Best choice of racing driving lessons?
Discussion
Hi
I want to learn how to drive a car properly around a track, so looking for lessons basically.
I live in Manchester so tracks near me are 3 Sisters and Oulton Park.
From what I've seen, most 'lessons' are those supercar experiences where you get 12 seconds of driving for a million quid, no thanks.
Can anyone recommend something less touristy feeling? I aim to get a racing licence after this so if anyone can point me in the direction of someone/a company which does this, that would be great.
And no I've not bought a car yet, still unsure, probably a Clio 182/Meganesport R26 when a decent one pops up.
Thanks!
I want to learn how to drive a car properly around a track, so looking for lessons basically.
I live in Manchester so tracks near me are 3 Sisters and Oulton Park.
From what I've seen, most 'lessons' are those supercar experiences where you get 12 seconds of driving for a million quid, no thanks.
Can anyone recommend something less touristy feeling? I aim to get a racing licence after this so if anyone can point me in the direction of someone/a company which does this, that would be great.
And no I've not bought a car yet, still unsure, probably a Clio 182/Meganesport R26 when a decent one pops up.
Thanks!
Till you get your own car nothing is going to be cheap/let you drive at 100%.
Only option really is to do a test day with a team, and pay for an instructor (££££)
Alternatively you could look at a palmersport day, again pricey
Once you have your own car you can pay for an instructor to work with you for the day (often they will let you share this with another driver if you have a friend). Useful to have a VBOX so you can actually review data and work on things properly. Cost for this is usually around £3-600 per day depending on the instructor/coach. Some coaches have cars they can rent to you also - try 'Ryan Hooker', I think he has some hire cars.
Only option really is to do a test day with a team, and pay for an instructor (££££)
Alternatively you could look at a palmersport day, again pricey
Once you have your own car you can pay for an instructor to work with you for the day (often they will let you share this with another driver if you have a friend). Useful to have a VBOX so you can actually review data and work on things properly. Cost for this is usually around £3-600 per day depending on the instructor/coach. Some coaches have cars they can rent to you also - try 'Ryan Hooker', I think he has some hire cars.
Also, if you want to get your race licence, what do you intend to race? I'd start that thought process before you go spending any money and make sure everything you do is working towards the race series you want to race in.
Passing an ARDS test is not 'race driving'. I'd argue anyone who can drive can pass it tbh (provided you've learned your basic rules/flags). Infact if you drove like you would in a race you'd probably fail your ARDS test.
(NB lots/most instructors are qualified ARDS instructors anyway)
Passing an ARDS test is not 'race driving'. I'd argue anyone who can drive can pass it tbh (provided you've learned your basic rules/flags). Infact if you drove like you would in a race you'd probably fail your ARDS test.
(NB lots/most instructors are qualified ARDS instructors anyway)
I've used these guys a few years ago, pretty good. Not near you, but thems the breaks.
https://catdrivertraining.co.uk/
https://catdrivertraining.co.uk/
Boggo said:
Till you get your own car nothing is going to be cheap/let you drive at 100%.
Only option really is to do a test day with a team, and pay for an instructor (££££)
Alternatively you could look at a palmersport day, again pricey
Once you have your own car you can pay for an instructor to work with you for the day (often they will let you share this with another driver if you have a friend). Useful to have a VBOX so you can actually review data and work on things properly. Cost for this is usually around £3-600 per day depending on the instructor/coach. Some coaches have cars they can rent to you also - try 'Ryan Hooker', I think he has some hire cars.
Thank you, good advice!Only option really is to do a test day with a team, and pay for an instructor (££££)
Alternatively you could look at a palmersport day, again pricey
Once you have your own car you can pay for an instructor to work with you for the day (often they will let you share this with another driver if you have a friend). Useful to have a VBOX so you can actually review data and work on things properly. Cost for this is usually around £3-600 per day depending on the instructor/coach. Some coaches have cars they can rent to you also - try 'Ryan Hooker', I think he has some hire cars.
Boggo said:
Also, if you want to get your race licence, what do you intend to race? I'd start that thought process before you go spending any money and make sure everything you do is working towards the race series you want to race in.
Passing an ARDS test is not 'race driving'. I'd argue anyone who can drive can pass it tbh (provided you've learned your basic rules/flags). Infact if you drove like you would in a race you'd probably fail your ARDS test.
