Supercar Driving Experience - help required

[Bav]

Hi All.
For Christmas, my son & daughter clubbed together to buy me a supercar driving experience from Buyagift.co.uk.

I'm now looking to book this and have been looking at venues in the Yorkshire and the North West regions, but the choice of venues (and providers) is quite overwhelming. These are the list of venues:

• North Field Farm, York
• Yorkshire Air Museum, Elvington
• Doncaster Airfield, Doncaster
• 3 Sisters Recreation Area, Wigan
• Oulton Park, Tarporley
• Hooten Park Airfield, Ellesmere Port
• Kirkbride Airfield, Wigton

I've never been to any of these venues and wondering if anyone has any experience of these and can suggest where would be a good place to go. I'm currently leaning towards Oulton Park, but that's a preference based only on name recognition - never even heard of the rest of them (well, maybe heard of Elvington).

Also, does anyone have any experiences - good or bad - that they can share regarding the following providers:

• U Drive Cars
• Car Chase Heroes
• Sixth Gear Experiences
• Everyman Racing
• Drivers Dream Days
• PSR
• DriveMe

TIA

 

[JOG]

@Texxaco is over Tarporley way - he may have a view

 

[Chugga90]

Before lockdown, my wife had worked for 11years for Virgin Experience Days. She was made redundant by the immoral treasures!
However it is her opinion that Everyman is a good choice as they have a lot of cars and if something gets broken usually has replacement available rather than being cancelled until it is fixed!

 

[Sackmycook]

I used to attend Elvington a lot for dog training, but watched the cars going up and down the runway.
Apparently (urban myth warning), Elvington was one of the Space Shuttle emergency landing fields for NASA back in the day due to its length.....

 

[T6ChrisO]

I think 3 sisters is used a lot for Go-Karting but thats all I know. Oulton Park is certainly the name I know of the most and is obviously very popular with track days. I think Oulton would be my choice

 

[ginkster]

Old airfield circuits will be very flat and arguably a little boring. At least somewhere like Oulton Park has some elevation to it. If you fancy making a trip of it Knockhill is a great track.

 

[dubber36]

I'd choose Oulton Park as it's a proper racing circuit and as ginkster says, much more interesting.

Don't expect to be able to go full on attach mode tho'. They'll have the turns marked out with cones which whilst teaching you the correct lines, will inevitably slow you down.

One other thing to be mindful of is insurance. Depending on what package you have, they'll probably try to upsell that when you get there. Most of these events insist that only the full insurance package will not leave you open to having to pay thousands for a stone chip.

 

[Bav]

Old airfield circuits will be very flat and arguably a little boring. At least somewhere like Oulton Park has some elevation to it. If you fancy making a trip of it Knockhill is a great track.

Very interesting point you make about airfield circuits.

I'm sure I'll be too busy concentrating on my driving skillz (or lack thereof) to notice the scenery, but Knockhill sounds like a great, if challenging, circuit. Just checked though, and my voucher isn't valid for there - shame, as it's another circuit I've actually heard of.

 

[Bav]

Before lockdown, my wife had worked for 11years for Virgin Experience Days. She was made redundant by the immoral treasures!
However it is her opinion that Everyman is a good choice as they have a lot of cars and if something gets broken usually has replacement available rather than being cancelled until it is fixed!

Thanks for the insight. Everyman Racing are the only provider on the list that operate at Oulton, so that's another plus for that circuit.

 

[Bav]

I'd choose Oulton Park as it's a proper racing circuit and as ginkster says, much more interesting.

Don't expect to be able to go full on attach mode tho'. They'll have the turns marked out with cones which whilst teaching you the correct lines, will inevitably slow you down.

One other thing to be mindful of is insurance. Depending on what package you have, they'll probably try to upsell that when you get there. Most of these events insist that only the full insurance package will not leave you open to having to pay thousands for a stone chip.

I've read a few reviews (not specific to any provider/track/package) that mention paying for additional insurance. Is it really necessary or is it just cynical up-selling to rinse the risk-averse? If so, how much are we talking?

I can't help but think that the provider must be obliged to provide adequate insurance cover themselves, albeit the customer could be on the hook for any excess.

