Recommended a track day

[Austin]

Hi All,

Could anyone recommend a good track day experience where the car is also provided.

It’s for a gift for a mate who deserves a speak special treat, so I am happy to travel anywhere in the country for the right experience. He is based in London

Looking for a good flowing track and a company that allows you to open the cars up and learn how to push a car.

Thanks

 

[RichieP]

Thruxton near Andover has an Alpine A110 provided for a track day, not sure how far they will let you push the car, but still looks exciting.

 

[mmm-five]

Bookatrack.com (or want2race.co.uk now) will hire out a Ginetta racer, and/or a Caterham SV at most of their track days (Silvertone & Goodwood would be your closest) - it's about £450/day though (including car hire, track day, fuel, etc.), and you get to drive it any way you want (within reason).

I used to buy these in bulk for about £2k upfront, and got 6 events out of them. Then decided to use my own car...which ended up costing about £10/year

Silverstone also does their own driver experience days and you can drive anything from race cars (single seaters & BMW BMW M2) to supercars (F430, AM Vantage) - be aware that most experience places will have height/weight restrictions (e.g. not shorter than 5ft, not taller than 6ft 6in, no heavier than 18 stone, etc.).

I've only ever done 2 'experience days'...one was about £250 and I probably had 2 laps in each of a tired F355 and 911 of some sort. The other was a £499 'track car experience' and was better, but still about 15 minutes in 4 different cars (an hour over the whole day, but with lunch included) - cars were Ariel Atom, Caterham R500, Renault Spyder and another I can't remember.

Unfortunately both of those are over a decade ago (probably more), so no real recent experience.