AndyP & Lenore
2nd June 2008, 08:17 PM
For Christmas, Santa (Lenore) got me an "Ultimate MINI Experience" at Knockhill. Used the voucher today.
What a cracking experience.:yes nod: Literally.:blush:
Started off driving the Seat Cupra with advice from Sacha showing me the racing line, when to turn in, when to lift off, when to brake etc., etc. The Cupra's are pretty quick cars with 240 horses under the bonnet. And in no time I was absolutely flying round the track. Sacha was really patient and gave great advice (which I eventually forgot when I got in the MINI, to my detriment).
After 4 or 5 laps driving the Cupra, she then took over driving and showed me the way "NOT to do it". I'm gonna be completely honest here, as much as it may make me look like a big girls blouse. After 4 laps of Sacha driving, if she hadn't pulled in, I would have had to ask her to pull over so I could HURL! Not joking. That lassie can DRIVE!!!! BUT, she was showing me the way NOT to do it, and the car was absolutely all over the road. There are a couple of corners, honestly, I don't know how she recovered and got the car back on the track without sliding into gravel and smashing the tyre wall.
So, after my nerves had calmed down a wee bit, I was shoe-horned into the MINI Cooper S JCW. This is a former MINI Challenge care and is fully race prepared with roll cage, stripped out interior, 4 point harness, no handbrake and a very very very patient instructor (who, embarrassingly I can't remember the name of) - we'll call him Eric, I think it may have been something like that anyway.
Eric was all of about 13 years old - or so it seemed, but I'm sure he was a bit older. Anyway, he gave me a wee pep-talk before we drove off, basically going over a few of the things Sacha had gone over in the Cupra.
So, off we set, heading towards the first corner nice and slow like, and I slowly built up speed as my confidence built, clipping the apex on each corner, driving straight for the cones which show the turn points etc.
After 4 laps, I was really getting the hang of it all and took Carlube a little too quick. Using natural survival instincts, I lifted off just as I came out the corner. Car didn't like that.:blush: I quickly lost all grip and steering and plummeted head first across twenty foot of gravel and smashed into the tyre wall.:eek: Tyres flew up in front of me, all the water held inside flew up over the windscreen and then the tyres came bouncing down around me, on top of the bonnet and windscreen. As we were gracefully sliding across the gravel I distinctly heard Eric very calmly say: "Oh f**k." No exclamation, no panic, no sense of worry, just a simple statement.:thud:
As soon as we came to rest and the tyres stopped dropping, the fist thing he said was "Are you OK?" Was startled at that, I honestly expected a: "What the F*** were you playing at?" Or some other criticism. The car was well embedded and had to be pulled out by their 4x4, so I had a 30 minute wait while it was tie wrapped and glued back together, making it roadworthy again. The whole time, I'm apologising to anyone with a Knockhill uniform on, and I have to say every single one of them were absolutely fantastic. Here I was mortified I'd wrecked their car and they were far more worried about my health and that I was OK. And assuring me that it "can happen". So I said, "oh, does it happen quite a lot?" Hoping that it did and that would make it easier for me to justify what had happened. But no, apparently it happened a few months ago, but it's still a rarity.
So, once the car was mended and the other guy waiting to go out in it had had his stint, I went straight out again. I was a bit more cautious this time, especially at Carlube, but I was still hitting over 100mph on the straights.
Overall, I had a great time. Knockhill really look after you and the instructors were very patient and informative.
Lenore took a couple of pics.
A.
http://www.reachercreatures.com/fun_stuff/P1000080-sml.jpg
http://www.reachercreatures.com/fun_stuff/P1000082-sml.jpg
What a cracking experience.:yes nod: Literally.:blush:
Started off driving the Seat Cupra with advice from Sacha showing me the racing line, when to turn in, when to lift off, when to brake etc., etc. The Cupra's are pretty quick cars with 240 horses under the bonnet. And in no time I was absolutely flying round the track. Sacha was really patient and gave great advice (which I eventually forgot when I got in the MINI, to my detriment).
After 4 or 5 laps driving the Cupra, she then took over driving and showed me the way "NOT to do it". I'm gonna be completely honest here, as much as it may make me look like a big girls blouse. After 4 laps of Sacha driving, if she hadn't pulled in, I would have had to ask her to pull over so I could HURL! Not joking. That lassie can DRIVE!!!! BUT, she was showing me the way NOT to do it, and the car was absolutely all over the road. There are a couple of corners, honestly, I don't know how she recovered and got the car back on the track without sliding into gravel and smashing the tyre wall.
So, after my nerves had calmed down a wee bit, I was shoe-horned into the MINI Cooper S JCW. This is a former MINI Challenge care and is fully race prepared with roll cage, stripped out interior, 4 point harness, no handbrake and a very very very patient instructor (who, embarrassingly I can't remember the name of) - we'll call him Eric, I think it may have been something like that anyway.
Eric was all of about 13 years old - or so it seemed, but I'm sure he was a bit older. Anyway, he gave me a wee pep-talk before we drove off, basically going over a few of the things Sacha had gone over in the Cupra.
So, off we set, heading towards the first corner nice and slow like, and I slowly built up speed as my confidence built, clipping the apex on each corner, driving straight for the cones which show the turn points etc.
After 4 laps, I was really getting the hang of it all and took Carlube a little too quick. Using natural survival instincts, I lifted off just as I came out the corner. Car didn't like that.:blush: I quickly lost all grip and steering and plummeted head first across twenty foot of gravel and smashed into the tyre wall.:eek: Tyres flew up in front of me, all the water held inside flew up over the windscreen and then the tyres came bouncing down around me, on top of the bonnet and windscreen. As we were gracefully sliding across the gravel I distinctly heard Eric very calmly say: "Oh f**k." No exclamation, no panic, no sense of worry, just a simple statement.:thud:
As soon as we came to rest and the tyres stopped dropping, the fist thing he said was "Are you OK?" Was startled at that, I honestly expected a: "What the F*** were you playing at?" Or some other criticism. The car was well embedded and had to be pulled out by their 4x4, so I had a 30 minute wait while it was tie wrapped and glued back together, making it roadworthy again. The whole time, I'm apologising to anyone with a Knockhill uniform on, and I have to say every single one of them were absolutely fantastic. Here I was mortified I'd wrecked their car and they were far more worried about my health and that I was OK. And assuring me that it "can happen". So I said, "oh, does it happen quite a lot?" Hoping that it did and that would make it easier for me to justify what had happened. But no, apparently it happened a few months ago, but it's still a rarity.
So, once the car was mended and the other guy waiting to go out in it had had his stint, I went straight out again. I was a bit more cautious this time, especially at Carlube, but I was still hitting over 100mph on the straights.
Overall, I had a great time. Knockhill really look after you and the instructors were very patient and informative.
Lenore took a couple of pics.
A.
http://www.reachercreatures.com/fun_stuff/P1000080-sml.jpg
http://www.reachercreatures.com/fun_stuff/P1000082-sml.jpg