We had a great year last year at work, growing the business by 104% over what they acheived in 2005.

As a result the boss has awarded me a "Ferrari Trackday"!!!!

He has suggested that I organise it and just tell him what it's going cost.

So any recommendations! I've had a quick trawl about on the internet, but some of them seem pretty expensive for the actual time you get to spend driving the car.

Ideally I'm looking for a day based at a track, rather than an airfield and as I'm based up North places like Brands Hatch and Thruxton are a bit of a pain to get to.

Cheers

Mike

Knockhill do one (http://www.knockhill.co.uk) but you don't get much time in the car (355) for your money

Cheers

Alex

cant you go tank driving ?

I did a Ferrari day a few years back, at a place near Prestwold Hall, Loughborough, Leicestershire.

You got to drive three different Ferraris.

328qv, 355, 360.

5 laps of the track with each car, not bad but you just get into it when you stop.

Its ok because there are other cars on the track so you get to overtake if your quick.

You also get to play in a landrover for half an hour on a 4x4 track.

Takes about 4 hours all in.

I think it cost around £200, ( was a 40th pressie).

Dont know how this compares with others.

If the boss is paying, why not try and book the Maranello track

Obviously if that's what you really want and you'll cherish the memories then its great someone else going to pay. So just find the company which offers the most track time.

Avoid any that heard you through a day with lots of other people as you want some 1 to 1 time ideally with an instructor who might let you actually get out of 1st!

However I would say a driver coaching day would benefit you more. Nothing personal meant by that of course

I did the one at Silverstone and to be frank it was rubbish. First you had almost 45 mins in a class room, then three laps in a Proton gti, then three laps in a Lotus Elise, then finally three laps in the Ferrari which in my case was a 328 which was so hammered it was not nice at all. This was topped off with a lap with a young driver who just threw the proton around into slides. In all it was 4,5 hours of my life lost. The cost was bourne by a company but had it been my money I would be very unhappy.
So do one by all accounts but just look at what you get before parting with the cash.

Did a corporate day at Brunters last year which included a drive in a 355 Challenge (ex race car).

My writeup from another forum.... ( http://www.migweb.co.uk/forums/vauxhall/car-talk/197137-day-bruntingthorpe-ferrari-f355-challenge-drive.html )

Day at Bruntingthorpe & Ferrari F355 Challenge Drive

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Its still fresh in my mind, and thoroughly amazing.

Yesterday I went to a corporate day at Bruntingthorpe where we had the normal "business" stuff in the morning, then an afternoon driving a Lotus, Kart, Impreza, Ferrari and 4x4.

All morning during the business stuff all you could hear was the wicked engine notes of Ferrari's and a Mercialago.

We were split into groups of 4, and my running order was Lotus, Karts, Ferrari, Impreza and 4x4.
As it turns out, there were 2 "packs" of cars and the Lotus and Ferrari were different between the 2 packs. Luckily we had the Ferrari F355 Challenge (ex race car!) although only a Series 1 Elise (verses the Series 2 the other guys had).

First off we (had an "instructor" in each car with us too) drove the Elise (with a engine cover held down by duct tape) and I was very very impressed. The "track" was slightly hard to envisage as it was just marked with a few cones dotted around the whole airfield and it wasn't that easy to commit to a corner when you've no real idea what happens next!

I've never driven an Elise before and I don't know what engine was in this one but it was quick, with excellent throttle response and tight handling. Not skittish at all either, which we were warned it would be.
It was a bit noisy inside with every little stone getting kicked up into the fibreglass wheelarches and sounding like a bullet had shot the car.
The Elise wasn't stripped out at all and was a road car with a rollcage installed, making it difficult to get in and out of even for me, at just 5'8". With the roof off it would have been a totally different story.

The seat I did notice was particularly poor. It was a fixed bucket affair but designed for a guy with a large arse, which I haven't, so around the twisty stuff I was sliding about a bit, not great.

I managed to overtake the other teams Impreza although you have to take into account that there were some really slow drivers out there and some people just couldn't get to grips with the layout, which was around 4 Miles I'd guess.

I got out of the Elise thoroughly entertained and understood now why so many people rave about them. I can only imagine how good the VX220 Turbo is, although I'll revise that later after the Ferrari!

The Karting I didn't bother with, they were single engined 4 strokes on a box section chassis, not what I'm used to! So I had a break out of the cold wind for an hour.