(NB lots/most instructors are qualified ARDS instructors anyway)
Good question, no concrete idea tbh. Food for thought. Passing an ARDS test is not 'race driving'. I'd argue anyone who can drive can pass it tbh (provided you've learned your basic rules/flags). Infact if you drove like you would in a race you'd probably fail your ARDS test.
(NB lots/most instructors are qualified ARDS instructors anyway)
It was more for my own confidence I think, understanding the real differences between road/track handling, true limits of the car etc.
I will be buying my own car to do it in,
SuffolkDefender said:
I've used these guys a few years ago, pretty good. Not near you, but thems the breaks.
https://catdrivertraining.co.uk/
Great, thanks!https://catdrivertraining.co.uk/
I hear great things about this course -> http://www.donpalmer.co.uk/masterclass.html
I haven't done it, but have had other limit-handling and on road coaching from Don and it's fair to say it transformed my driving.
Chris
I haven't done it, but have had other limit-handling and on road coaching from Don and it's fair to say it transformed my driving.
Chris
ScoobyChris said:
I hear great things about this course -> http://www.donpalmer.co.uk/masterclass.html
I haven't done it, but have had other limit-handling and on road coaching from Don and it's fair to say it transformed my driving.
Chris
Thanks Scoob!I haven't done it, but have had other limit-handling and on road coaching from Don and it's fair to say it transformed my driving.
Chris
The cat driver training and the courses from Don are excellent recommendations. Though I think you’d need your own car in both circumstances?
I’m just south of Manchester and Oulton park is my local circuit, great circuit but perhaps not the best for first timers, though you could always attend a sessioned novice day there. I know a couple of ARDS instructors that I use charge £250 for the day, splitting it with a mate works really well, get some advice, go out and work on it on your own, get some more advice etc.
The Porsche Experience centre at Silverstone is actually really good too, and you get to use one of their cars, and a very decent amount of time in car too. Though they’re obviously going to be RWD.
I’m just south of Manchester and Oulton park is my local circuit, great circuit but perhaps not the best for first timers, though you could always attend a sessioned novice day there. I know a couple of ARDS instructors that I use charge £250 for the day, splitting it with a mate works really well, get some advice, go out and work on it on your own, get some more advice etc.
The Porsche Experience centre at Silverstone is actually really good too, and you get to use one of their cars, and a very decent amount of time in car too. Though they’re obviously going to be RWD.
Rojibo said:
The cat driver training and the courses from Don are excellent recommendations. Though I think you’d need your own car in both circumstances?
I’m just south of Manchester and Oulton park is my local circuit, great circuit but perhaps not the best for first timers, though you could always attend a sessioned novice day there. I know a couple of ARDS instructors that I use charge £250 for the day, splitting it with a mate works really well, get some advice, go out and work on it on your own, get some more advice etc.
The Porsche Experience centre at Silverstone is actually really good too, and you get to use one of their cars, and a very decent amount of time in car too. Though they’re obviously going to be RWD.
Interesting! I found there were too many Red Letter type con days online, I gave up looking quickly because I couldn't get past the Christmas present type offers on there.I’m just south of Manchester and Oulton park is my local circuit, great circuit but perhaps not the best for first timers, though you could always attend a sessioned novice day there. I know a couple of ARDS instructors that I use charge £250 for the day, splitting it with a mate works really well, get some advice, go out and work on it on your own, get some more advice etc.
The Porsche Experience centre at Silverstone is actually really good too, and you get to use one of their cars, and a very decent amount of time in car too. Though they’re obviously going to be RWD.
Is this what you mean? https://car.msvtrackdays.com/Training This seems spot on.
Now which car to buy?!?!
Boggo said:
Till you get your own car nothing is going to be cheap/let you drive at 100%.
I don't know so much.I bought my son a day at Mallory with these guys, it's run by Pete and Mel Edwards. https://www.ards.co.uk/schools/the-motorsports-sch...
He drove Clio Cup cars and a couple of other cars set up for track, including an MX5.
He is only 16 and was allowed to drive on the limit. There were people doing ARDS courses on the same day and pleasingly Master Balfour was lapping quicker than them.
I think it cost me between £250-280 for the day and the staff went out of their way to make sure he got as much track time as he wanted, with whichever instructor he wanted. He was certainly on track more than he was waiting.
Rojibo said:
The cat driver training and the courses from Don are excellent recommendations. Though I think you’d need your own car in both circumstances?
