I've been lucky enough to have been on a number of track days, both in my own car and driving others. To date they include a variety of cars at Prestwold Hall including an S2K, Lamborghini, and Porsche 911 (I enjoyed the S2K the most which is partly why I recently bought one); another on an airfield driving a Ferrari, Imprzza STI RS, Evo V, Lotus Elise, Westfield Megabusa (and my then E36 M3 EVO); the mad day at Bedford Autodrome driving the JP1 amongst other things, two days at Brands Hatch and a couple of track days years ago in my supercharged MK1 Golf.

Anyway, I was offered the chance to go on another track day last week along with two others (a perk of the job!) and we decided that we would prefer to get some proper training rather than just go on another track day driving a variety of cars. We chose a day organised by Anthony Dunn, driving a Lotus Exige at Silverstone.

All I can say is it was fantastic. We learnt more on that day than on all the others combined and got loads of track time (approx 40 laps each). It was pouring with rain most of the day and although this was initially a worry I now believe it was probably better as a result. Anthony was such a good tutor I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have gone any faster in the dry without tuition. He covered the correct lines, driving technique, wet lines, controlling oversteer and understeer properly and rather than restricting us he encouraged us to increase our speed. I had one major slide turning in to the cornner at the end of hangar straight but was calm and somehow avoided a full spin - Anthony just said that next time I have to do it one handed with my arm out of the window!

Anyway if you're interested, his site is www.anthonydunn.co.uk and there's a link to his driving tuition page on that site.

It was about

 

Good write-up.

400+VAT for a 1/3 share in an instructed Exige day isn't bad going. Assume 10-5 track, less 1hr for lunch, so 6hrs. Car probably 50/50 on and off track, so say 3hrs on-track = 1hr each. If you did 40 laps then probably a little more than an hour.

Not a bad price...I paid 294 for a Caterham at an evening BaT trackday at Donington with only 1 session of instruction (managed 1hr 15 or so on-track), their full days are more like 700+, and you'd get I guess 3hrs of track-time tops, so this is only twice the price (GBP1,410) for an Exige and a professional instructor.

 

We arrived at 8.30 for a half hour briefing then it was out on track. We were the last ones off the track and it was supposed to shut at 5.30 but we weren't off until about 5.45.

As well as driving ourselves, we had fast demo laps and "doing all the wrong things" laps to demonstrate the resasoning behind what was being taught.

If you paid

 

Not bad at all then.

The reason I suggested twice the cost was
(a) his website says 400+VAT...if your company picked up the tab, then it only cost the company 400 each; and
(b) I was assuming around 3-4hrs of track-time, i.e. directly comparable to the BaT trackday, where you'd manage 3-4hrs on-track out of a typical 7hr day.

My evening event was cut a little short by the light, and I didn't make ultimate use of the time as I was talking to the wife and best friend some of the time...maybe a little silly but I didn't do THAT badly.


I think this is another one to put on the 'once I've a job and am earning some money again' list!

 

One thing I didn't mention was that 9 laps on an Exige experience costs