 

[Bigsidavies]

I've driven a single seater formula Ford at Oulton Park many many years ago and its a proper racing circuit.
I've done a couple of Ferrari and Lambo days (Everyman type event) down at an airfield place in Leicestershire, I think it was Prestwold Hall, they've made it into a bit of a circuit but it's not a racetrack at the end of the day. Nonetheless I had a fantastic time. Bought the same gift for my stepson and went with him and he loved it too. I paid to have a couple of laps driven round by a pro in a Focus RS too.
For me now, part of the whole experience would be that I'd driven round a proper racing circuit where the BTCC is held so maybe Oulton Park for the romance of real racing.
On the down side, I guess you might not hit the speeds that you'd get to hit on an old airfield because of the length of the straight (runway).
I didn't take out the extra insurance excess waiver, and then saw some goomer go spinning across the grass whilst I was waiting. That smartened me up when I had my 6 laps I can tell you.

 

[Phil Blackburn]

Oulton park would be my first choice out of those.
Raced it may times back in my 600 supersport days, fantastic circuit, ended my career their at cascades and almost my life but i still love the place, also had a chance of experiencing it as a passenger in an outlawed BTCC Mazda which was another level and totally different to the bike.
You will probably not get to do the full international circuit but hopefully do the island circuit like BTCC, Fosters circuit is a bit short but still fun.

 

[Higgidav]

I agree that Oulton Park is the one to go for. I have done lots of track days in my own car and I found the airfields to be bland and very hard on tyres. Personally I think a proper track gives a much better experience of turning points and aiming the apex with kerbs etc etc rather than a bunch of cones on flat concrete.

 

[Bav]

Thanks everyone for you input. Advice seems pretty much unanimous for Oulton Park, so that's where I'm going to try and book.

Just grappling with Everyman's booking system currently - seems you first have to select the cars you want to drive and that then dictates which circuits are available. Seems a bit arse-about-face to me, but hey.

Have asked for a booking agent to call me back, as I want to see what cars are available at OP. Might have to rethink the venue if they can only offer American muscle cars! Regardless, I'll be looking for a proper racing circuit.

 

[dubber36]

I've read a few reviews (not specific to any provider/track/package) that mention paying for additional insurance. Is it really necessary or is it just cynical up-selling to rinse the risk-averse? If so, how much are we talking?

I can't help but think that the provider must be obliged to provide adequate insurance cover themselves, albeit the customer could be on the hook for any excess.

The last one I was at was when my lad did an under 17's event at Llandow. This was about 6 years ago when he was 14, and from memory it was around £40 for full excess waiver.

 

[Bav]

Well, that was utterly hopeless!

Apparently I need a premier voucher (i.e. more £££) to book Oulton Park, even though, for my sub-premier voucher, it's offered as an option on the Buyagift website. They're also saying most places have now gone, so now it's dawning on me that my voucher is becoming increasingly worthless as time progresses... not something they care to advertise in their sales blurb!!

Anyway, persevered and told them I wanted "a proper racing circuit", but then they were wanting me to choose a circuit - just throwing names at me - and a date without me knowing what cars will be available. All very frustrating and beginning to look very much like a process designed to frustrate and thwart the end user (safe in the knowledge that they're probably not the person who shelled out for the voucher).

 

[True Romance]

After my experience years back at Donnington in a formula ford my appreciation for professional drivers went up significantly.

 

[Bigsidavies]

I’d start asking these awkward questions on the buyagift twitter page. See if that gets a little more help.

 

[roadtripper]

This is why I tend to do IOUs these days, the voucher industry relies on them not being claimed to make a profit and plays off the feeling you need to "buy something".

Which reminds me my nephew needs to book a similar day before I spend the money I set aside to cover it on the van...

 

[Bav]

This is why I tend to do IOUs these days, the voucher industry relies on them not being claimed to make a profit and plays off the feeling you need to "buy something".

Which reminds me my nephew needs to book a similar day before I spend the money I set aside to cover it on the van...

It's the accidentally spending the money on the van I found amusing - agree re IOUs.