CarLimits Airfield Driver Training - Anyone done it?

[Chris1712]

Have just booked in for this next year, I've heard great things from other 4C owners so quite looking forward to it. I'm still not entirely in tune with the whole mid-engine thing tbh, it's not as intuitive as an FR car.

https://www.carlimits.com/script/viewEvents.php?type=airfieldtraining

Anyone been?

 

[Del Lardo]

I've done it in my Elise and Evora in the past. Great day out and you'll learn a lot, mostly that you are no where near as good a driver as you thought. Always fun to hand your car over to the trainer at the end of the day and take a passenger ride to find out exactly how good your car is in the right hands.

The Activity days are also great fun for a £50 hoon if you're close enough to justify and yes, I can't drive for poo

 

[Conanius]

Yes, did it years ago with @NickXX, @OllyM & @PeterNem (who else came?)

I recall the surface was, not great, but it was a good fun day and I learned a fair amount about how my car handled. We did one of the larger group days, not the focused 4/6 people event

 

[Del Lardo]

It's still not brilliant but they have resurfaced a few of the areas, mainly where the circuit is laid out for braking and cornering. I've done one wet day there and it was brilliant fun, bugger all grip and nothing to hit so could really play with the car.

 

[Chris1712]

Yes I’ve heard it’s a good idea to tape up your arches a bit to stop too much debris? I’ve got PPF but will maybe mask up aswell.

 

[Steeps]

I did one last year, started off dry and then got rained on in the afternoon which was a completely different experience. For learning how your car handles and driver technique it's a fantastic experience and I've noticed since doing the course I'm sitting better and less grippy with the wheel. The one thing that frustrated me was the changes in surfaces and watching my dashcam footage after, every time I lost the car it was due to a surface change. Just means I need to practice more trying to catch the spins and reacting quicker.

 

[Del Lardo]

Yes I’ve heard it’s a good idea to tape up your arches a bit to stop too much debris? I’ve got PPF but will maybe mask up aswell.

I've never bothered and not had a problem.

Few other things that have popped into my head...


It's very exposed there, if it's cold it's very cold, if the sun is out there is normally still a breeze that makes it feel cooler, you will burn!

Take a tyre pump and pressure gauge as they recommend to pump your tyres up unless you are in something really lightweight (Elise, Caterham) as you're expected to spin a lot so a risk of tyres coming off rims if pressures are low.

Take cash for lunch, often a greasy burger van there (yum) which is also good for tea

 

[Chris1712]

I've done it in my Elise and Evora in the past. Great day out and you'll learn a lot, mostly that you are no where near as good a driver as you thought. Always fun to hand your car over to the trainer at the end of the day and take a passenger ride to find out exactly how good your car is in the right hands.

The Activity days are also great fun for a £50 hoon if you're close enough to justify and yes, I can't drive for poo

I've never bothered and not had a problem.

Few other things that have popped into my head...


It's very exposed there, if it's cold it's very cold, if the sun is out there is normally still a breeze that makes it feel cooler, you will burn!

Take a tyre pump and pressure gauge as they recommend to pump your tyres up unless you are in something really lightweight (Elise, Caterham) as you're expected to spin a lot so a risk of tyres coming off rims if pressures are low.

Take cash for lunch, often a greasy burger van there (yum) which is also good for tea

Cheers dude, good to know. That video is beautiful, doesn't matter how many times you hear that engine it's still INCREDIBLE.

 

[GhostWKD]

I did it when they reopened after Covid. Certainly at that time they weren't doing any in-car coaching due to Covid but had an amazing time non-the less. Did it with the Noble owners club and due to an alternator problem in my car used my Clio 182. Was in the Top 3 or Top 5 times of the day I think out of 25 odd Nobles; only 1mph off on the fastest corner speed too

Would definitely recommend it for the cost, I'm certainly going to go back again in a proper toy and will likely try take friends along too.

{Obliglatory Clio in Queue with lots of Nobles picture} - was huge in-post so you can use your imagination for this one

Edit: Sorry this was activity days rather than training specifically, apologies for that. One of the Noble guys had done training there before though and thoroughly recommended it.

 

[Matmulder]

I did it - my lasting memory was of Andrew getting increasingly wound up as I struggled to override my instincts while trying to avoid "The wall" (Note - this was 10 years ago, maybe things have changed).

The idea being that there is an invisible wall you need to avoid (they'd signalled it by the drain strip). You get up to 70-80mph, turn in slightly then slam on the brakes. The rear of the car comes around (very quickly in a mid-engined Exige, I will add) and you're meant to just let go of the wheel; it'll self correct. What most people do is try to correct it themselves, leading to a massive tank-slapper. I just could not override my instinct to grab the wheel, no matter how hard I tried

My day was marred because the car kept breaking down, but what time we did have was enjoyable.

 

[sandys]

Did it a few years ago had booked with car club when I had a sporty number to take but I ended up buying a front wheel drive diesel, went anyway and had a right laugh, it was very interesting to wang it down the track as fast as you could flick it left and just let go of the wheel to learn what the car and safety systems would do, was also amusing to have half the power of everyone else on the day but be the second quickest on the handling circuit, I would have been the quickest but they didn't want a diesel to win the day and let a mate go out in his motor until he beat me ...grrrr surface was abrasive, I killed the tyres doing lap after lap myself.

If you are after driver training I also did some with this guy which was more valuable IMO as we did it with a smaller group at Abingdon but could be done anywhere.

A Need 4 Speed Ltd

 

[Sin_Chase]

Took my S2000 there around 8-9 years ago. Had a great time despite the fact the guy running it had a broken arm.

Still posted better times than us demonstrating with 1 hand