Best driver training???

[alex s]

Well had the noble for a week now,( still find myself laughing out loud when I drive it ) and i feel I would benefit from some track/road/airstrip training, have looked at a couple of options, but would like to get some feedback from other guys who have done one(or more). Any suggestion would be helpful. thanks.

[DanH]

I like www.1stlotus.com personally.

Could also consider Don Palmer (he annoyed me by being a complete pain tryign to sort out a mutually convenient date), Cadence (heard good reports), or theres one other in the back of autocar who I've forgotten but the chaps name is John Lyon. I've not used him either, but I've heard some terrible complaints about his attitude and teaching methods. Meant to be a very good driver though so I guess it depends if you click - maybe the same with Don Palmer too although I've not heard as much bad press about Don.

The main difference between my recommendation and the rest is the price. 1stlotus is about 120 quid for a day with 3 other people. Don is more like 400, and I don't know about cadence & Mr Lyon.

Also you can do driver training with Lotus cars in their Elises which sounds appealing to me too. Thats in the 400-600 quid range depending on how many pupils per instructor (between 4 and 2 I think).

Best bet really is to go and be taught by them all. For me its just a money and time thing otherwise I certainly would. Most all of them only want to train in the week which is a drag. The lotus ones are on the weekend though. Don can do weekends too, but he wanted to up the group size on a weekend but offer no discount despite the decreased attention (although to be fair I think he may have hired another instructor).

[StressedDave]

Cadence costs £150 for a half day and £275 for a whole day. If you want a weekend it adds a 10% premium. If you want to use Millbrook then the hire cost is £195 for four hours (you won't want to use any more than that - you'll be too knackered).

That said, Millbrook is not the place to explore the absolute limits of grip - there's no run-off and quite a few metal posts. We also use Bruntingthorpe but the surface is very abrasive and you may have to add the cost of four new tyres to the day.

[Davey S1]

I did a 1st Lotus course in the Elise and would highly recommend it. Andy Walsh is a superb driver and gives you very clear practical advice. Go for a 4 person day as it gives you plenty of one to one training and lots of time to practice on your own.

Andy is quite familiar with Nobles as well as on owner gave him one for about 6 weeks in order for him to get it properly set up for track work. Unfortunately he gave it back a few days before I did the course so I missed out on a few hot laps.

[obes]

as the last one seems to have been a pretty much a success, I may well think about doing another Noble owners training day later in the year ! See below:

www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=98459&f=26&h=0&hw

www.obesonline.com/Training_Day/Page.htm

O.