Anyone done a rally day at all!

had an...............experience today at a "Rally experience" day today.

 

Firstly it was a pressy from the missus from last Xmas and the option was Rally , single seater, saloon car, and odd Kart like things. The venues are all different and when I booked it a few weeks ago I thought hey weather is bound to be rubbish so went for the rally option, you know lots of rough surfaces, gravel, dirt, whatever.

 

Surprised I was then to find a section of flat dry tarmac ( old airstrip) with a number of lorry tyres arranged to make a circuit!!

 

Disapointing to say the least! hey ho I thought get on with it, briefing, overalls, helmet lets go!! and the option car was either a 130bhp Ford Focus or a 130bhp Ford Focus..........arghh the missus has one of them.

 

Still they had big exhausts on and slick tyres, stripped out etc , etc, will be fun eh?? Right line up at the start, go first gear thrash to 6k revs, hit second gear, 6k revs heavy brake for slalom, right turn on the gas, straighten out and upto third gear hard on the brakes for next bend, etc etc, end of the lap instructor side blances me and says your driving too fast!!! you will not learn that way...doh!!! whats that all about? you get 10 laps and that your lot so my view was have some fun,I was reminded that if customers did not comply they would be asked to leave!!! as it was not a competition???????

 

To be honest the guy later took me as a passenger and he abliterated my over eager performance, yes he was good but the whole event seems so patronising it left me feeling dispointed, I aint told the missus yet, she paid the best part of £150 for it so will do the happy face to save her feelings.

 

Just a thought if anyone here fancys a go, I would defo visit the venues as a spectator first (free) to be sure it is what you are expecting.

 

As a by-line the best part was as we all left the instructor climbed into a Saxo as I very gently keeping the exhaust note to a deep burble drove past him in my zed, the look on his face made my day.

 

Jeff TT

All instructors on theese things are crap at racing...

Pay your money...do your thing.

Done a few track days (bike) and had loads of fun...instructors(?) on theese days generally ex racers so know what its all about....

Glad u enjoyed it though, even though it sounds like u had him worried!!!...haha :dance:

I asked about this last week, been considering booking myself on one. Found one based in mid Wales, looks good, you use part of a stage from the British Rally. Sounds pretty good.

 

 

Barry.

Did the one at Brands Hatch last year (pressie from GF). They had 2 tracks both based on a mix of tarmac and dirt. Instructor was great and I had a blast.. Great day out :)

 

Steve :)

i always fancied having a go, but when i asked about it all i got was rubbish tracks and weak cars ;) . i had GREAT fun thrashing an 11-litre tank around a course once tho :)

:rofl: Bet he was gutted when he saw you in the zed! :D:D:D

did a track day with mgf's formula renaults(i think) and a few laps in an f355, was ok but not great, got told off for thrashing the ferarri! instructors words "a bit of mechanical sympathy please!"

 

I found the gearbox to be a bit odd so I shoved it in third and redlined it a few times! :D

I have never fancied one of these "days out" for this very reason. All I've heard about are limited revs, being told off and square instructors!

My mate got thrown off the Brands Hatch one too!! Seems he scared the living shit out of the 'instructor' who aslo told him that he was not learning anything. Then my mate pointed out that he happened to be the LAP RECORD HOLDER at Brands in the 400 Super Sport Class :rofl: :rofl: :cool:

I used to be an "instructor" at Mallory Park for a 'days out' company called Everyman.

I had no training, no racing experience whatsoever, and no real guidelines to follow!! Just had to tell punters what buttons did what on the car (formula ford single seaters) and send them on their way!

 

Most of the other guys were firemen - employed because they can deal with the crashes properly - but the rest of us were only there to help out really. However, most of OUR punters had the most fun - because the other guys thought they were something special :nono: .

 

Jeff - if you did the Everyman rally school (it sounds very similar) then there's a very good chance that the guy in the Saxo was an ex-colleague of mine called Tommy. A great laugh but, bit of a chav - had an XR3i before that if I recall :).

 

Excellent job tho, would recommend it to anyone :-

7:30am saturday (slight hangover) - cars need 'warming up' - 10 laps of Mallory Park: no suspension to speak of, no weather protection, no helmets, no safety harness, no rules!!!!! 100+mph u-turns are wicked fun on an empty track :D :D :D .

i did the oulton park one in a formula palmer audi, it was great fun. excellent track. also did a bmw day at rockenham where i got to thrash brand new m3 csl, 645i, z4 3.0, 730d that was fun too as the bmw instructors were egging you on to go faster all the time, especially the z4 bloke as i was keeping with the m3's

I think I did the same day out as Davido140. Thruxton. The laps in the F355 were ok, also told be to 'be careful with the car'. Still, got it sidways on 2 occasions and got some throttle stear out of certain corners! :D

The single seater Formula Renault were AWESOME though. Never had so mush fun! You're on your own in a 130bhp car that weighs the same as a bag of feathers, tearing up the track.. Even over took the Lambo Mercielago, well, it was being driven by a granny on her 75 birthday! :x:

Defo do it again