Rally Car Experience - we did it and here's our report

Other Sports...

Travel

Links

Main Sections

Unusual Events

other stuff

> Rally experience by Neil Scanlon

Over the past few years we've seen the rise of the "experience day" gift. As a Christmas gift my wife gave me a Rally Driving experience... so we felt it might be a good idea to let you know whether it is the experience of the lifetime or an expensive way to say "Merry Christmas"

The rally experience we were given was organised by Red Letter Days and came in the form of a certificate which allowed you to choose from a number of centres around the country. The different centres offered different experiences, cars, venues etc. We choose a centre near Loughborough which offered a variety of cars and driving conditions, here is the run down:

The basic day divides into four sections with participants who rotate in groups of 5/6 to each section. The four sections were as follows:

	Mitsubishi Evos - tarmac
	The first section I got to try was the Mitsubishi Evo's on tarmac stages - well they aren't going to let you throw these around where you could wreck them. The basic deal is a tight and twisty loop laid out on the airfield and you get to blast round with an instructor for five laps (6-8 minutes). Now you may think this sounds fairly easy - well its not that difficult and if you have driven a fast car on a road you won't be too surprised. But if you've never driven a 300bhp saloon car on very wet tarmac it is alot of fun, in fact when I got out of the car I was grinning from ear to ear. The four wheel drive system has tremendous grip but trying to contain the power was a real challenge. From the outside it didn't look that fast, but from inside the stripped out interior it was a scream.

	Interval - Karting
	To even out the day a kart track is laid on for the group who aren't on one of the rally sections. If you've driven karts then this is pretty dull. The kart track was soaking and the kart I drove refused to turn left...a real let down after the Evos's

	Gravel Driving
	This was what I was looking forward to...slinging a race spec daihatsu (if a little ancient) around on a lose surface. It looks so easy, but it is entirely different to what you try to do on a road. It takes a while to get the hang of the fact that you don't want to steer in the corner and I managed to spin the car several times. But this was an experience, it did give me new respect for the lads who do this stuff professionally...

	Powerslides - Cosworth Sierra
	Powersliding a Cosworth Sierra may sound like anormal night out in Middlesborough but this was a fun way to end the day. The four wheel drive cosworth may be old tech now but it certainly had some charisma, again this was on a loose surface and involved hurling the cosworth around a loop and powesliding at either end of the loop. You didn't really get enough time to master it, but it was a blast.

Conclusion...

Well, when the morning finished did I feel that I had had the rally experience? Well, yes and no. At the end of the day I got to do stuff that would cost an absolute fortune to actually do yourself, but it is just a taste. I felt it was worthwhile and that the organisers were professional and offered reasonable value for money. A real rally experience would have been hurling the cosworth around a welsh forest for a few days, but I can't see how I'm going to be able to do that for £150. As far as a danger rating goes, it isn't dangerous. At the end of the day with liability being what it is these days the organisers have to minimise the risk to participants. It was interesting rather than exciting, it really whets the appetite for a bit more competition...now if my wife gets me a sierra cosworth for next christmas...