My dad was there and says it's one of the best days out he's had. Says they just let you out on track with all your mates/work mates and you race each other. he got to drive 8 different cars and also got taught how they do the pit stops in the formula 1 (changing tyres etc) sounds an excellent day and I'm hinting to him for my 21st!

 

I hope you get your wish Neale

One certainly is racing colleagues against the clock, not necessarily on track

 

I've been lucky enough to go 3 times in all, which was all paid for by suppliers through work :grin: last time I went was around 6 years ago but I can truly say its an awesome day out...

have to say its one of the few things I would spend my own money on if I could afford it as it was around a grand for the day 5-6 years ago so not sure how much it is now?

when I did my last track day there earlier this year i saw that you can now buy half days as well as the full day.

 

I did one many years ago too (1995 to be precise). It was absolutely brilliant, with numerous laps, no limit to what you did with the revs, around seven different vehicles and lasting all day.

The highlight was 15 laps in a 'Formula-something-thousand' (slicks and aerodynamics).

Mine was a corporate day too and I believe it was about £800 a head at the time.

In contrast, a few months back, I went with my son to a 'drive 5 high performance cars' afternoon, and it was utterly, utterly ****. There just wasn't enough time or room to get used to the cars and the instructor wouldn't allow anything above mild acceleration. He said it was great to try the cars, but incredibly frustrating.

 

It's a great day out. Expensive but worth it, was there last Saturday. Something to tick off the list.

 

I've done some race instruction there.

its a proper driving experience, all the guys there are or have bee racing drivers. and were trained to find you're limits !

 

I did one many years ago too (1995 to be precise). It was absolutely brilliant, with numerous laps, no limit to what you did with the revs, around seven different vehicles and lasting all day.

The highlight was 15 laps in a 'Formula-something-thousand' (slicks and aerodynamics).

Mine was a corporate day too and I believe it was about £800 a head at the time.

In contrast, a few months back, I went with my son to a 'drive 5 high performance cars' afternoon, and it was utterly, utterly . There just wasn't enough time or room to get used to the cars and the instructor wouldn't allow anything above mild acceleration. He said it was great to try the cars, but incredibly frustrating.

Andrew, I cant recall the year I did mine but yes I had a run out in a Formula 2000 car.

Marshall kept yellow flagging me as sparks were coming off the front wing due to the downforce of corneringin a double apex coner. GREAT FUN.

Tony (BasilBrush) I agree it is probably the only car driving event i woulkd spend my money on, or maybe a MSV track experience.

I was bought a fathers day present many years ago which was a Brands Hatch afternoon driving Fiesta & Formula First cars, that was good as well, but not a patch on the Palmersport day.

It's a great day out. Expensive but worth it, was there last Saturday. Something to tick off the list.

how about putting the video footage up then?

they only did a photo i nthe Formula 2000 car when i did it, will try to dig it out

 

I am surprised at how few people have done this.

 

I've been and its an epic day out.

Only gripe from me was the 1st car we were put in was the formula cars which wasn't ideal as a 1st outing not knowing track layouts and being in single seater race cars was an eye opening experience.

The rest of the time was brilliant and learnt so much from the instructors.

It did seem to be instructor led though, some people i was with weren't as complementary about their instructor, maybe that was down to them. Personally I've found when ever I've had tuition if you can give your instructor confidence early on they will repay you by pushing you pretty hard.

All in great day, if you've got the cash I'd recommend this and the Porsche experience days at silverstone

 

Craig, one of the groups has to go in the formula cars, you got the short straw by the sound of it.

I know what you mean with the instructors.

When I went there was one young instructor who show boated in the Mercedes SLK (slicks) and I got him as instructor, I think I put the fear of Christ in him on the first run through the timed slalom and all he could say was don't do this or that, totally ruined my concentration and resulted in worst time of the day, bettered it in a c class merc with road tyres with another instructor.

So when it came to ranking the instructors I gave everyone a10 and that guy a 1.
Not surprisingly I got a call from the chief instructor asking me why I had rated him so low.

I asked if he had checked my times & overall position for the day, which he said he had, I was 2nd out of 63 people on my day.
I then gave him chapter & verse of what he did wrong compared to all the other instructors and that whilst he may be a good race driver in what every category he raced in, when it came to him sitting beside a competent driver going fast he did not inspire any confidence and that's not good in the vehicles they use as it puts vehicle & driver at risk.

He thanked me for the feedback & said he would've having a word with him.
I doubt if he instructed again, and I don't feel sorry for saying so as it probably saved some other less confident person another day.

As it happened I knew a few of the instructors personally from my time as a motorsport photographer at Snetterton.
Michael Vergers even asked me where my Stuart was on the day as he had run Stuart around Snetterton in an original 1967 GT40 (gulf oil colours).