strap on and get ready for take off

No, you filthily minded plebs, I'm not talking about strap-ons. I am talking about my 20th birthday present from my old man, which was a driving day out at Thruxton, down the M3. I got to drive 3 laps in an MG ZS 180, 4 in a Merc SLK 350, 4 more in a Ferrari F360 Modena, and 6 in a single-seater Formula Renault :)



One of the guests was this really old man, who made a point of walking up and down the pit lane proclaiming loudly that "I am the best driver here," with his instructor in tow nodding along to concur. I doubt if he was as good as he said he was, so it's possible he bribed the instructor to make him look good in front of all of us.



Best of all was overtaking two F360s on one of my 6 laps in the Renault, and then on the immediate lap having blue flags waved for me and not because of me. Truly the best. As if that wasn't enough, we ordered a 2-DVD set of me driving the Ferrari, along with brief notes on each of the cars I drove, circuit history, and brief pit-lane interview after the cars were driven. ("Fuuuuuuuuuuuck")



Brief problems with the cars:

MG: Gearbox a mess. Hard to find biting point in clutch.

Merc: Throttle was either 'on' (100%) or 'off'. (0%) Crap German styling and uncomfortable seats. Truly a car for girls who don't understand cars.

Ferrari: Gearbox problems like the MG. What is up with those metal fingers in the gearbox?! Otherwise a very smooth car to drive. I particularly liked how you could go around tight corners in 4th gear with the engine idling away.

Formula Renault: Gearbox wasn't sprung, so had initial problems selecting 3rd & 4th gears. Suspension was about half that on my car as well, so feedback from the track was very ... amplified, shall we say.



After 6 laps in the single seater it was time for a fast driven lap by one of the instructors, whom I might add if I was marking him would have failed spectacularly on account of all the cones he knocked over. But then again he might have done that on purpose. It was telling when we whooshed past the marshals after the end of the first sector and he shouted, "do some work, morons".



One of the highlights of the day was in the single-seater briefing, in which I had my arse felt up by a hillbilly for 10 minutes, which he attempted to justify by way of: "We have to make sure that you are sitting comfortably before we let you loose." Oh my.