My saturday .... Awesome

S

silverbullitt

Petrolheads
Well as many of you know i turned thirty this weekend , (less of the old man jokes please) , and for the previous few months i had been dropping some not so subtle hints about what i wanted as a gift. I had been eager to either fly a helicopter or a do the Mondello driving school thing, just to scratch a few more things from my bucket list ,before i eventually shuffle from this mortal coil.
"Fine" she said "leave it with me"
"Grand so" ,i thought , its in her capable hands and i thought no more about it , until i got a phone call from her two weeks to leave this weekend free , and have my driving license and passport to hand . Any more questions about what i was doing and where we were going were met with a pokerface lady gaga would be proud of . I couldn't even get a hint from her.
For two weeks i wrestled with my conscience to go snooping in her email inbox to try and find a clue as to what i would be doing , but i always had it in the back of my mind that that would ruin the surprise, and i know for a fact this lady does not disappoint when it comes to surprises.
A couple of days before we were set to leave, probably sick to death of my constant asking , she broke and i managed to get it out of her that i would be going "somewhere" to drive "something special".
"Somewhere" didn't help me much, that just spent my imagination into overdrive thinking of the endless possibilities , and the "something special" had my stomach in knots , would i be driving Italy's finest , maybe the best of the British , what about a couple of German Bahnstormers , or some tech heavy wizardry from Japan .. i was truly in bits thinking about it and for the next two days i didnt sleep a wink.

The day of reckoning came , and at the airport i learned i was boarding a flight to Birmingham . That was absolutely no help to me ,as my knowledge of British Geography comes from the TV i watched as a child , so unless we were going to Byker grove or Grange hill ,i was fucked .

Still clueless i picked up a rental car and went to the hotel and after a walk around city centre and a quick giggle at the brummie accent i hit the bed early without having so much as a drop of alcohol. Tomorrow was a day i really didn't want to be hungover.A fitful nights sleep later and i was still as giddy as a nun in a field of cucumbers, we got up and hit the road on a day with conditions far from perfect for driving some motoring exotica. It was a wild blustery day , with rain and wind blowing from all angles. The M42 was quiet which afforded me even more time to daydream about what automotive delights were ahead of me .
The address she gave me to put into the Sat nav didn't ring a bell with me . Just head to Prestwold Hall was all i was instructed , and i dutifully complied, all the while thinking what kind of racetrack is called Prestwold hall ? Sounds more like a stately home with a some nice gardens rather than a place where high speed high jinks were about to get underway.
How wrong i was , Pulling in to Prestwold hall i realised that it was an Everyman Driving Experience centre and the first dilemma that greeted me upon entry was a fork in the road , Left for "Rally Experiences" and right for "Supercar Experiences" . Which one was i to be doing ??
Now dont get me wrong , im sure either one would have been a great day , but i drive a 300 bhp car every day , and i fancied getting my hands on something with a tad more power than that .
My heart skipped a beat as the missus said to take the right hand lane, and as i drove past the Evo's and subarus in the rally enclosure my mind raced ahead to what delights were instore.
I parked the car , and jumped out anxiously waiting for herself to pack all the paraphernalia into the depths of her handbag and get out of the car too. So we set off towards the buildings at the end of the car park , me taking 3 steps to every one of hers. I could hear engines roaring loudly in the background ..but what were they ???
Finally we rounded the buildings and we came to a paddock of some of the most beautiful machines ever to grace tarmac . A pristine collection of Aston Martin DB9's both droptop and coupe , a couple of Porche's a 911 Carrera 4 , and a GT3 RS , a gaggle of Audi R8's (petrol of course) , some of Ferraris finest wares, F360 , F430 CS , 575 maranello , an Ariel atom ,H2 Hummer(i have no idea why), a Bentley Continental , an absolutely stunning collection of Lamborghinis , and holding its own amongst the big boys was a lime green Focus RS looking absolutely spectacular .

