Evening everyone. Just thought i’d pop on a couple of pictures from a driving experience I won a couple of weeks ago.
I won a drive in an Australian Touring car around Rockingham. It was a full-race spec’d car with a 5.7 Litre V8 engine with 400+bhp under the right foot. After being driven round in a Mini Cooper for a couple of sighting laps (that was an experience in itself) I was let loose in the Touring Car. First of all I had to get used to the left hand drive position. I’ve never driven a left hand drive car before, so that was interesting !!
After a couple of steady laps I pushed a bit harder, and for the first time I actually felt a bit scared behind the wheel !! I’ve never felt so much power and the noise of the V8 was just amazing !!! It was shocking to feel how fast these cars are. They must be amazing in real race conditions !!
I think i’ll definately go back and try my hand at something else. Got to say a HUGE thanks to trackdays.co.uk for the prize, i’ll certainly be entering the next competition just incase.
A couple of pics taken on the day :
Here’s a quick clip … not the best quality, but you can hear the awesome V8 :
That’s because it’s not an Aussie touring car, the cars at Rockingham are imported race cars from the Chevy Lumina CSV-ME race series which raced in Bahrain and Dubai in 2007/08. Including supporting the 2008 Bahrain F1 GP.
Oddly enough, the car Ady drove was driven by current Ma5da MX-5 racer Fahad Hizam in that series, see pictures below.
The Luminas are not quite the same spec as the Aussie Holden V8s. The Holdens have 600bhp whereas the Luminas have about 400bhp.
Thanks for the education, I really was confused for a min never be too old or too clever to learn something new would imagine 400hp is plenty on a usually damp and windy Rockingham!!
Hey, I picked this post up on one of my Google Alerts. I was there on that day and was the guy doing high-speed passenger rides in the V8 Touring Car and Lotus, pretty sure it was the white one. Your instructor was probably mini-hotshoe (he races mini’s, not a person with small, hot shoes) driver Steven Hopper.
They really are great cars and very little modified from when they were raced. In fact they still race out there and I’ve worked as driver coach for a number of the drivers for the past 3 years.
Here is one in action earlier this year in Bahrain.
I can tell you Doc that they are a real handful in the dry, never mind the wet. I instruct in them and you have to be so ‘on it’ in the wet it’s unreal. We have a cut-out which cuts the power and we have our fingers poised on it all day (in the wet). Even then we expect to spin at least once. A buddy was working on one yesterday and was spun 7 times. I’ve been spun 4-5 times, twice at over 100mph in the faster sweeps of Rockingham. Certainly keeps my wife and our washing machine busy
Highly recommended though (to drive in, not to instruct in)
ahhhhhhhh !! Thanks Jon, I did wonder why it was left hand drive. I never got round to asking on the day. Great that you found those pics. I did try and find some but with no luck. Very cool that it was driven by a Mazda race driver.
If anyone ever gets the chance to do this then get there straight away … it’s an amazing experience.
Hey Maxx … yeah i remember seeing you on the day doing high speed passenger laps in the white one. You don’t hang about do you !! It was Stephen that was my instructor. What an absolute top bloke !! He pushed me harder and harder and got me going a lot faster than I thought I would do. He said I did very well (and i’m sure he gave me an extra lap or two).
What an awesome job that must be … hopefully i’ll get to come back. If I do i’ll pop over and say “hi”.
Of course we do love what we do but it IS a tough job.
Imagine arriving at work at 7:45 and by 9:00 be faced with approx 20-25 ‘members of the public’ who you must sit next to for 6 laps in a 400+ bhp race car with NO ABS, NO Traction Control! LOL
TBH though it’s the people that make the job, it’d great to see that smile on their face as they nail the throttle for the first time and that sense of satisfaction they feel as they pull back into the paddock. It’s a people job more than a car job.
And Steven, as you say, is one of the best and will be chuffed with your post on here.
never be too old or too clever to learn something new
would imagine 400hp is plenty on a usually damp and windy Rockingham!!