techieboy Posted April 27, 2007 Report Share Posted April 27, 2007 Not sure if anyone is interested, but Vauxhall are doing half days at various UK racetracks in the VXR range of cars. Includes high speed circuit tuition and handling tuition (90 minutes of each) and costs £95. Seems like a pretty cheap way to get 3 hours+ caning somebody elses car and tyres on a track with lunch thrown in! Some of those VXR's are pretty rapid as well, so could be quite interesting. Full details here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser647 Posted April 27, 2007 Report Share Posted April 27, 2007 Good one! Will have a look into that for the wife's birthday!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oli Posted April 27, 2007 Report Share Posted April 27, 2007 Looks good fun, I might have a go myself Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaddyDub Posted April 27, 2007 Report Share Posted April 27, 2007 Ill be letting the Mrs know in time for my birthday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techieboy Posted April 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2007 Yep. Just booked a session at Brands Hatch. The missus doesn't know it yet but she'll be paying! Or maybe that should be more like Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwo Posted April 27, 2007 Report Share Posted April 27, 2007 My sister in law has an astra vxr - it is quite rapid! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shark_90 Posted April 27, 2007 Report Share Posted April 27, 2007 That's got to be worth £95!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fizzbitt Posted April 27, 2007 Report Share Posted April 27, 2007 that looks quite tempting.. I only just 2 weeks ago did a similar thing with the Golf R32/GTi at Millbrook Proving Grounds...hmm... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarmac_Terrorist Posted April 27, 2007 Report Share Posted April 27, 2007 Says you can try the entire VXR range. The Monaro would be tempting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotty Posted April 27, 2007 Report Share Posted April 27, 2007 Surely they'll be letting people try the new VXR8 instead. I'm probably gonna book Donington 5th July AM session. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponge Posted April 28, 2007 Report Share Posted April 28, 2007 I've just booked a slot. It's the first time I've ever done anything like this - should be great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRobin Posted April 28, 2007 Report Share Posted April 28, 2007 Sounds great fun. You TSN guys who are going to do it should arrange a meet there by starting a post in the Meets forum and starting a list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fizzbitt Posted April 28, 2007 Report Share Posted April 28, 2007 you reckon you will get that much track time with you actually driving? Also you think it will be 2/3 people per car.. sharing drives? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOSE Posted April 28, 2007 Report Share Posted April 28, 2007 [ QUOTE ] Surely they'll be letting people try the new VXR8 instead. I'm probably gonna book Donington 5th July AM session. [/ QUOTE ] I have it on good authority that both the VXR8 and Corsa will be at these events. Me and B055 are booked for Thruxton on 23rd July, oh and I've booked the missus on it as well as a suprise. For those doing Brands, its a fantastic track to let loose on, so you will enjoy!! We did it last year (courtesy of Vauxhall) and had an amazing day out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotty Posted April 28, 2007 Report Share Posted April 28, 2007 I've done Donny and Brands Indie and much prefer the former. I'm tempted to do Brands as the map looks like the full track but I'll be really gutted if it's the indie. What did you get last time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techieboy Posted April 28, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2007 [ QUOTE ] I'm tempted to do Brands as the map looks like the full track but I'll be really gutted if it's the indie. [/ QUOTE ] Yeah, that's why I went for Brands for this one. I really hope it does turn out to be the full circuit. Almost went for Donington myself and then toyed with the idea of Thruxton, as I've never driven that. But, Brands full circuit (even with the pain of the M25 and Dartford Crossing) is just too much to resist. Will be great news if the VXR8 is there to sample! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponge Posted July 5, 2007 Report Share Posted July 5, 2007 My tickets for Oulton Park (12th) arrived today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techieboy Posted July 5, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2007 Nice one. Hoping mine turn up in the next few days. Saw a car transporter going through Bedford on Tuesday night with eight red Astra VXR's on it and they were all sporting big chrome effect VXR stickers down the side. Guessing they were either heading to Silverstone for the weekend or off to a VXR day somewhere. Let us know how you get on, mines not until the 19th Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amoeba Posted July 6, 2007 Report Share Posted July 6, 2007 Got Thruxton booked for the 25th with a mate. Does anyone know any more details on this yet, its all a little vague for me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shark_90 Posted July 7, 2007 Report Share Posted July 7, 2007 I did mine yesterday at Donnington. Had a great day, the hospitality is very good, the food was great (although I arrived a little too late to grab most of the good stuff) and some of the ladies that work for VX are Our group did the track session first, and the autotest and handbrake turn parallel park (great fun ) second. Basically we had a 20 minute