Track Day?

Audi Driving Experience covers pretty much everything you want. Only thing is you will not be driving an A3 - RS4, S6 and 3.2TT currently.

I don't think there is any A3 specific driving courses, but I might be wrong.

I would suggest you check out PalmerSport and a Palmer Sport day, at their track in Bedford. The track is unlike any other track in the UK, 1 its a proper track, unlike a airfield days, even though it was a airfield, 2 it has no spectators and never will, so it has no crash barriers. I have done loads of track days there and have only see one major freak incident. And pay the extra for an instructor for an hour, that will teach you all you need to know about your car.

Remember track insurance, with cost £100 per £5000 of chassis cover, so it wont cover you if you lance the engine / gearbox, but it would cover that freak incident where a clio sport when end over end :-(

Before I gave up track days I would think nothing of drifting my Caterham 7 though the corner at the end of the long straight at PalmerSport onto the next straight with 110mph showing on the speedo, normally there would be a knocking noise coming from the passenger footwell, strange never did find the cause of that

Chris.

I did the RS4 expeience at Silverstone but I was told when I was there this summer doing a single seater driving experience that they canned it sue to making a loss. The cost of the brakes and tyres where more than they where charging apparantly lol.

Sussex A3 3.2 Quattro said:

I did the RS4 expeience at Silverstone but I was told when I was there this summer doing a single seater driving experience that they canned it sue to making a loss. The cost of the brakes and tyres where more than they where charging apparantly lol.

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I can understand that - I did the first RS4 day back in November 2005. It cost £489 which I thought was a lot at the time. But given that the tyres cost a fortune, they last only a few days of track use, a tank of fuel, hire of circuit and instructors and lunch etc, I can see that the fee they charge is easily wiped out.

To compare with using my own car, I did a track day at Brands last month in my 3.2. Open pit lane for the whole day. Cost was £199, but then I added on own vehicle impact insurance for £20k cover with tow home option which cost £200, a tank of fuel - about £55 (I did 115 miles on the track and averaged 11mpg for the day!) and what has to be a large chunk of my road tyres were left behind - say £100 worth gone at least - total cost for the day of £555, before instruction (30 mins for £25) and helmet hire £10. Makes the professional days seem like a bargain!

Although I won't do it again, it was great fun though and I had a smile on my face all day long. However, I totally appreciate that the 3.2 is not the ideal track car! Both from an understeer perspective and also that it gets quite frustrating when you are driving your heart out but still being comprehensively passed on the straights like you are standing still by a Ford GT and a couple of Lambos when my foot is buried in the carpet. But even worse, being overtaken by a Capri, a couple of Sierras, and struggling to get past a Clio 182, admittedly most on track tyres. Or maybe I am just a crap driver!

I will stick to decent "experience days" or proper tuition in future. The Palmer days (expensive) are known to be fab. Just hoping for a corporate invite from someone now!

Dubai Autodrome, cane the hell out of a 2.0 TFSI with an instructer teaching and pushing you for £130. Ok too far, but a great experience!