Hi,

Its the old boys birthday in a few months, looking at doing a single seater experience day. Would ideally like something in the north, if good willing to travel to the midlands.

Looking for a single seater day with the opportunity for a wee bit of tuition and a track to test skills and acquire times - bit of competition with the old boy so timed etc is wanted.

Not wanting something where you sit about for ages, drive round an oval and get 2 seconds in the car when it is your turn

Cheers

 

Silverstone race school used to have single seater Formula Ford type cars that they let drivers hire on the Stowe circuit.
They also used to do a track session, with an instructor and an assessment of your driving in an Elise on part of the main circuit.

Both sessions you were encouraged to find your limits, and given help with technique etc.

I was bought it for my 30th birthday, and the assessment encouraged me to go out and get a race licence, I haven't looked back since.

 

I did a Single Seater vs Caterham day at Mallory Park. It was ok, but the Single Seater driving was in a train behind an instructor in an Evo or similar, so I had to keep dropping back and accelerating to get a rpoper run at the corners. The Caterham instructor sensed my disappointment and let me hoon a bit in his car, which was much more fun. I did a Single Seater-only day at Castle Combe and it was excellent. Training (passenger and driving) in a surprisingly capable Fiesta, then 6 full laps (excl in/out laps) in a rev-limited Formula Ford, but you could push as hard as you liked within the rev limit. There were a couple of minor spins at the chicane (not me!) and they were quite happy with that. Very friendly instructors.

 

Knock hill offer single seater days. I can't comment on them beyond that.

 

Most race schools have single seaters actually, so perhaps the best thing to do is to speak to whichever circuit he fancies and make sure you speak to the race school, not the experience day people (to avoid having to sit in a queue behind an instructor who's driving to the speed of the slowest in your train).

 

I've done the formula ford and the elise experience at Silverstone, though we are going back 10 years or so.

The formula ford experience was on Stowe circuit and involved two 15 minute sessions with some feedback inbetween. There were other cars on the circuit and it was run on track day overtaking rules where overtaking was by consent, but slower cars were blue flagged to tell them to move over. It was racing without the overtaking and really good fun.

The elise experience involved around 6 laps of the south circuit. Even though we were scored, it was a much more limited experience.

 

Thanks guys.

 

Another thumbs up for the Silverstone single seater sessions here. I did one a few years back, unfortunately on the day itself it was as soggy as hell and the single seaters were very nearly cancelled. But when we eventually got on the track it was so much fun that I really want to do it again. First session you're divided in to small groups and follow a pace car to get used to the car/track, second session there's no pace car and you're allowed to overtake but in designated areas and only on the left. Definitely a cracking time.