Westfield Driving Experience

[ivan the terrible]

Hi, just wondering if anyone has been on one of the westfield experience days, the wife got me one for xmas, got it booked at silverstone in april, thought i'd ask if anyones done one and what they thought of it , cheers ivan

[Dave Ed]

I did a Caterham half day slalom a few years back, had a great time and was surprised at the number of execs that didn't know how to drive a rear drive car.

There was a lot of standing around with only about 2 mins of proper driving. Still worth doing though as morrissons get a bit annoyed when you are drifting in their carpark lol.

[Guest Kennedy48]

I did the catterham at croft few years back. Great fun. As said above slot of standing around and wishing for longer behind the wheel but still a great experience. Alot of the older guys were in the Ferrari and the Aston Martin and the Porsche and didn't seem too happy when at the time a 17 year old newly past my driving test was over taking them and taking the corners faster in a little catterham. One of the best experiences out of all the driving things I have done. The rally one was great even though I crashed the car

[Guest mark little]

I've got a westfield, don't know when I'me going to get the 'driving experience' or does sitting behind the steering wheel making engine noises count.

[Guest Sharky]

Going next weekend - wife bought me a half day drift experience for my birthday and finally got round to cashing it in.

 

Will re-post after I have done it and let you know what I think.

 

Sharky

[ivan the terrible]

hi sharky, i'm there all day sunday, are you going in the zero?

[Guest Sharky]

Hi Ivan,

 

No, not going in the Zero as I am wary of ragging it on the way home! Plus, the wife will need somewhere warm to go and sit! Lol I will look out for you there!

 

Sharky

 

[ivan the terrible]

Me and the wife are going down on Saturday also in our tintop, hotel for the night, are you there am or pm

[Guest Sharky]

I am on the PM slot

[Guest Sharky]

Well, I did the half day job and it was a great experience. Weather was cracking and got a very red face to prove that!

 

At first I thought it was going to be a bit of a slow day, as there were a lot of guys and only two cars, but the team there made sure you were in the cars for as much time as possible. They get the cars to drift by having them on a tall 1st gear, they use crappy van tyres with no grip and pump them up to 60psi, drifting occurs at the exact same time as you push the gas pedal! The trick is trying to control it!! It's like driving a 2 litre shopping trolley!! I thought I was going to be ok at this, but I was pretty poor to start with, there is so much to think about in a split second, but by the end of the afternoon, I think I was doing ok. It was an expensive day out but I am glad I had made the effort to have a go, and I think I learned some thing too! Felt like I had been in a train crash today though, my shoulders and neck are killing me! Best I get some more gym time in before throwing the hood around!

 

Weather was marvellous today, so me and she who must be obeyed, went out in the Shark-mobile round Shoreham and Brighton - loads of little roundabouts where I could get the back end to light up a bit, and now Mrs Sharky isn't as worried when I do that, in fact she even gave me a be-mittened thumbs up for a deliberate sideways exit off one mini roundabout (before any fun Police step in - we were the only ones there).

 

So in all, what you all probably want to know is whether the Westie drift experience is worth the money? Well, let's see, you get to drive a couple of well-sorted cars, the instructors are helpful, it's not your tyres, it's not your clutch/drivetrain, you get sufficient time in the cars to learn something, unfortunately it makes you feel like you have actually been boxing the day after, Maccie D's might consider you to be more of a delinquent than the regular boy racers if you try doing this kind of stuff in their drive-thru, I learned some of the technique and theory of what skidding/drifting is about and I think it fair to say that I am a bit more confident than I was at the start. That said, I am definitely no expert and I still have a healthy regard for the twitch and flighti-ness of our cars, so whilst this was not a cheap day out, I am glad that I did it, and on that basis, I have to say that it was worth it.

 

Sharky

[brumster]

Sounds cool - one of my mates is the spanner monkey on the drift cars, maintaining and building them... he was probably there at a guess, being doughnut'd around and risking his toes the cars certainly get maintained, he's always working on them, so I am guessing it's pretty hard on them.

 

60psi van tyres - love it

[ivan the terrible]

hi all, just want to second what sharky has said about the westfield day, i went on the sunday all day, got there expecting lots of people, but there ended up being just two of us, top result !! got to drive both cars a lot (got well battered about) found it a bit tricky at first,(not aggresive enough with my right foot), then after a while and being told to thrash the ar#e out of the car soon got the hang of things, what was good, was the way they let you drive the cars without them at the side of you, they stood well away and watched then gave you more constructive advice, in the afternoon just 5 more people turned up so still ended up having lots of driving time,don't know if anyone saw the westfield drift cars at stoneliegh last year, that is what they let you do, had a fantastic day and hats off to simon and steve from westfield they both know there stuff, hope to do it again sometime.