In response to the suggestion in this thread i booked the wife and I on to a a Westfield experience day. It was steep at £200 each but it was an anniversary present so i thought what the heck.

Basic format of the day was a bit of instruction and an explanation of the 2 cars. One a race car with a full cage and a 1600 sigma engine and the other was a road car with a 2lt zetec.

We all (14 of us) had 5 laps of a short autotest/slalom course in each car.

We got split into 2 groups and had a few goes at a figure 8 drift type doughnut course which was bloody tough.

Then we had a pretty good lunch provided, sat around chatted to the mechanic and instructors, all very nice and interested. The mechanic was really interested in my car build.

After lunch we had another go at a the drifting before setting up the big course for the final timed event.

We had 2 set of 5 laps again in each car with the final set being timed.

The instructors were exhuberantly smoking the tyres up all round the course but it soon became clear to everyone that you only need to spin the wheels at 2 particularly tight doughnut cones to get fast times.

Apparently the day before the winner smoked everyone else by around 3.5 seconds. They said they were amazed everyone was so close with our group. The top 8 were within 1.4 seconds. I came 5th and my wife just behind in 6th by 0.3 seconds. She was so smooth and hardly looked out of shape at all.

I had a really good day even if the seat time was only about an hour, It was actually the first time ive drive a seven and I loved it!