Rally
Driving at Silverstone
Date:
May 2004
Location: Silverstone,
Northamptonshire
Vehicles: Peugeot 106 GTI
Aithor: Paul
A
rally driving experience taking place at Silverstone race
circuit.
 Since
a very early age I have been into cars, whether driving, polishing,
building or mending, its my favourite pass times, if it has
a motor it has my attention! Hence the ideal present received
from the then current girlfriend.
I
am not sure how much it cost (being a gift) but I believe
it was from Halfords at similar price to the Debenhams red
letter day.
I
received a gift pack through the post containing a letter
with the details of venues where I could drive. The chap in
the shop had done several of the events as training for his
job (some perk!) and he said Silverstone
was the best. One phone call later it was booked.
 We
arrived on a warm spring morning to a meet and greet where
I had to sign on and provide drivers license, gift card etc.
The drivers were then taken into a meeting room where the
rules and regulations were read, a lecture on car control
given, and important information on the spec of the car given,
and drive times for the groups.
The
car was a group N 106 GTI. It was the full stripped out, caged
rally car with buckets, harnesses, a shorter gear box, LSD,
rear biased brakes, and hydraulic handbrake, inside was fitted
with intercom helmets to save shouting instructions. To keep
the speeds down it was fitted with road tyres and the speedo
was disconnected to stop people getting competitive.
The
track was gravel/mud with the occasional concrete section
and was similar to a stage with banks either side of you rather
than cones on an empty airfield. It was a good mix of surface.
My
session was in the afternoon but fortunately to kill time
there were plenty of pay-as-you-go cars to have passenger
laps in from Caterhams to Ferraris
with pro drivers, depending on how much you want to pay, great
for friends and family to join in and go round the circuit.
The
drive was split into 3x 10 minute sessions, you had to wait
approximately 15 mins between runs depending on how many were
in your group, doesn't sound that great but after each session
I was exhausted!
Once
it was my turn I was strapped in and adjusted the seat to
how I drive - I sit bolt upright but it was then adjusted
even closer so the steering wheel almost touched my elbow.
Made sense when was out on the rough surface as the steering
would fight you all the way.
I
like to think that I have good knowledge of racing
lines, how to take brake/accelerate etc, after half a
lap it was obvious that rallying is poles apart to circuit
driving and everything goes out the window and had to start
again. The first session was spent re-learning to drive and
basic rally techniques such as handbrake turns, power
slides etc, and trying to forget tarmac driving (I remember
one moment when the instructor yelled "don't correct!" when
I was completely out of shape out of a corner, hard not to
when you spent your driving career learning how to do it instinctively).
Then things start getting together and the next couple of
sessions become faster and more fluid throughout the laps.
After
the final run the instructor takes you out for a passenger
run and shows you how to do it properly, I felt like tearing
my license up afterwards, these guys can really drive!
All
in all it was a good day out which I would recommend as an
alternative to track driving. I have been round the Nurburgring
in all sorts of mad machinery with semi-pro drivers and its
easily as thrilling and I probably never went above 60-70
mph!
This
was a Driving
Experience review by Paul
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