briefing and then an instructional lap with commentary and what you should be aiming for etc. After that you grab a helmet (good morning) and just dive in a car. WARNING - YOU GET PHOTOGRAPHED IN THE FIRST CAR YOU GET INTO, DON'T DO THE SAME AS ME AND BE LAST IN THE QUEUE BECAUSE THE ONLY CAR LEFT WAS A FECKING MERIVA! Then it's out onto the track and it's a pretty sedate affair. Some of the instructors are more relaxed than others and let you get on with it, one of them was very good and gave very good instructions on how to handle the car which I found very useful. Some of the other "instructors" just seemed to be there for the ride and weren't helpful at all. The major disappointment for me was that you could only do 2 laps in the cars, so by the time you've just got into it again, you're being asked to pull into the pits. You can jump straight into another car and away you go again, but all the cars are very different from each other and so I felt I lost momentum. The cars available were: Corsa VXR 1.6T (light, quick, needs a remap) Meriva VXR 1.6T (shite handling, too much roll) Astra VXR 2.0T (quickish, not a bad handler) Zafira VXR 2.0T (surprisingly not bad, nice seats, handled well) Vectra VXR 2.8T V6 (no surge of power, didn't feel turbo'd, deceptively fast, steering very light and uninvolving, good once you learn how to drive it, easy to get the back end out with a little flick I liked) VXR8 (comfy, quick, not as lairy as a Monaro, wasn't blown away by the looks, interior a step above the Monaro) It was my first time at Donnington and although I'd class myself as a average-fair road driver, I'm a beginner at track stuff. Having said that, if the intructors weren't around I think I'd have pasted the cars a little bit more Having a slightly damp track didn't help, as Donnington is on the flight path for EMA it is VERY slippery when wet. I certainly enjoyed it but would love to go out there in my own car and drive more to my perceived limits. I also found it difficult to heel and toe in most of these cars. I must say I'm quite a lazy heel-and-toe'er and I use the side of my foot, which is easy in the Golf. But in some of the VXR's the pedals were just a little too far apart, and after having a cable throttle car of late I also found it very difficult to control the revs coming into corners when on the brakes. Press the loud pedal and get nothing...nothing..nothing.. then 5,000 rpm out of nowhere and I've over-revved for the gear Also there are 2 pro drivers there showboating Vectra's around the track. They call this the "performance" lap - hop in with them just for the laugh. They fling the cars around and are obviously having great fun - at one point they came belting past me touching wing mirrors into the Old Hairpin. Fcuking mental! So with track time over, we went to the auto test and parallel park course in the car park. First up for our group was the parallel parking. Now this is harder than Paul Swift and John (didn't catch his name) make it look, and you WILL feck it up They have inflatable cars and some cones set out and you have to whack the car in behind the inflatable one and try not to kill any cones. Great fun!!!! After that, Paul lined up two Astras and whacked another Astra straight in there. I've seen Russ do it on the TV but to see it done right infront of you is jaw-dropping. The auto test is a short agility course where you have to slalom, do a 360 into a garage, reverse out and 360 around a cone before stopping with the front wheels over the line. You get 2 runs and they're timed just for the laugh. I really enjoyed doing this part of it but I wouldn't want to do it in my own car!! The cars we did this and the parallel park in were 1.6 Astra "Design"'s and the one I did the auto test in had 56 miles on the clock - probably all in first gear! I have to say I was disappointed with the track part of it due to the stop-start nature of the drives. But overall a cracking day and worth £95 of anyone's money Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponge Posted July 7, 2007 Report Share Posted July 7, 2007 Excellent write up Very encouraging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techieboy Posted July 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2007 Nice one, Ben. Looking forward to it now as I've just booked an evening open pit session at Brands for the week after I do the VXR day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonnyGTi Posted July 7, 2007 Report Share Posted July 7, 2007 Great write up....and mirrors my thoughts and experience I was in the afternoon session (Friday 6th) and was in the last group on the track. I would just add that there were around 28 VXR's available on the track (all with instructors) and 4 of these were VXR8's. With around 32 people in our group, this meant that you were virtually driving non stop with very little waiting for the next ride! Tom Chiltern and Paul O'Neil were doing the "Performance" lap......an experience not to be missed...they go round virtually side by side in a mock race with headlights blazing so that everyone gets out of their way !! They're just coming back into the pits in the photo below (red and black Vectras) All in all a great day and the hospitality was superb. Free lunch, free VXR polo shirt, free photo, A few photos :- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shark_90 Posted July 16, 2007 Report Share Posted July 16, 2007 We could have had a TSN mini-meet Did you see my TSN stickered Mk4 Golf in the car park? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian_C Posted July 16, 2007 Report Share Posted July 16, 2007 These cannot be VXR Astras, surely? Tiny alloys and jacked up suspension? [ QUOTE ] [/ QUOTE ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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