I'm still on a quest to learn how to drive my car properly and I went to the IAM Skills Day at Mallory Park last week. Alas I can't post a link to the IAM page as the event has now passed.
In short it is an event looking at any driver looking to improve handling their car but on a track not the road. I was a little unsure beforehand exactly what to expect as it was an IAM course - so I sort of feared a little bit technical and dry. How wrong could I be. It was basically a blast. 1-1 tuition (in groups of 3) all afternoon; gradually going faster and faster around the track. It was extremely well organised and managed - it felt like no down-time between the event starting at 12.30 and ending at 4.30.
You have 10 minutes on the track with an instructor (I had a police firearm response officer) and about 10 other cars (but overtaking is allowed etc) followed by 20 minutes off. The cars are grouped according to performance (sports cars, family cars and 4x4s; so you are generally on the track with similar cars) and what was interesting about the event was the complete mix of people and cars there. Porkers were the most popular but the vast majority were not sports cars in any way. Felt good to overtake them but only once in about 7 sessions did I feel held back. In total I did 55 miles on the track.
I'd be genuinely interested to know how that experience compares with PCGB (and other) track days as I rather fear I've been bitten by the track day bug [
]
I have no doubt that I massively improved during the session (and I even noticed that the skills transferred to our family car this morning!). For anyone not really interested in track days but looking to learn how good you and your car can be, I have no hesitation in recommending this.
Anyway, the point of all this is to help you think about attending a similar event as the IAM 2011 plans were emailed to me yesterday. At the event they said they were looking to expand - I think historically they have only done a few car events and at Mallory Park only.
I have no affiliation or interest here except to alert people ... and even be as bold as to suggest that one might make a Register event. It is a bit disappointing that the price has risen (from £135 last week to £189 - but discounted if you buy a gift voucher, see below) but I'm guessing the purchasing power of the PCGB would get us a better price (or is it just Gary's negotiating skills []).
PS will also cross-post on to my local regional group as Silverstone is the regular meeting place []
In short it is an event looking at any driver looking to improve handling their car but on a track not the road. I was a little unsure beforehand exactly what to expect as it was an IAM course - so I sort of feared a little bit technical and dry. How wrong could I be. It was basically a blast. 1-1 tuition (in groups of 3) all afternoon; gradually going faster and faster around the track. It was extremely well organised and managed - it felt like no down-time between the event starting at 12.30 and ending at 4.30.
You have 10 minutes on the track with an instructor (I had a police firearm response officer) and about 10 other cars (but overtaking is allowed etc) followed by 20 minutes off. The cars are grouped according to performance (sports cars, family cars and 4x4s; so you are generally on the track with similar cars) and what was interesting about the event was the complete mix of people and cars there. Porkers were the most popular but the vast majority were not sports cars in any way. Felt good to overtake them but only once in about 7 sessions did I feel held back. In total I did 55 miles on the track.
I'd be genuinely interested to know how that experience compares with PCGB (and other) track days as I rather fear I've been bitten by the track day bug [
]I have no doubt that I massively improved during the session (and I even noticed that the skills transferred to our family car this morning!). For anyone not really interested in track days but looking to learn how good you and your car can be, I have no hesitation in recommending this.
Anyway, the point of all this is to help you think about attending a similar event as the IAM 2011 plans were emailed to me yesterday. At the event they said they were looking to expand - I think historically they have only done a few car events and at Mallory Park only.
I have no affiliation or interest here except to alert people ... and even be as bold as to suggest that one might make a Register event. It is a bit disappointing that the price has risen (from £135 last week to £189 - but discounted if you buy a gift voucher, see below) but I'm guessing the purchasing power of the PCGB would get us a better price (or is it just Gary's negotiating skills [
]).PS will also cross-post on to my local regional group as Silverstone is the regular meeting place [
]
