I've done a few track days in my time and driven all kind of things:

Ferrari 308GTB & 355, Porsche 911 turbo, Maserati 3200GT, Aston Martin v8 Vantage, Lotus Elise & Exige, Honda S2000, Audi TT Quattro etc.

To be honest most are a bit of an anti climax. Sure, they are nice cars to sit in and drive but not really that exciting driving within the constraints of an experience day.

My favourite in terms of just enjoying the car was the V8 Vantage. Sounds great and it is a great car to sit in but is not all that exciting. Driving it through the alps would be nice but it is not a track car.

For excitement, the Lotus Exige wins by miles and miles. Unbelievably fast and could go round corners like it was on rails.

3 sisters is a smallish track so my advice would be to drive something quick and sharp rather than a GT car. You'd have much more fun. I'd take either the Atom or the single seater.

Just buy a Mercedes CLS and have the power steering system fail on you. I did.

Anyone been on one of those Land Rover experiences? I pass one on the A65 @ Coniston, and it does look good from what I can see.

550i not on the list?



For my money it depends what you are after. For sheer thrills it would have to be the Atom.

For the super car type experience it would have to be the lambo. The rest of the list you will quite often see knocking around the streets, but spotting a big bad boy Gallardo would be quite rare.

I personally would pick the Ariel. Just make sure your neck muscles are up to it

I've had the benefit of a number of corporate driving experience days in the past and the one that stood out for me was the Land Rover Jungle route. That gave me more confidence in adverse conditions than any race-track experience could (thumbs on top). The other one, for sheer exhilaration was when Rolls Royce arranged with the MoD for us to attend the tank training on Salisbury Plain, driving anything from Chieftains to Ferret Scout cars. We only had around 10 minutes driving the tanks on our own and even then it was a very limited speed. But to be strapped in one when an experienced driver was thrashing it around the test route was a bone-jarring, liver-liquidising experience that will live with me forever. Tank personell are nuts, pure & simple

I've got a family member who got into a lot of trouble once whilst in the army for rolling a tank going too fast around a bend on a hillside.

I've done a couple of these in various cars.

For me the best thing about it was having a professional in the seat next to you pointing out your mistakes and correcting bits of technique.

Ms. Terrorist and I once did one at Donnington together, it included a flying lap in a Caterham at the end. During the briefing we were told to keep an eye out for the Caterham as it would be lapping quicker than us.

On the drive home, Ms. Terrorist remarked to me that she was surprised that on all the laps she'd done she hadn't once seen the catering van...