Prestwold
Hall Driving Experience Day
Date:
Friday 20th October 2006
Time: 9.30am - 3.30pm
Location: Prestwold Hall, Loughborough , Leicestershire
Vehicles: Ferrari 360,
Ferrari 550, Lamborghini Gallardo, Aston Martin DB9, Subaru
Impreza, Mitsubishi Evolution
The
following is the schedule I was given before I arrived at
the driving experience day.
"The
day starts at 9.30am for registration and bacon rolls, then
it's straight to the cars so make sure you are on time. One
group will head off to the track for a taste of the high life
in supercars whilst the other will burn tyres like Colin McRae
on the rally course. Lunch will be served then it will be
all change: those who were slipping and sliding in the rally
cars will burn like Beckham in the supercars and those who
have been shaken not stirred in the Aston Martin before lunch
will head to the rally course. The day will end around 3.30pm
and you should wear comfortable clothes and sensible shoes
(no stilettos...). All specialist equipment will be provided."
So
the day was to be split into supercar
driving experience & a rally
driving experience
The
day started nice and early as I was going to give myself around
1 hour extra than I *should* need to get to Prestwold Hall,
that is also taking in to account the traffic for early in
the morning rush-hour. The weather was wet with light rain
as I set off and it not stopping on my journey there, not
quite the conditions you want when you are set to be at the
wheels of a number of extremely fast and extremely expensive
supercars...
 I
had printed my directions out and it was simple enough and
I made good progress, right up to the last little bit where
you head out of town and onto roads out in nowhere. I had
been expecting signs for a while pointing me in the direction
of Prestwold Hall but there wasn't any. I then spent an hour
within 5-10 miles of Prestwold Hall trying to find it. There
literately was no signs pointing to the place which I thought
was crazy, I had passed a Hummer going the opposite way from
me and had contemplated following it as I thought it might
be heading to Prestwold Hall but I didn't in the end and carried
on trying to find it myself. Anyway, time was getting on and
it was about 9.25 when I finally turned the corner and I saw
the entrance to Prestwold Hall, at that very moment the sun
peeped through the clouds which I took as a sign that the
day was just going to keep getting better.
You drive onto the Prestwold Hall is actually an old airbase
and that is what the track is built on. As you enter and drive
down you will see some huts/rooms on your left, this is the
section where the Rally Driving starts to take place but you
don't park up there, you follow the road down to the next
set of huts/rooms and park up there.
After
parking up and walking over to register myself in and have
a quick brew I noticed the Hummer parked outside, I kicked
myself...
With the brew quickly finished I went out and had a look over
the cars outside we were set to drive, it was heaven. 2 Ferraris,
2 Aston Martin DB9's & 2 Lamborghini Gallardos all parked
up in a row (in trademark bright colours of Orange and Yellow)!
We
were then split into 6 groups and handed an itinerary for
the day, with 3 groups sent to the Rally car section and 3
groups (including mine) send to the Supercar section!
Inside we were given a safety briefing and instructions about
what we would be doing and also shown a video of the circuit
and also a couple of pictures of a Ferrari that someone had
managed to write off on a previous track day...After this
we we got our helmets and then went outside where we would
wait for our go in each car.
When
we went outside we were taken round the circuit in one of
the Subaru just to give us a familiarization of the track
so we had an idea where abouts we would be heading.
Next
it was time to get behind the wheel and start the supercar
driving experience...Read on...
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