Prestwold
Hall Driving Experience Day
Rally Driving experiences
  Finally
after we had finished our own personal driving of the supercars
it was time to be taken on an individual high speed lap in
a Subaru Impreza by one of the instructors. Now the Impreza
is an amazing car, plenty of grunt and 4 wheel drive. My turn
arrived and I jumped in, the guy who was to take me on my
flying laps was an older guy who was a great laugh. He loved
his cars and after his pep talk from me telling him "I
want this to be the fastest lap you do all day, really go
for it" he set off. It was unbelievable, he still talked
as he went round but the things he could do with the car were
unbelievable, and I think he did go that extra bit for me
as he managed to get the back end to slide out and just clip
the cones all completely within his capabilities. A high speed
passenger ride for anyone is well worth going on and relatively
inexpensive, just to appreciate the difference between a good
driver and a great driver who really knows their stuff and
can do things with a car that you can only dream of having
the confidence to do!
 After
this it was time for lunch, so a venture inside gave chance
for everyone to discuss their favorite car of the day so far
and get ready for the swap round and onto the rally cars which
again would be a new driving experience for me.
We
were chauffeured over to the rally section, again we were
given a quick briefing about what we would be doing. Everyone
was taken out to show us the track which was marked  out
with cones and was to be done on tarmac. Next it was our turn,
there was 2 Evo's, a left hand drive one and a right hand
drive one and 2 groups using them. Now my instructor had said
these Evo 4's were the best Evo made, before they started
to get luxuries put in them, plus this one was totally stripped
out and a proper rally version. These cars are absolutely
unbelievable, being 4 wheel drive and pretty light they shift,
very quickly, so you deck it forward and then stamp on the
breaks then let off them and turn and the car just goes exactly
where you point it, the immediate response was awesome and
it's an unbelievable experience to be able to have so much
confidence in the car that you know it will go exactly where
you want it to. Again your instructor gives you tips as you
fly round saying the best breaking and turning points. It
would have been nice to have been able to take this car out
onto a real rally section but again the day was designed to
give a taster of each driving experience so there was not
time to do this.
After this we then jumped into a rally VW Polo, completely
lacking in power but obviously designed as a car that they
are happy to let people try out handbrake turns and what not,
this time we got to detour off the tarmac track and onto the
mud and dirt to powerslide it through corners which was loads
of fun!
Next
up on the rally driving experience came our high speed ride
round the track. It was crazy, the driver managed to get the
Evo round the coreners at speeds that seemed impossible while
setting himself up for the next corner. Like the other high
speed passenger ride it will blow your mind the control and
skill these drivers have and what they can do with the car
and the speed they can do it, you can't help but have a huge
grin on your face all the way round!
 After
we'd had our fill of mud we were moved onto the slowest event
of the day, blind fold driving in a little kart.
A course was set out with comes to drive between and you had
one of the other members of the group giving you instructions
as to where to drive and see if you could make it round the
circuit and park back up in the box without hitting anything.
It was a good giggle and you had an instructor with you controlling
the accelerator and break so you just had to concentrate on
steering! It was a good laugh and a good "filler"
of time and well planned to make sure that everyone constantly
had something to be doing.
 After
this we were taken back to the main building where it was
time for presentations and that sort of stuff.
On the table were our score cards from our earlier assessment
so everyone grabbed their own, I got a pleasing 94 out of
100. All the scores from each group had been tallied up and
the winning team with the most points all got a trophy each,
unfortunately it wasn't our team although I think overall
we came second. Then there was the individual trophy for the
person who got the best mark, with an amazing 99 out of 100
(he must have been a pro, not that I'm bitter at not winning...).
Then that was it, the driving experience day over and time
to drive home, again with me managing to take a wrong turn
on leaving the venue resulting in a 15 minute detour to get
back on track!
It
was a truly superb day, getting the chance to drive some of
the worlds best supercars and experience what rally driving
is like and I'd be stuck which to choose if I had to choose
just one driving experience to do in a day. The supercar
experience at the start of the day was amazing and
it's nice to be able to tell people about the amazing cars
you have actually driven, such as a Ferrari, Lamborghini Gallardo
& Aston Martin, I have been lucky and got to drive a few
supercars now. The rally driving
experience was such fun too and it would be nice to
do more of that to really get to grips with it more. Ultimately
both driving experiences were unforgettable and amazing fun
and you come out of each drive with a huge grin on yoru face!
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