It was then time for the Ferrari. a F355 Challenge. This was an ex race car, massive Brembo calipers, drilled discs and decent Pirelli rubber, which wasn't slicks but well worn road tyres. I guess they have to ensure that if it rains you can still drive the cars.

Being a proper race car, it had a pretty large rear spoiler, some electronic speedo/rev counter setup to the left of the wheel and a manual gearbox. I think the only thing they'd changed from its race days was to put runners onto the seat so it could be adjusted for all the different shapes of people who would drive it.

5 point 3" belts held me securely in and whilst the steering wheel was a little high, the positioning was perfect.

Gearbox was weird, or at least the nice metal gate which was visible. Whilst I would call the Cally T's box a double H, this was a trebble H, there was a spare pair of gears to the left of 1st and 2nd. Although I guess one was reverse, you needed to life up a physical metal latch on the gate to go near those positions.
No handbrake either which meant as you struggled to get in over the rollcage the car tended to freewheel forwards/backwards as it weighed very little and any pressure on your standing foot was enough to get it moving.

I managed to get out of the "pits" without stalling, although I was nervous that it wasn't in 1st as it had very little travel on the lever, which was pretty long. Compared to the Elise which was a pretty short lever yet a poor linkage.
1st gear was very short and I was in 2nd before going more than about 20 yards. I was in 4th doing only about 50 before even getting onto the sliproad. I didn't want to wheelspin or look a **** before learning what the car did, still being unsure of exactly where the track went, having only had 3 laps in the Elise over an hour ago.

The first lap I left it in 4th and 5th, which included entering a chicane a bit too fast as I couldn't manage a downchange to 3rd, at least the instructor didn't think I could, so I left it in 4th.
After the 1st lap and a refarmiliarisaion with the course the 2nd lap was a flyer, the gearbox is an absolute gem and can be flicked between gears, with a very light clutch, better than any other car I've driven.
Don't get me started on the engine. All I can say is f*ck me, awesome. Nail it in any gear, at any rpm above about 3k and it just pulls your arse off up to 10k where I felt I should change up. Engine note was amazing, and the throttle respone totally totally totally instant. Every little mm of throttle travel had an instant response, throwing you forwards, hurtling down the track towards the next corner and the next spinning Scooby.

Yip. Some silly sod in "our" black Scooby decided to go too fast into the first chicane on the bottom corner and ended up across the track right in front of me, approaching at around 60.
Well, Brembo's larger than ever, stopped the car in about 50 yards and I then crept over the mini cones (about 8" high) which had been thrown across the track. Those brakes were wicked!

The next lap and a half were just insane. I passed the other scooby and the other F355 (standard road trim). The F355 was purely on accelleration out of the 2nd chicane after diving in close under braking.

OK it was twitchy on full throttle but very easy to control and just kept on pushing you forwards, which helps get the balance back.

Speeds? No idea. To be honest the only time I looked at the speedo was going into the first corner braking from 5th down to 4th then 3rd and I turned it doing about 95. It just didn't even cross my mind to look at the speedo when doing a lap, it was far too envolving planning the best line to the next turning point and ensuring that if the car in front got in the way, you didn't scare the instructor!

They say that the owner of the Mercialago (some magazine owner/writer, EDIT: EVO Magazine) did 192 (or 191, I can't remember) on the back straight but we had a chicane in the middle so I'd be guessing around 150 before braking for that.

I got out of the F355 and slapped my MD on the back, who was about to go next, and said "You'll f*cking love this".

My legs were shaking, the adrenaline was flowing and I was on a mental high.

The Elise, as a comparison was a pile of crap. Every car I've ever driven (the fastest I guess being a standard NSX) was a pile of crap.

What was really great was the total lack of any lag at all. Just instant, totally instant, throttle response. Not only in engine noise, but in movement, forwards at one hell of a rate.

Which brings me back to the VX220 Turbo owners. Did they test drive a standard 2.2 before buying the Turbo? Personally I'd never buy a turbo car again. OK it may have more power, but on the sprints between roundabouts or on a track, the NA car will feel much much better.

I was still on a high when I got into the Scooby (current bugeye shape). Again, like the Elise, a standard road going car. Comfy seats and normal seatbelts.

The car was already started and as we pulled away I noticed the engine light was on. I told the instructor and his response was, "I know, but thanks for telling me".

