If you drive a fast car, you want to be able to drive fast and safely. However good you think you are, you can learn a lot from professional instructors, and the best place to learn is on a race track.
I've been driving fast a long time, but not fast enough! So I decided to try one of these high-speed driving courses to see whether I could recommend them to you. I wholeheartedly recommend you try a course somewhere if you own a supercar or sports car, or want one. You'll polish your technique and have a lot of fun.
I went to Thruxton circuit, near Andover in England to find out about the courses offered by the Thruxton Motorsport Centre. There is a big range of courses, including one in small single-seaters.
Seven courses to choose from
Cheapest is the Ferrari F355 taster, which is also the shortest. It costs £99.
There is also a course in Lotus Elises, another in a Porsche 911 Turbo and single-seater racing cars. Then, there are three more courses in Italian cars, and finally, the Ultimate Supercar Experience (Porsche, Ferrari and Lamborghini) at £425. All in all, a pretty could selection to choose from.
But where is this Thruxton? It's in the south of England, and easily accessible form the south of England and Europe. There are courses held at other circuits in the north of England and one in Scotland.
High-speed driving instruction seems a lot cheaper in the UK than the USA, so even if you live in North America you probably won't spend as much going to Thruxton as you would some American courses.
Ben Norton, who runs the courses for Thruxton Motor sport Centre, recommend I tried the Italian Supercar Experience, ad that sounded ideal to me! In fact, you do not drive Italian cars all the time, but gradually work up to it starting with lesser fry. Pretty obvious really, not to put people straight into a Lamborghini Murcielago on a race track, and a tricky one at that.
Circuit is almost all bends
So what's the Thruxton circuit like? Tricky! There isn't a single straight on the circuit, and bends of varying intensity come after each other thick and fast. Although there isn't a straight as such, I will admit that the last stretch of each lap has such a gentle curve – Brooklands – that you drive round it flat out in almost any car. Then you pile into a very tight chicane and the end of the lap.
Thruxton is 2.4 miles long and was built on an old airfield, so it is fairly flat, but has just enough slopes to make it difficult to see the next corner in some places. Very challenging, but great fun, once you get to know it. The lap record is at an a average speed of just over 100 mph.
I've raced on some British tracks, and driven round others, but until I tried the Italian Driving Experience I had never been to Thruxton. I had a lot to learn, and I can tell you straight away, that with 11 corners or curves, that took me a while.
The Complex and other multi-curves
The distances between corners are quite short, and there is a good combination of fast curves and a pair of slow S-bends. The chicane is very narrow and very slow – a bit too narrow for my liking, but that is immediately it is just before the entrance to the pits. There's really no margin for error there.
When you start your half-day course, you are briefed by an instructor and then shown a video of the course, and the basics of cornering, which you may know. You're also given some tips on how to drive.
The rules of the road
The rules of the road are also explained, which means that you can’t overtake unless invited to do so, except down the fast straight. On the track you’ll find small single-seaters, Lotus Elises, Porsche 911 Turbos, and Ferrari 355s as well as the cars I drove.
As it had been raining, the track was wet. The instructor pointed out that the track would be much more slippery than an ordinary road because of the oil and rubber left by the racing cars.
Just to make things more challenging there is only one corner at Thruxton which is taken in the classic start wide-hit the apex-run wide technique. The corners tend to be in groups, and you often need to take a tighter line than you would expect to get a good entry into the next corner.
A wet track at first
It had stopped raining and was wet and cool when I went out with an instructor for a three-lap introduction to the circuit in a Mazda RX-8. He drove fairly slowly to start with, showing me the best line – the job is made easier because colored cones are places at the turn-in point, the apex,, and the exit target – although on some bends you can’t see the next one as early as you would like.
He gradually drove faster, but still was driving at a steady speed, hitting no more than about 80 mph on the ‘straights’, all the time giving a commentary on the best approach to the track.
Then it was my turn - still wet
Then it was my turn for three laps at the wheel. These first three laps were just a matter of finding where to go – and not getting it right. I had a problem
finding my way into what they call The Complex, but which is actually formed by a very slow right-hand bend called Campbell, a pretty sharp left-hander called Cobb, and then Segrave which is a faster right-hand curve.
Almost immediately afterwards, you're setting yourself up to take the fast Noble left-hander, which is pretty straight forward – just a late apex. Then you keep tight on the exit to get set up for Goodwood, which almost runs into Village – hardly a corner, more a long curve out of Goodwood, and you're onto the curved 'home straight' before braking hard for the chicane. Past the pits and slowly round Allard – there is a speed limit to keep you out of the way of cars coming onto the track – then up the hill to the Complex again.
After my three laps in the Mazda I still couldn't get the complex right. The problem is that it is a very tight bend, but as the approach is very wide, and you come over a brow, it looks much faster than it is, and you tend to turn in too early.
It isn’t as bad as it seems after a while, because the instructors are there to help all the time, talking you through the bends.
Fumbling at The Complex on the SLK 350
When I drove a Mercedes-Benz SLK 350, I was fumbling my way around. The first time into the Complex, I came over the brow of the hill a bit fast, braked and started to turn too early, then at the apex I realised I was going to run too wide.