For the Masterclass they provide the cars. Don't know what they are these days, but when the course opened, they had a Toyota Avensis and BMW 325i..Chris
Louis Balfour said:
I don't know so much.
I bought my son a day at Mallory with these guys, it's run by Pete and Mel Edwards. https://www.ards.co.uk/schools/the-motorsports-sch...
He drove Clio Cup cars and a couple of other cars set up for track, including an MX5.
He is only 16 and was allowed to drive on the limit. There were people doing ARDS courses on the same day and pleasingly Master Balfour was lapping quicker than them.
I think it cost me between £250-280 for the day and the staff went out of their way to make sure he got as much track time as he wanted, with whichever instructor he wanted. He was certainly on track more than he was waiting.
Nice, thank you for the info!I bought my son a day at Mallory with these guys, it's run by Pete and Mel Edwards. https://www.ards.co.uk/schools/the-motorsports-sch...
He drove Clio Cup cars and a couple of other cars set up for track, including an MX5.
He is only 16 and was allowed to drive on the limit. There were people doing ARDS courses on the same day and pleasingly Master Balfour was lapping quicker than them.
I think it cost me between £250-280 for the day and the staff went out of their way to make sure he got as much track time as he wanted, with whichever instructor he wanted. He was certainly on track more than he was waiting.
VladtheImpala said:
Interesting! I found there were too many Red Letter type con days online, I gave up looking quickly because I couldn't get past the Christmas present type offers on there.
Is this what you mean? https://car.msvtrackdays.com/Training This seems spot on.
Now which car to buy?!?!
That seems expensive for what it is. The cost of the instructor for the day is £399, plus the cost of the day £300ish these days. I just met instructors through friends, they were/are racing drivers £250 for instruction for the day is what I’d expect. No point reaching out to an instructor until you’ve at least got a car and a date booked though. Is this what you mean? https://car.msvtrackdays.com/Training This seems spot on.
Now which car to buy?!?!
The Porsche days are good, I’ve been a few times now, full disclaimer never paid for it though, but they let you drive the cars hard, and the car control bits are good fun.
https://www.porsche.com/silverstone/en/experience/...
ScoobyChris said:
For the Masterclass they provide the cars. Don't know what they are these days, but when the course opened, they had a Toyota Avensis and BMW 325i..
Chris
As long as they still provide the cars that sounds like a great way forward. Chris
Also Track obsession let you hire their car on their track days but I don’t believe it’s the cheapest. Could split it with a friend?
https://trackobsession.co.uk/track-car-hire/
Edited by Rojibo on Wednesday 2nd November 10:40
It really depends on how much you want to spend. A few companies that I know personally:
Hype Motorsport - you can rent one of their cars (Cayman, M2 or A110) and it'll come with a professional racing driver as a tutor, and they allow you to push on as hard or as little as you want. No second controls to make you brake early etc. Ben Hyland is the chap in charge, and he used to run "Want2Race" (Ginetta race team etc) before selling that business off to Ginetta themselves.
DTO Motorsport - similar to the above. Car choices are M140i, M2c, 720s GT4, Cayman GT4.
Both the above are around the £1000 - £2000 mark, but they come with a full setup, mechanic to keep the car sorted, dedicated professional driver tutor, SIM racing setup in the garage, lunch & refreshments etc.
Hype Motorsport - you can rent one of their cars (Cayman, M2 or A110) and it'll come with a professional racing driver as a tutor, and they allow you to push on as hard or as little as you want. No second controls to make you brake early etc. Ben Hyland is the chap in charge, and he used to run "Want2Race" (Ginetta race team etc) before selling that business off to Ginetta themselves.
DTO Motorsport - similar to the above. Car choices are M140i, M2c, 720s GT4, Cayman GT4.
Both the above are around the £1000 - £2000 mark, but they come with a full setup, mechanic to keep the car sorted, dedicated professional driver tutor, SIM racing setup in the garage, lunch & refreshments etc.
a list of all qualified ARDS instructors can be found here https://www.ards.co.uk/instructors/
You can choose by location, so someone local to Oulton would not only be ideal but probably cheaper.
You need a car however, and some serious intent to a) improve and b)race.
Failing that I'll teach you FOC, we share the car on the day 80% you and 20% me (although 100% paid by you) and I'll give you the benefit of my 26 years race experience ( and former race and rally instructor).
You can choose by location, so someone local to Oulton would not only be ideal but probably cheaper.
