
Haha I got back in my 1 litre Nissan Micra to go home and said...
"Oh god mum,dad... somethings wrong with my engine!! Look its barely accelerating up this hill!"
"Oh god mum,dad... somethings wrong with my engine!! Look its barely accelerating up this hill!"
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