A day out for petrolheads

For Christmas my son Simon, my son in law Andy and I received a wonderful gift from the family; a supercar driving experience with "Car Chase Heroes". From an extensive list of mouth watering supercars you choose three that you would like to drive then you take those cars out and do three laps of a small circuit set up at an airfield, very similar to the track on the TV series; Top Gear.

We had booked the day for Friday 9th March which was very fortunately after the huge storm; the Beast from the East had passed over. As it was it was a wet day as we headed towards the town of Cirencester and the Kemble airfield.

We were in time for a nice lunch (with only one beer each!) at another charming old pub called the Elliot Arms in Cirencester before finding the airfield. There was quite a large crowd of driving enthusiasts despite the rain and the cars were lined up waiting.

As you can see there were many cars available, I was careful to choose cars that I could still get into and out of with a degree of dignity so I decided not to drive the Ferari or the Lambourghini, both of which are too low and cramped for my rather large frame!

My son in law's first drive was in this lovely old Camaro SS whilst mine was in the fabulous "Barricade" Police Mustang, my first time driving a Mustang and a goal fulfilled, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

The fact that it was left-hand drive wasn't an issue, it was automatic, extremely powerful and loads of fun. Three laps were over too quickly and I headed back to the pits a happy man.

My son's first drive was in this lovely old race-prepared Mustang whilst my second choice was the absolutely mind-blowing Nissan GTR. Incredibly fast with paddle gear change on the steering wheel I really pushed this one, especially since I now knew the track!

"Get outta my way, I'm coming through!"  

By mid afternoon we were pretty wet but all extremely happy, Simon and Andy both drove the Lambo and declared it amazing, my third drive was in the elegant and powerful Aston Martin Vantage.

Extremely powerful but very comfortable, a driver's car this was the only one with a "stick-shift" that I drove that afternoon, but I am used to that anyway so it was no problem. This was the only car that I actually slid a bit coming out of a fast corner. Again, three laps were over too quickly but it was an amazing experience.

It would be very difficult for me to say which of the three was my favourite because they were all so different and I loved them all. Perhaps if I had driven the Mustang last I would have had more confidence to push it a bit harder once I had track knowledge, as it was they all had their good points.

We drove home that evening happily comparing stories, the last ride of the day however was as a passenger in a fast car just to bring you back down to earth! We thought we were fast, but that guy was really fast!

Thanks to my wonderful family for a truly memorable gift and if I were a rich man I'm sure I would buy the Aston Martin, or would it be the GTR? Hang on, what about the Mustang? Oh well, back to my little Chev LUV.