You need a car however, and some serious intent to a) improve and b)race.
Failing that I'll teach you FOC, we share the car on the day 80% you and 20% me (although 100% paid by you) and I'll give you the benefit of my 26 years race experience ( and former race and rally instructor).
Rojibo said:
That seems expensive for what it is. The cost of the instructor for the day is £399, plus the cost of the day £300ish these days. I just met instructors through friends, they were/are racing drivers £250 for instruction for the day is what I’d expect. No point reaching out to an instructor until you’ve at least got a car and a date booked though.
Not many instructors are doing daily rates as low as £250 for private work now but I’m sure there will be exceptions. The biggest issue I see with the MSV route is that you don’t get to choose your instructor yourself. Best option is always to get a car and start doing some trackdays. Book an hour with the TDOs staff instructor at each event and you will pick up different things from different instructors on different days. When you are first driving on track most drivers will get more value out of maximum seat time with occasional guidance than having someone with them all day.
At some point you may find someone you gel with and if you want more advanced help you can pop them the question about doing full days with you.
OP, if you haven’t even been on track yet then you could do worse than trying it out at Oulton on one of their retail days. They run proper cars with decent instructors, not big seat time but not big money either in comparison to going full in straight away with buying a car etc.
Steve H said:
Not many instructors are doing daily rates as low as £250 for private work now but I’m sure there will be exceptions. The biggest issue I see with the MSV route is that you don’t get to choose your instructor yourself.
Best option is always to get a car and start doing some trackdays. Book an hour with the TDOs staff instructor at each event and you will pick up different things from different instructors on different days. When you are first driving on track most drivers will get more value out of maximum seat time with occasional guidance than having someone with them all day.
At some point you may find someone you gel with and if you want more advanced help you can pop them the question about doing full days with you.
OP, if you haven’t even been on track yet then you could do worse than trying it out at Oulton on one of their retail days. They run proper cars with decent instructors, not big seat time but not big money either in comparison to going full in straight away with buying a car etc.
Cheers Steve, this is good advice. I've never heard anything good about those retail days so I doubt I'll do one of those, I know I'll be disappointed given the rules and self-preservation they have, fair enough, not my car!Best option is always to get a car and start doing some trackdays. Book an hour with the TDOs staff instructor at each event and you will pick up different things from different instructors on different days. When you are first driving on track most drivers will get more value out of maximum seat time with occasional guidance than having someone with them all day.
At some point you may find someone you gel with and if you want more advanced help you can pop them the question about doing full days with you.
OP, if you haven’t even been on track yet then you could do worse than trying it out at Oulton on one of their retail days. They run proper cars with decent instructors, not big seat time but not big money either in comparison to going full in straight away with buying a car etc.
VladtheImpala said:
Steve H said:
Not many instructors are doing daily rates as low as £250 for private work now but I’m sure there will be exceptions. The biggest issue I see with the MSV route is that you don’t get to choose your instructor yourself.
Best option is always to get a car and start doing some trackdays. Book an hour with the TDOs staff instructor at each event and you will pick up different things from different instructors on different days. When you are first driving on track most drivers will get more value out of maximum seat time with occasional guidance than having someone with them all day.
At some point you may find someone you gel with and if you want more advanced help you can pop them the question about doing full days with you.
OP, if you haven’t even been on track yet then you could do worse than trying it out at Oulton on one of their retail days. They run proper cars with decent instructors, not big seat time but not big money either in comparison to going full in straight away with buying a car etc.
Cheers Steve, this is good advice. I've never heard anything good about those retail days so I doubt I'll do one of those, I know I'll be disappointed given the rules and self-preservation they have, fair enough, not my car!Best option is always to get a car and start doing some trackdays. Book an hour with the TDOs staff instructor at each event and you will pick up different things from different instructors on different days. When you are first driving on track most drivers will get more value out of maximum seat time with occasional guidance than having someone with them all day.
At some point you may find someone you gel with and if you want more advanced help you can pop them the question about doing full days with you.
OP, if you haven’t even been on track yet then you could do worse than trying it out at Oulton on one of their retail days. They run proper cars with decent instructors, not big seat time but not big money either in comparison to going full in straight away with buying a car etc.
Another tip is, if you have a GoPro, video your laps as you can learn a lot by watching the footage later. You can even ask you instructor to set a demo lap in your car that you film and then use this as a reference. I did this and still refer to the video when I want a refresher of how to drive best at Silverstone.
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