£200-300 to spend on training/experience
Discussion
Evening guys! Long time lurker first time poster here.
I've been lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to further my driving horizons, with a budget of around £200-300. I'm not interested in taking a Ferrari around a track, but more around learning skills, and doing something more than "driving fast".
With that in mind, I've been thinking of doing either some skidpan work, rally experience, or similar experiences that would be a) fun, and b) actually give me some benefits in terms of driving skills.
So in short, what would you guys recommend, and particularly, WHERE would you recommend I go to do it?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
I've been lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to further my driving horizons, with a budget of around £200-300. I'm not interested in taking a Ferrari around a track, but more around learning skills, and doing something more than "driving fast".
With that in mind, I've been thinking of doing either some skidpan work, rally experience, or similar experiences that would be a) fun, and b) actually give me some benefits in terms of driving skills.
So in short, what would you guys recommend, and particularly, WHERE would you recommend I go to do it?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
I would say save your money for a while. Have an assessment drive with your local RoADAR group http://www.roadar.org/groups/index.htm and use the feedback from that to decide how to spend your money.
If you have already done that sort of thing, then a ride drive (www.ridedrive.co.uk) half day with some airfield work would be enjoyable and informative imo
If you have already done that sort of thing, then a ride drive (www.ridedrive.co.uk) half day with some airfield work would be enjoyable and informative imo
Makhaira said:
Evening guys! Long time lurker first time poster here.
I've been lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to further my driving horizons, with a budget of around £200-300. I'm not interested in taking a Ferrari around a track, but more around learning skills, and doing something more than "driving fast".
With that in mind, I've been thinking of doing either some skidpan work, rally experience, or similar experiences that would be a) fun, and b) actually give me some benefits in terms of driving skills.
So in short, what would you guys recommend, and particularly, WHERE would you recommend I go to do it?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
ROADAR/IAM, to sort out your public road driving.I've been lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to further my driving horizons, with a budget of around £200-300. I'm not interested in taking a Ferrari around a track, but more around learning skills, and doing something more than "driving fast".
With that in mind, I've been thinking of doing either some skidpan work, rally experience, or similar experiences that would be a) fun, and b) actually give me some benefits in terms of driving skills.
So in short, what would you guys recommend, and particularly, WHERE would you recommend I go to do it?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
Join your local MSA affiliated motor club to be able to enter cheap forms of competition that will enhance your skills.
Makhaira said:
I'm based in the north west, in Lancashire. So far I've done nothing "special" - the most I can claim is driving offroaders and tractors due to a rural background, but even then I've never had formal training on either.
What about track or drifting type courses at Oulton Park then? Alternately, skid pan & other activities at Elvington http://www.driverskills.com/ as York's not too far. Tockwith Motorsports is even closer & has an oil based skid pan & airfield proving ground 01423 359442. Have you had a look at the advanced links thread above? Plenty there worth considering.Alternately, as I'm in Lancs you can have my Caterham for the day for £300 & go let rip round the Dales
(only joking btw!)Rally course on gravel definitely fulfills the fun bit, but IMHO is not the most useful thing for helping your road driving (in fact some of the techniques will be useless on road). Skidpan can be useful.
I'd agree that it's worth trying to get some advanced road instruction first. Unless you're the 1% exception, I'd say anyone will benefit massively from this even if it's minimal. Boosting your car control etc etc is great later, but can actually be detrimental earlier on if it means you become overconfident without other road skills to back it up.
Normally I'd say go for Rospa or IAM to begin with as these are still the lowest cost options for getting into this. It's becoming more difficult to recommend them however because I find both organisations insufferable now and many of the people in the groups the same. But that's not universal (and you may not feel the same anwyay), so see if you can find a decent local group and observer(s) who will understand where you're coming from. Alternatively, if Club Driving http://www.clubdriving.co.uk/ is still active, this would give you a good alternative. For minimal cost you can get out with some v. good-excellent drivers and get some mentoring and further advice about what would be useful for you.
From there, you could look at getting a day or half a day with one of the good road driving coaches.
www.cadence.co.uk
www.bespokedrivertraining.co.uk
lots of others mentioned in this forum
etc.
Or if you prefer go and do some car control/limit training (e.g. carlimits).
Have fun.
I'd agree that it's worth trying to get some advanced road instruction first. Unless you're the 1% exception, I'd say anyone will benefit massively from this even if it's minimal. Boosting your car control etc etc is great later, but can actually be detrimental earlier on if it means you become overconfident without other road skills to back it up.
Normally I'd say go for Rospa or IAM to begin with as these are still the lowest cost options for getting into this. It's becoming more difficult to recommend them however because I find both organisations insufferable now and many of the people in the groups the same. But that's not universal (and you may not feel the same anwyay), so see if you can find a decent local group and observer(s) who will understand where you're coming from. Alternatively, if Club Driving http://www.clubdriving.co.uk/ is still active, this would give you a good alternative. For minimal cost you can get out with some v. good-excellent drivers and get some mentoring and further advice about what would be useful for you.
From there, you could look at getting a day or half a day with one of the good road driving coaches.
www.cadence.co.uk
www.bespokedrivertraining.co.uk
lots of others mentioned in this forum
etc.
Or if you prefer go and do some car control/limit training (e.g. carlimits).
Have fun.
Edited by stuart b on Saturday 28th August 16:45
Hi,
I very highly recommend a day with www.RideDrive.co.uk
(See fastlanegirl's post.) You'll have a great day out - brilliant fun and you'll come away with hugely heightened driving skills.
I very highly recommend a day with www.RideDrive.co.uk
(See fastlanegirl's post.) You'll have a great day out - brilliant fun and you'll come away with hugely heightened driving skills.
stuart b said:
+1 for both of these folks, who are utterly brilliant (provided you're within geographical reach).Gassing Station | Advanced Driving | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff