Driving an elise at Rockingham

[derekthetree]

Watching fifth gear last night (the bit with the f1 m5 race at rockingham) reminded me that I never posted these pics of me driving an elise round the infield at Rockingham.

Some of you may remember while back in the birthday thread that i was going to a porsche 911 driving session as a birthday present.

well the company that ran that went bust so i got to choose another activity. so i chose the lotus.

it was a great day. you got a quick prep talk about how to drive on a circuit and then walked out under the oval onto the infield.

rockingham is sponsored by BMW so they have a huge carpark full of m3's, csl's and m5's. it was quite a sight.

we then got our helmets and assigned to a car. i ended up with a silver elise (they had a nice blue one which i would have preferred)

i then got to drive for about 20 mins round the track with an instructor giving tips. on the ttrack at the same time were two other elises a couple of m3's and about 5 mini cooper s's.

driving round was great fun but i never got near the limits of the car (which were demonstrated after by the instructor with a couple of laps with him driving).

i was going pretty quick though and only got lapped by a m3 once. i also nearly took out a mini by cutting him up at a corner

getting a couple of laps with the instructor driving was great. he controlled the car really well and overtook everything in sight even another instrcutor in an m3!

anyway it was a great day out and i thought i would share the story and the pictures finally!


the first two are photos that are taken by a professional photographer while your'e on the track. you have the choice to buy the prints and i got the first one.

the second two are photos taken during and before the drive.

[Matra et Alpine]

glad you managed it and clearly enjoyed it so much.

Also another lesson learned -- take the student helmet off BEFORE getting photographed so you dont' look like Wallace

[Jakg]

looks like you had a good time!!!

[derekthetree]

Originally Posted by Matra et Alpine

glad you managed it and clearly enjoyed it so much.

Also another lesson learned -- take the student helmet off BEFORE getting photographed so you dont' look like Wallace

well its better than this one without the helmet on...

[Matra et Alpine]

Granted.
and the reason I always take my own helmets to any of these kind of events