Driving, Experience Gifts, Gifts
A Silverstone rally school experience is the perfect way to the rev up the rallying spirit in motorsports fans everywhere. We are offering quick-blast taster sessions as well as longer half day workshops for you to hone your rally skills. Pick the car you want how much driving you want to do and away you go!
Each Silverstone rally session calls on a fleet of rally-specification Mk II Escorts and Subaru Imprezas all maintained and prepared by a team of in-house mechanics. The bodyshells have been strengthened and roll cages fitted so you can give it your all as you throw the car into that hair pin and pull a few sideways drifts round the long open corners. This is classic rally time in classic rally cars. What’s not to love?
For an introduction into the high-octane world of autosport we think the Silverstone rally taster session is a great debut for first timers. You’ll work the training paddock on a short session to hone your handbrake turns and power slides before being invited to tackle the loose surface rally stage in full.
The half day package offers an extended experience so you have double the drive time. After those initial training sessions in handbrake turns and then power slides you get another stint at combining both skills out there before you head for the Silverstone special gravel stage like a proper rally driver.
The tuition at Silverstone’s rally school which has been operating since 1982 is of an exceptional standard as all the instructors are Motor Sport Association licensed with plenty of international rallying experience under their belts. The team includes founder members of the British Association of Rally Schools which itself is recognised and approved by the MSA. A great place to start rallying which is right opposite one of the most famous circuits in the country!
Find out more and book your place today!
Driving, Experience Gifts, Gifts
Once upon a time there was a rally driving experience in Oxfordshire where you step back into motorsport history to drive the good and the great Ford Escort! A good serving of 1970s nostalgia most definitely on the menu with these fabulous and funky half and full day rallying sessions at this school near Bicester. One of our most popular venues in the UK it’s your chance to drive a rally legend.
The original and still the best. The Ford Escort MKII RS2000 is one of the most successful rally icons of all time. The Escort has won more world championship rallies than any other car in the history of the sport. The Mk I star was the Mexico and this was superseded in the MKII production by the inimitable and still current RS series.
Awash with rally victories from 1975 to 1981 the list of drivers piloting the RS to the podium reads like a who’s who of rallying. There’s Timo Makinen Roger Clark Bjorn Waldegard Hannu Mikola and not forgetting Ari Vatanen whose co-driver David Richards you might know from Aston Martin and specialist rally outfit ProDrive fame.
But enough of the history it’s time to bring old school rallying back to life in Oxfordshire as it’s your chance now to give rallying a go at this superb venue just outside Bicester. Enjoy the thrill of handbrake turns power slides Scandinavian flicks and quickly learn how to control the car in understeer and oversteer situations on the special rally stage.
The reputation of the rally school here in Bicester is riding high too boasting a long history of competing in major rally championships. The fleet of cars is all serviced and maintained in-house too providing professionally built Group four spec rally vehicles for us all to enjoy.
What we love about all these Oxfordshire sessions is that you will stay with the same rally instructor throughout so together you can build your skills and learn just what it tales to handle these two wheel drive sliding machines.
Of course the full day rally driving experience at this Oxfordshire-based school is the ultimate as it gives you loads of time behind the wheel to explore the bespoke special stages in these full blown rally legends. One last highlight is a timed event at the end of the day to see who is the champ of MK II Escort rallying at Bicester! No wonder this is one of our most popular rally schools. We reckon it’s time you got booked in!
Find out more and book your place today!
Driving, Experience Gifts, Gifts
At this Gloucestershire rally school you’ll experience what it’s like to be a proper rally driver! Combining training sessions with timed rally stage laps these half and full day rally experiences teach all the rallying skills you need.
The school is operated under the guidance of Andy Gwynne who has clocked up many a rally stage win during his career including being two-time European Class A6 Champion and coming first in class at the 2005 Wales Rally GB. He certainly knows his stuff and with his equally skilled and dedicated team of instructors you’ve got top notch instruction on tap.
The cars at this Gloucestershire school are competition-prepared Citroen C2s as used in the National Rally Championship. The are little front wheel drive pocket rockets and they are great fun to drive on these challenging loose gravel stages.
Sessions start with a welcome and meeting your instructor then it’s straight out to the cars (no time-consuming demo laps here!) to start your rally driving with all the instruction in-car. You’ll have two training sessions on the half day and more on the full day by the end of which you will have had a go at classic rally moves such as handbrake turns and power slides.
