Now that I've dusted the Viento off and un-SORNed it my thoughts have turned to testing its handling. I've only lost grip on the rears a
couple of times on the open road and pushing it beyond its limit without knowing what's going to happen in that environment will end in tears, so
I was wondering if there is anywhere in the Nottingham/midlands area were its possible to do some testing.
Track days are fine for going fast, but I'm really looking for somewhere where you can spin or end up going sideways without any consequences -
so somewhere open to have a play. The apron at East Midlands Airport would be ideal, but I suspect that they would not be to happy with the idea 
If you can spare a day off work. 3 sisters at Wigan is available to hire at £60 h/r. You can't go crazy there as I there is tyre walls etc but you'll be able to sort the handling easily. It's nice and twisty but with a couple of fast corners and heavy braking zones. A good test for a car. £180 for 4 hours if needed
A skid pan would be ideal
It is a trek, but North Weald is ideal. Loads of space and nothing to hit. What i would say is that sliding on the track is very differernt to using the back end to steer on the road. Both are fun, but the police dont tend to like powerslides on the road! If you really wnat to explore the limits a wet air field is superb fun!
Try This
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=203526
Rear end squiggles on the road = bad times
Rear end squiggles on track = happy times
Loosing the rear end anywhere = bad times
TBH Steve, Blyton's about as safe as it comes apart from an open airfield. I know you did it last year and had a couple of 'moments'.
There's a couple of corners that you have to treat with respect but beyond that all you have to do is make sure nobody is directly behind you
before you start pushing the limits towards the point of spinning. My favourite corner is the double apex Bung Bunga down the bottom end but I never
sling it in fully commited if someone's behind me. You might remember it in my Z3? 
I'll definitely get along to Blyton again at some point - unfortunately I couldn't make the last day that Frank organised.
I suppose that what I'm really after is somewhere where I can play at doing doughnuts and power slides to build some skills. There is all that
open space between the main road and the track at Blyton but we were expressly forbidden to play on it. I did have a run over to the Rolls Royce test
centre at Hucknall airfield (closed) last year as its only a couple of miles from me to see if they would let me on. The security guard was helpful
but unfortunately they had just sold the tarmac bit to a housing developer who had already started to dig it up 
As rusty says, a skid pan would be good.
Pop your cap on backwards and get yourself down to MaccyDs carpark.....
Or enter an autotest/autosolo.
What about one of Oulton park's Drift days?
http://www.msvtrackdays.com/car/calendar/2016/may/20-op-drift.aspx
quote:
Originally posted by SteveWallace
I'll definitely get along to Blyton again at some point - unfortunately I couldn't make the last day that Frank organised.
I wanted a place to do the exact same thing with my car... Like you said, play around a bit, learn what it would do on or over the limit (mostly lower
speeds), lose control on purpose etc... Didn't want to do that stuff on a track day (guess a lot of it wouldn't be allowed).
I'm not that far from Millbrook Proving Ground and do some test work there occasionally for my OEM employer, so asked Millbrook if I could take
my car and pay their usual hourly fee for personal use.
They were basically happy for me to do it as long as i was covered by adequate insurance which ended up being something that could only be possible to
arrange through a ltd company. Therefore didn't go anywhere in the end...
Was gonna say Millbrook......
The track license is 40 squids. My vote would be Blyton......
Let me know if you find anywhere Steve, I'm near Mansfield and usually just find an empty industrial estate tbh, have to be carful tho as don't want to upset anybody....