Instinctively, I did what you do on the road - I turned the wheel further to tuck in to the right for the entry to the next corner. My instructor was not amused, and told me in no uncertain terms never to do that. As the track was wet, the tail did slide out a fraction, but didn’t go far and I got the rest of the bends reasonably correct.
My instructor said that when you enter a corner on the wrong line you do NOT put on more lock at the apex.
“In a single-seater, you’d have spun,” he said reprovingly.
What do you do? Admit that you've got to slow down and hold your line, taking the second corner slower that you'd like.
So, the first lesson I learned was to make sure you get down to the right speed for the corner. This is very important, because the person who goes in slow, and accelerates steadily through the second and third bends gets to the end of the next straight first. The driver that scrabbles through the first bend sideways – after a fast entry – ends up coming out of the last bend slowest even if he doesn't spin.
Debriefing on how to drive faster
After my three laps, we had a chat - a sort of debriefing - about how I could improve my technique which was just as well, as I was about to go out in a Ferrari F360 with 400 bhp on tap. Incidentally, all four instructors were friendly and very knowledgeable. They gave a stream of useful advice all the time, and were happy to explain how you could go faster afterwards.
Go deeper into the corners
This time I concentrated on going deeper into the corners – one or two I had already found quite easy to get right – but now was getting better. The car was all you’d expect. Surprisingly wide, with a deep-throated V-8 roar, and that tall gear lever sticking out of the polished aluminum gate. The instructor kept asking me to shift up, to reduce the danger of a power-induced slide on the wet surface.
Even so, I had the pleasure of hurtling past some other cars on Brooklands, and going quite quickly through the fast bends. The instructor encouraged me to corner faster through the fast bends by entering faster and holding a steady throttle to the apex, instead of check-braking and accelerating through early.
Going in faster, and holding the speed is very satisfying, and you gradually put the power on from the apex, and belt up the straight. Very invigorating, and I began to feel I knew where I should be heading. The four laps went past very quickly.
Lamborghini Murcielago for my last drive
Now for the extravagantly elegant Lamborghini Murcielago with its stunning 570 bhp V-12 engine and the E-gearbox, Lamborghini’s six-speed sequential box operated by a pair of paddles.
The car looks absolutely stunning in pearlescent white, but despite those doors that go straight up, getting in is not that easy. The doors don’t open quite far enough and cut off part of the doorway. And the car is very low.
Once in, it fits like a glove, get the seat adjusted right – it does not go as far back as you might expect, but I ended up with a really good driving position. The instruments are well placed, too.
Start the V-12, and the thrum is there behind you, eager, ready to go. Out on the track, going very slowly at first, but winding up a bit as we went on. All the time I concentrated on using all the road - difficult, especially in a strange and very wide car so I would use those last two or three feet at the edge of the track before the bends.
Concentrate on holding a steady line
Then, I concentrated on turning in late and setting up the lock and holding it – the corners are such that if you do that, you will come out right near the edge of the track on the outside travelling surprisingly fast. Then, it’s a question of finding the next corer, and taking the line to it. Noble is an interesting corner as you need to hit the apex late and then keep the car in tight to open up the next corner.
Goodwood is a long fast curve, which opens out into a faster curve you accelerate through, and then another fast curve – Church - before the last straight. It’s here the V-12 engine got it’s head and responded with that glorious deep note as it hurtled past anything else on the track.
Before long I’d hit the apex of Brooklands, still accelerating, and was aiming for the inside of the track trying to clip the grass at the fast curve which you go straight past to come out wide to enter the chicane. Aiming for the turn-in point, I shifted down with the paddles on the E-gearbox pretty smoothly, braking at the same time. In fact, I braked a bit too early and so had to let them off just before I got to the corner.
By the last of my four laps, I’d learned a lot, and thanks to the way the Murcielago responds, I was able to give a pretty good account of myself – going wide before the bends, sometimes I felt as if I was almost on the grass, turning the wheel as smoothly as I could, and holding the wheel still through the corner to watch the car run wide to the edge of the track exactly as taught. Amazing, how you can improve in a few hours. Needless to say I was enjoying it enormously.
Flat out in a sedan - as a passenger
After that everything might have been an anti-climax except that you then get taken around in a fast Rover saloon flat out by an instructor. Not only did he corner very fast, wagging the tail through most corners, but rocketed past everything on the track, and once overtook going deep into a bend and still went racing off from the sports-racer as if it was standing still.
Finally, you go in for a debriefing where they see what the instructors have written about you and recommend how you can polish your technique. All great fun and highly recommended, with a good balance between managing safety and letting everyone enjoy themselves. Well organised, too.
There are many of these schools in England, but I recommend Thruxton Motorsport Centre for a great day out where you will learn a lot.
High-Performance Driving Experiences in England
Thruxton
Motorsport Centre
BARC
School (also Thruxton)
Don
Palmer International Driving Coach
Cadence
Driver Development
Everyman
Motor Racing Activities
Driver
Skills
Motor
Sport Vision
