Circuit - Thruxton.

Car choices:

A - 9 Laps:
4 Laps in a Cayman,
5 Laps in a Formula Renault.

B - 14 Laps:
2x 7 Laps in a 160 BHP MK3 MX5.

C - 14 Laps:
7 Laps in a Mazda 3 MPS,
7 Laps in an MX5.

All the same price.

Cayman sounds good, but I think the FR's limit will be way to high to be that much fun, and not many laps. Plus they will probably want me to nanny the thing...

MX5 sounds good but a bit anaemic compared to the Cayman.

Mazda 3 is FWD with 255 BHP, so will not only make the MX5 feel a bit slow, but also probably understeer like a bitch in the process.

Leaning towards the hairdressermobile. Opinions?

Cayman would be fun.
FRenault very heavily limited (watch onboard footage of it on Youtube - so slow with such a silly rev limit).
Mazda3 likely to be dull.
MX-5 won't have a high top speed, but will be a joy to drive.

FRenault is a single seater, so even driven slowly with a limit will be a big experience for you. But you won't be anywhere near its limit (though possibly close to your own). You'll get closer to the MX-5's limits (though not much closer), but it's a road car so is only going to be so much fun anyway. I'd choose the limited FRenault personally.


I've just raced at Thruxton myself. Pole by 7 seconds (in the damp), stalled on the grid and everyone passed me. Fought my way back, passed the leader on the last corner of the last lap but flew over the kerbs and lost the position instantly. Finished 2nd, 1.2 seconds behind. Set a new lap record some 3 seconds quicker than before, and was able to pass people around the outside of 150mph flat out corners.

But Thruxton is dull. Go somewhere else.

morrison marina!!! Nothing else really..

rwd cars are enormously more fun IRL or even when you have really good sim equipment and 7 laps sounds much better than 4 laps, but if you could buy 8 laps with cayman, now that would be really something

Choose a different circuit.

Quote from tristancliffe :

I've just raced at Thruxton myself. Pole by 7 seconds (in the damp), stalled on the grid and everyone passed me. Fought my way back, passed the leader on the last corner of the last lap but flew over the kerbs and lost the position instantly. Finished 2nd, 1.2 seconds behind. Set a new lap record some 3 seconds quicker than before, and was able to pass people around the outside of 150mph flat out corners.

But Thruxton is dull. Go somewhere else.

All of that positive build up and in the end its dull.

You still doing your onboard videos?

On topic - I would go for the first option. Even with the limiter FRenault should be really fun.

Dont have a choice over the circuit (annoyingly).

The mazda 3 is IMO a great car to drive and push to its limits. Youll be able to pick up alot with it, but ofcourse, it does produce abit of understeer.

The MX5 i personally also think is a top car, its rather responsive. You would get more enjoyment out of the MX5 than a Mazda 3.

Thats just comming from experience, and no im not talking just "driving" those cars. Ive had the chance with those cars. As for the Cayman ive never driven so i wouldnt know, but what i know is that id take the Formula Renault car no hesitation. Restricted or not, you dont get that chance as much as you would with a regular road car.

Formula Renault.

Option A.

You're not going to have to worry about understeer on a driving experience day, whichever car you choose you won't be anywhere close to its limits. It doesn't really matter what car you first drive on track with, the slower and more straight forward behaving car the better. Finding your feet on a track (which no amount of karting, sim racing or road driving can really help you with) takes time in any car. Even the average trackday driver in a Porsche or Caterham (who usually own their cars and have a reasonable amount of experience/confidence) will be holding up a good driver in a standard hatchback. In fact on a wet track day at Silverstone recently a Ford Galaxy was lapping as quickly as anything else.

The faster the car you choose the more out of your depth you will be and you won't gain a lot other than to say you've driven whatever car. The race driving instructors I know say that driving experience work is mainly about self-preservation, in 4 laps in a Cayman they'll be solely trying to stop you killing them. Generally they don't like experience days involving powerful cars at fast tracks, which is understandable really as the danger to them is very real.

I would definitely take the 14 laps in the MX5, the longer you have with an instructor the more you can demonstrate you're not going to do anything stupid and gradually begin to take a decent line and up your pace a bit.

If you haven't paid for anything yet though I wouldn't book an experience day at Thruxton, short of Goodwood, it's the fastest track in the UK and your instructor will be very aware of this and will be naturally more cautious about what he lets you do. I would try and go for one of the airfield based days or a slower track, although they may not be as exciting as Thruxton, you'll be able to get on your feet quicker and won't scare your instructor so much. Try and get as much time as possible, it really doesn't matter what car you're driving, an old shitbox would make a far better car to learn in than the current top spec MX5.

What are you doing on a Racetrack JakG. You´re a JakG you don´t belong on a Racetrack. You can´t even drive a Car.

FRenault. Highly limited or not, it's still nothing like anything you've ever experienced before.

I would go with the first option, simply because it's cars you normally wouldn't get the chance to drive, especially the FR.

I would obviously choose Formula - nothing like that in my experience and I dont think anything close to that would happen soon.

How many preparation laps or even just braking and accelerating in turns you can have with FRenault? Without that 2 or 3 laps would be far away close to limit

B

A but B comes close.

I'd say B. Least exciting but 4 laps in a Cayman will be over before you can fart. I'd rather get to grips with one car, in the short amount of time available. Plus slower cars mean more track time!

Quote from tristancliffe :

I've just raced at Thruxton myself. Pole by 7 seconds (in the damp), stalled on the grid and everyone passed me. Fought my way back, passed the leader on the last corner of the last lap but flew over the kerbs and lost the position instantly. Finished 2nd, 1.2 seconds behind. Set a new lap record some 3 seconds quicker than before, and was able to pass people around the outside of 150mph flat out corners.

But Thruxton is dull.

At that meet, was Thruxton dull for you? It's just it sounds like quite a memorable experience.

Does your series get up to Croft at all? I'd come and see you if you were at Croft.

Back to Jakqui: Pick something else with Caterhams.

It has to be Thruxton, and the only 3 I think i'd like would be the three i've posted.


Caterhams would be my choice if I could.

Ah that's a shame. In that case if I was you I'd go with single-seaters. I've not done it myself but some of my mates went and did F 1600s around some car-park-ish Silverstone config and absolutely loved it, they were pushing eachother constantly and ultimately scared the shit out of eachother.

Might not be a huge experience in terms of what you learn about car control on the limit, but I imagine it would be the most fun. And let's face it that is what these days are geared towards.

Too many wheels.

SV650.

Out of the 3?, option A for sure.

Cayman would be a very nice car to drive, and the laps in a single seater is just the icing on the cake.

Especially considering the curcuit, anything slow(er) would be dull.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

At that meet, was Thruxton dull for you? It's just it sounds like quite a memorable experience.

Does your series get up to Croft at all? I'd come and see you if you were at Croft.

The dullness is from that fact that it's flat out everywhere apart from two chicanes. Sure, it's quite interesting turning in at 150mph with the throttle wide open, especially when going around the outside of two people fighting for position, and even more so when the corner is considered one for the brave. But I don't find much fun in pressing a loud pedal - that's one of the reasons I find drag racing and oval racing so boring.

Anyway, yes, we do race at Croft. I'll be winning there on the 25th and 26th September.

Onboard race video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSg3f7-K1RI

Edit: There are different classes. I think four of the cars have bike engines (1000cc or less, but of the two finishers in that class, one was 3rd overall), and the rest are all 2 litre engined cars. My old Reynard (that I would have still been on pole with) was in the race. I'm just better than most (all?) of the people in my racing club now!!

^ I would say the other cars were in a different class.