Your experience continues with a duo of ‘against the clock’ rounds. Run just like proper rally stages you’ll listen to the countdown on the starting line. Five four three two one – and GO! Dust flying and tyres grappling for grip you’re off on your timed lap. Your instructor becomes your co-pilot giving you invaluable pace notes as you hurtle around the stage.
Now you’ve posted your best lap times on this thrilling Gloucestershire rally stage it’s time to hand over the reins to the pros. You might have scared them a little on the outings with you at the wheel but when it’s you in that passenger seat and them in the hot seat? Well we can tell you your eyes will be on stalks. It. is. so. fast.
Having been scared pretty much witless (but in the good way) by your extreme passenger ride it’s time to gather your thoughts whilst the team analyse the stage times of you and your fellow competing drivers. Numbers crunched and totted up the winner of the whole event will be declared. But no-one leaves this Gloucestershire rally school empty-handed all participants receive prints out of their times and a certificate too.
Find out more and book your place today!
Driving, Experience Gifts, Gifts
The Ford Escort Mk2 rally car needs no introduction. If you love your rallying you’ll know this was the most successful rally car ever when it dominated the motorsport during the 1970s. We are really quite excited to say this is your chance to drive this mythical rally car for yourself on a loose gravel stage in Essex!
The iconic RS1800 won every single consecutive RAC rally from 1975 to 1979 and of course pulled off the WRC one-two in 1979 with Bjorn Waldegard on top of the podium Hannu Mikkola as runner up and Ari Vatanen fifth. Totally epic. This incredible rally car held its own right up until the fledgling years of the four wheel drive generation of rally cars headed by the Audi Quattro in the early 80s.
Even today nothing beats the sound and sight of a MkII Escort hammering it around a rally course. You can hear the breathy engine-wail way before you can see it and when the Escort does come into view it’s invariably at a near-impossible sideways angle.
That seminal Cosworth engine was without doubt most at home in the Welsh forest wining endless rally stages. And who could forget those classic Rothmans and Castrol liveries and those extra-large wheel arches? Not even the fact that front vision was pretty useless through the front windscreen (which is why you often saw drivers and co-drivers peering through the side windows!) could detract from the sheer charm.
Simplicity and drivability is what makes this car an enduring icon. That is the beauty of the Escort Mk2 rally car. It’s low kerb weight and perfectly balanced rear wheel drive set up means you can get the rear end swinging out knowing you will still exit the corner and accelerate neatly away.
Luckily for you the legend that is the Escort Mk2 rally car is still very much living. That’s why rally operators (who are as big a rally fan as you) keep these classic rally cars going. Everyone deserves the chance to enjoy the sheer thrills and sensation of this great car at least once – and that’s why we’re offering these Ford Escort rally drives just for you!
Find out more and book your place today!
Driving, Experience Gifts, Gifts
Rev the engines and get ready for your adrenaline rally in Northamptonshire! The idea of this course is that you get down to the nitty-gritty of rallying by learning each individual technique in a series of mini workshops taking it in turns as part of a group.
Each of your three driving sessions takes place in a different area of the rally school. Each one has been created to provide the perfect set up for learning the particular skills you’ll be concentrating on. In the paddock you’ve got plenty of room to fling the car around and practice those handbrakes turns. It might look easy but it actually takes a fair amount of co-ordination between what your hands and feet are doing.
Over in the power slide area you’ll be learning how to grapple with oversteer on a beautifully-formed corner. It’s a 200m arc with the ideal angles for getting your car to slide gracefully around. No doubt you’ll have a couple of missed attempts where you over or even under cook it but hopefully by the end of your turn you’ll have nailed it!
The skid pan is where you learn your figure of eights and doughnuts. These crowd-pleaser moves get the adrenaline going as you throw your rally car around this Northamptonshire pan. Again it’s tricky to smoothly execute the moves but you’ll be getting in-car training from some of the best (and most patient) instructors out there.
As for the car you’ll be learning these rally moves in you can’t get much more seminal than the Subaru Impreza. They are the real workhorses of this rally school. They don’t mind how many stalls or spins out you have these iconic cars just keep on going. Sure they’re not the latest generation of rally car but they are certainly one of the best to drive even years after their WRC heyday. If you like your old school Subaru rallying you’ll love the adrenaline rally in Northamptonshire!
Find out more and book your place today!