Pulling onto the track the boat, sorry Scooby, felt really really wallowy. OK, I'm sure that stepping out of a race car into a roadcar wasn't the best frame of mind to be in, but after a few corners I really was dissappointed. Acceleration was lame, no noticeable boost and not even quick, or so I thought.

Over the 3 laps I overtook the other elise (which I'm sure was slower than ours) and the roadgoing F355.

The instructor asked me what I thought of the car, and I told him, being blunt, that I thought my Calibra was significantly faster and better handling. I did however admit that I'd just come from the F355 30 mins ago and therefore was probably too critical.

Thinking back, I'm sure that the Scoobys management will not be dissimilar to the Vxl stuff, and the fact that the engine management light was on, probably means that boost was being cut and/or timing altered, at the very least.

A poor show indeed, but perhaps there were mitigating circumstances.

Due to the fact that the Ferrari was so fast (and therefore completed its laps quickly) we then had a good 30 mins sheltering from the wind before the 4x4 experiance.

The 4x4 was a bog standard Frontera SWB Diesel with some larger nobbly tyres. Everybody was slagging it off as being a Vauxhall.

Firstly the instructor took us all (yip, 3 on the rear bench is tight!) round the course, which included 2 blinking steep hills to go up and down, as well as a see-saw in the water and some smaller lumpy stuff.

When it was my turn I thoroughly enjoyed it. The circuit was only about 6 minutes long but gassing a 4x4 at 4k rpm in low ratio up what must have been a 60 degree slope, is pretty cool! Especially when its bouncing as it hits large rocks and potholes.

I'd never done anything off road before so this was something new. Very slow, literally tickover, in low ratio, through the sticky stuff, then gassing it up hills.

The course ended with a pair of parrallel logs around 30 meters long which you had to stay ON. Well as we were last on this event, it had previously had loads of attempts and was covered in mud and damp. I got about 80% of the way across before I fell off. Difficult when you've got massive tyres, no feedback and your in a car you don't know.

Good fun though, and something that I'd probably stick above the Elise drive, certainly above the Scooby.

We drove back to the pits and when we arrived the presentations was under way. Hm... they forgot about my team!

I've no idea how the points were scored, but out of 40 poeple, I got 4th overall with 37 points. 3rd was 38, 2nd 38.5 and 1st had 39.

The points were awarded by the instructors of each event and given that they hadn't included our 4x4 drive, and I'd not done the Karting, having enough points to earn me 4th was pretty good!

Naturally we were encouraged to drive home safely and I duly did, hardly even touching 70!

The point of all the above?

Well....

Whatever you do in life, just make sure you save up the £229 it is to drive the F355 Challenge. I really can't explain how good it was, how perfect every attribute of the car was. Totally stunningly awesome is all I can say.

The £229 package (which pictures the exact car I drove) can be seen at http://www.driversdreamdays.co.uk/product.asp?id=192 and what we did appears to be very similar to http://www.driversdreamdays.co.uk/product.asp?id=10 except we didn't get the Porsche, but we got to drive the 4x4 which this lists as a passenger ride.

All in all an amazing afternoons fun.

Get saving

[Edited on 15/1/07 by the_fbi]

I did a day JCB racing near Durham a few years ago at digger land http://www.diggerland.com/

Have to say that was pretty cool!

Cheers

Mark

[Edited on 15/1/07 by mookaloid]

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/products/products/204339/driving_schools.html

AGS formule one school at paul rickard in
france!!

You will actually drive a 1999 prost F1-

500kgs and 650 BHP!!!

there is one snag.........£1800!!

les

Hi Mike

As some of you will know, I was an Instructor working for Jonathan Palmer at Bedford Autodrome until we moved to Devon. In my opinion Bedford is one of the very best Corporate venues because of the tremendous safety and run-off areas. This allows the guests to drive absolutely to their limit with the encouragement of the instructor. Generally, Armco is very much closer to the action on racing circuits and for this reason, speed limits are imposed and you may come away feeling cheated. If you look at Palmer's website http://www.palmersport.com/ you will see a mouthwatering array of veheicles, all of which you can drive absolutely flat out. It is a very full day with absolutely no padding and I guarantee you will be completely wrung out after a day there. It is expensive but work it out in time per pound spent driving compared with Siverstone or Goodwood and I think it stacks up well.

Whatever you decide, I hope you have a really good day and remember the Instructors motto, "If in doubt, flat out!"

John