Today I went to silverstone in order to carry out my booking for a single seater 'experience'. At 11:15AM we (12 people) mashed into the briefing room and got ourselves a good talking down to. But I'm getting a bit ahead of it all, so here's the day in chronological pictoral order.

Driving to Silverstone from Nuneaton - this was an outing for me, mama and papa as this whole thing was a christmas present.

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Ghost town at silverstone - lazy sunday.

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The table in the tea room with an anus-like sinkhole in the middle.

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We watched the group before us get their shiz together and such:

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The exige's and ferrari's were nearby aswell.

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Two blokes at the front of the lot before us have a chat:

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And we waited a while before briefing, Y-front style.

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Geared up, there I am smack bang in the centre in the tall-person's car. This car has a modified air intake designed for drivers whose heads obstruct orthodox setups. Not really, I was holding myself up so the guy could put my seat back a bit. The guy in the blue car thought he was the don and brought his own helmet and gloves and stuff, but stalled it moving away.

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Getting ready for a racey. You follow a pace car in single file of 4 cars for about 20 minutes. This time is extremely handy for getting used to the car. Manual 4-speed right-hand-shift dog-gear box single seaters are not 100% pick up and play, but heel-toe, ballet shoes and a firm right hand help an awful lot. When the paced session ends you retreat to the pits and go out one-by-one onto the circuit and are free to go as fast as you feel is right - this was go-time for me and it was a huge joy. You are out for an extra 20-minutes unregulated, apart from specific rules dictating cars which are blue-flagged must allow the car behind to pass on the next straight, this was applied to several cars in a particular line so as to mix the order up a bit. Not sure where they made the conclusion that this helped matters, but you did not have to suffer behind a slow car. There were many moments where the gearbox caught me out and I didn't get in gear properly. When this happens and you are forced to coast while you pull yourself together it feels a bit like freefall - there is no drive and you feel much less grippy, especially when this happens on a hairpin. The circuit itself, 'Stowe' is a small track which is inside the bounds of the main silverstone track. We racked up about 25-30 laps from the start of the pace car session to the finish, so you do get a pretty good go.

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Now we look back on the happy memories of 5 minutes ago and cool off. It was supreme, I'd gladly do it again.

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Nearly back in Sunny Nunny? Well...

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...The gouges in a roundabout on an industrial estate where a car has screamed across it, along with oil stains from a destroyed sump...

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...and an absolutely filthy rover, this one had been offroading or just running people over or what, the picture doesn't capture the side of the car well. You could safely say that this is definitely good ol' nuneaton again.

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And back home.

Looks like you had a cool day :)

how much did this cost out of interest? would love to do one of these things

It was 99 quid, but I'm not sure whether this was a christmas offer or anything like that, I'm suspecting it might have been.

The guy next to you, your dad?

OHHH SUITS YOU!

^^nice arse!

Edited 10 February, 200818 yr by currie

No, it's one of the instructors, you derp.

cant deny the resemblance.

'was he giving it to you sir? Ohh Suit you sir, Suit you! Ohh'

Fucking hell, they trusted you in one of those

that looks like an awesome day out. i really want to to a single seat track day style thing. how hard were the cars to drive apart from the right hand shift? how did they feel round corners?

The guy next to you, your dad?

OHHH SUITS YOU!

^^nice arse!

haha love this post just comedy

The cars are a sinch to drive bar the gearbox to start with, heel-toe was easy enough despite it initially feeling cramped, the steering is weighty and very direct, the cars go like the clappers and sound fantastic too.

It's just all round awesome and I'd 100% go again.

I am Stig.

Looked like a cracking day. Been thinking about something similar at Knockhill if I can get my arse in gear.

Hopefully I'll be in my own car when next on a track.

Hopefully I'll be in my own car when next on a track.

god help us all.