http://www.under17-carclub.co.uk/

Has anyone ever done it as either a child or parent?

Regards,
Dave

seen the young uns racing Saxos and I can tell you there are some bloody good drivers

Yep. Did it with both my daughters. Excellent fun. They used to have more venues towards the east of the country but now seemed to have swung more towards the west. Used to visit Top Gear track, Prodrives test track, North Weald, a couple of DSA tracks at Bracknell and ? a couple of (ex)military bases at Biscester and somewhere up the A1 and Castle Coombe.

Give a really good experience of learning to drive in a safe enviroment. They let you progress at a pace to suit you. Used to be every 3rd visit you'd get an instructor in with you to appraise your childs progress and point out what needed improving, with a check sheet to see how you were doing, and once you completed a check sheet you;d move up a grade. 5 grades in total. Once you attained grade 3 it was comprable to a driving test. Grade 2 and you could do the high speed course to enable you to drive Castle Coombe one way (normally set up for 2 way driving with rounabouts) after the grade 3 and lower finished for the day. Grade 1 lets you drive solo at all venues. And there's Grade X or the best of the best.

You also get a couple of fun days. Caterham days at silverstone, the slalom and drift days. Charity day a Castle Coombe where you get to drive or get driven in whatever they've managed to rustle up. This has included the usual caterham/westfields, classics of varying descriptions, a generous helping of supercars and the odd Hotrod. Usedto also do truck drive day where the Post Office would bring a few large vehicles down.

Would really recommed it, if you can handle getting up early on Sundays, the first couple of visits when you realise you are in your childs hands, and all you've got is a handbrake. I would say don't be to pushy to get up the grades. You will have "emotional" moments when pupil and teacher won't see eye to eye. You also get to be the most popular parent EVER, at least for a little while.

That's good info. How old were your daughters when they started?

My eldest started at 13 and my youngest at 12. Its definately worth it.

You start off driving round a big expanse of tarmac, depending which venue you start at, getting the hang of steering, braking and throttle. Then you'll get an instructor in with you and off you'll go to the marked out road network. This process is quick, my 2 spent 30-60mins picking up the really basic basics and then off you go. Remember this is nothing like learning on the road, it is a really safe enviroment. No one will be 2" from your back bumper getting anoyed, no one will be breaking any speed limits around you and every car will have super observant parent in it making sure their offspring won't be doing any damage to their or anyone elses car. In the 7 years I spent going I never saw any member crashing, scraping or nudging into anything or anyone.

Mine is 11, but I was thinking of doing it in a years time, so that correlates well