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Last Friday thanks to a late birthday present from my wife I had the pleasure to partake in the Johnathan Palmer Motorsport Experience.. After an Hour and a bit drive from London to just off junction 19 of the M1 I manged to get there 10 mins late of the requested 8 am start time..
Actually the start time was 8.45 when about 60 people were split into 6 F1 teams I was on the somewhat non inspiring BAR team of about 10 people.
And we drove,

A STANDARD IMPREZA on a coned course with an instructor timed.(the instructor taking the car to places I never thought it could go..one of those driver loses bottle before the car does places).

A 320 SLK on the same course timed again with an instructor(absolute kak after the Scoobie.

A HONDA CIVIC, solo, on a timed figure 8 course.(pretty pointless but interesting).

A CATERHAM SUPERLIGHT, solo, on a timed course ( the most fun ever spin, spin, spin.)

A LOTUS ELISE, solo, again on a timed coned course. ( fun but not as much fun as the superlights)

Then we broke for lunch, in each car we got a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 6 attempts on the course..

After lunch there was

A SINGLE SEATER RACE CAR 150bhp 135mph on a full race track, for 20min solo untimed free.

A TWIN ENGINED KART 5 laps of a bumpy circuit timed caperble of 70mph best lap taken.

A NISSAN TERRANO On an sedate but impressive off road course technically tough but challenging.

A MAN 18 WHEELER AND TRAILER short course but a great experience.

AND A HONDA TYPE R On the big course shared with the single seaters but a timed technical section (Impressed with the handling and performance of the car the instructor shouting and cajoling more speed out of you at every turn... kept wondering how the scooby would do on the same course time wise.)

Overall a great day done with military precision virtually no waiting time between each event, good informative instructors (what a job trashing Caterhams all day). Good food, good people, can't say enough Expensive but worth every penny as the wife paid

A great experience recommend it to all.

Trophys for the best time of the day on all timed events, points for a best driver trophy and t.shirts for the best team and a prize for the fastest time changing wheels on a F1 car.

I was 6th best driver out of 64 and guess what BAR as a team won..

Great day..

gregh

Yep, I've now done a number of these, great fun, done one in the wet which was even more amusing!

They had faster import scoobs last year, but standard UK MY00s this year.

Greg

MartinM

Is there a web site for them??
..see my post in Non-Scooby Related

Fullonloon

Trying to remember what I drove:

Formula 2000
Golf GTI superchipped
Lotus Elise
Caterham Sprint
Polo 16V
Mercedes SLK (span)
Mercedes CLK
Maverick
Big f'kin truck
Mercedes skid pan
Go-kart
There also was a Lotus Esprit ride which I didn't get to do.

gregh

website:

RobinL

Greg,

I did the same event as you up at Bruntingthorpe as a corporate freebee a few weeks earlier. I too was amazed at the organisation, size and quality of the event.

I won the Elise event but they wouldn't hand out more than one trophy to any one individual which was a bit unnerving when it came to driving that crappy automatic Civic round the cones (i.e. no one wanted to win that event!).

I found the UK scooby event a bit of a dissapointment to be honest - you weren't allowed to really throw it sideways, the instructors were more interested in taking the racing line rather than having sideways fun. We only got three laps each aswell.

The SLK was the worst car and the Caterham the best (I've since taken delivery of an R500 which I'm hoping to get to use at the same site soon).

Fantastic day overall, everyone there had nothing but praise for the organisers. The T-Shirts were a bit pants though !

Jonathan

Agree with all the above. Great day out. Taking some customers again next month.

The place is so popular though try booking !!.

Jonathan

johnfelstead

Robin, youve got an R500, top banana.

Get it down to silverstone for the RS National Day, i could do with some competition.

You with 500bhp/tonne and my westfield with 480BHP/tonne with completely diferent charicteristics would be huge fun.

that palmersport day seems like a good day out, lots of variety.

tiggers

Did the Bruntingthorpe event a year ago in the pouring rain - fantastic. Organisation was superb.

Drove single seater Formula Ford, Elise, Caterham Superlight (undriveable in torrential rain), SLK, Passat V6 Synchro, Karts, Terrano, Truck and Impreza STI V.

The STI V and the Elise were the best for me.

Regards,

tiggers

RobinL

John,

When is it and what's the format and cost - I might be interested in this ! What Westy have you got (FW400?) and how long have you had it ?

You might also be interested in the L7 screen saver that I'm currently compiling on behalf of the Lotus 7 club. If you've got some piccies that you'd like included, mail them to me as I'm trying to incorporate a good mixture of high res. images.

Also, one of the instructors at Palmersport is trying to organise a separate event (using the same grounds and circuit) for interested parties [JP doesn't actually own the airfields or runways, but rents them off some local farmers]. If you are interested let me know - I think the majority of cars will be potent 7's or big Porshe/ Feraris/ Lambos.

Robin.

P.S. The R500 is 511bhp/ton !

johnfelstead

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