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So now to the 64,000 dollar question , which one of these bad boys would i be driving , and at this she handed me the booking sheet . I looked down and saw Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4 V/s GTR ,and those three letters "GTR" puzzled me , as i didnt see one in the Lot .Then i turned around and saw it just coming in from the track , my idol , the R35 GTR ,looking pristine in white and attracting the most attention of any of the other supercars here on the day .
It dawned on me , not only was i about to live out every kids childhood dream and actually hammer a Lamborghini around a racetrack , i was to do the same with a car that occuppied the highest echelon of my dream car fantasies since its inception many years ago.
I was so happy i think i shed a tear before i pulled my self together and headed into the drivers briefing . A few minutes later i stepped out bedecked in a helmet and headed towards to the paddock .
"Right this way" said the Marshall and shepherded me into the drivers seat of the GTR , too soon i thought , i haven't had time to process the information yet, but i was settled in and buckled up before i knew it , quite comfortably too might i add. I didn't have much time to look around the interior , but it was well appointed and you wanted for nothing inside there .
So with a turn of the key , the 3.8 litre twin turbocharged V6 engine fired up , and all was quiet , surprisingly , i was expecting a 500odd bhp car to sound a bit louder than this , but no . From outside there was a slight rumble indicating the fury that this machine was about to unleash , but it was a quiet understated one. Under the watchful eye of the instructor i pulled the gear lever into M for manual, flicked the right hand paddle behind the wheel and pushed lightly on the accelerator . There was no surge of power , or lurch forward , the GTR moved forward as if it was the 1.3 seat Ibiza that the rental company had given me, this thing is perfectly civilized and as easy to drive as your nans micra.
Onwards we went to the entrance to the track , a cursory glance to the right and i spotted two focus st's coming up a hundred yards away , "your fine" the instructor said , "we'll be well gone by the time they get here ", so i pulled out and gunned it ...That's when i blacked out for a bit , the sheer force this thing takes off with when you want it to is outstanding ,hit the red line in first ,pulled the lever to change to second , and i thought i might have a seconds reprieve, but the dual clutch gearbox had second gear in place in milliseconds, we were off again ,same again through third, fourth and fifth until we hit the braking point , where by i was treated to a lesson in physics .
Newtons stated that every action has an equal but opposite reaction . that i learned to be true , because when i stood on the brakes, my head hit the windscreen . The brembos fitted to the GTR are phenomenal ,with excellent feel and no fade, even after 4 laps of hard braking , they were still up to the job .
Next with my braking out of the way i got a lesson in how to take a corner. Now as i said the conditions were miserable , but this didn't faze the GTR , i turned the wheel into turn one, and she responded , turning like a feather caught on a breeze .
I passed the blue cone which marked the apex and it was time to get back on the power ,then its true party piece came into play , the 4wd system.
Me being overexcited as i was ,put the boot in , expecting some under steer , but the 4wd system kept the wheels on a true course as it delivered the ferocious power to the tarmac as we rocketed out of the bend straight onto the next one , all the while swapping cogs this way and that way.
I dont know nissan have done it , but there is absolutely no lag whatsoever from the turbos. If you put your foot down in any gear anywhere in the range ,you have mountains of power readily available to you ,there is absolutely no hesitation from the engine . It truly is a flattering car as im not the best driver in the world , but i was overtaking Astons with 600bhp and lambos as well. It just allows you to carry so much speed into and out of a corner that anything ahead of you is going to be behind you very soon .
So after 4 laps of pure and utter driving nirvana i reluctantly pulled into the paddock for the next part of my driving experience ,
thats me :p
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The Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4 , while not the fastest Lambo ever produced , its still one of the better looking , and with 550 bhp its nothing to be sniffed at either .
So still in awe of the sublime GTR i climbed down into the cockpit of the Lambo , and adjusted myself to try and be comfortable , but the roof is so low , especially with a helmet on , comfortable is something that sadly cannot be achieved . so i squished my neck down to stop the helmet bouncing off the roof .The interior isn't as straightforward as the GTR either ,its quite baffling to be honest , nothing appears to be in the place it should.
But never the less, there was no time to be debating semantics here , so the key was turned to fire the 5.2 litre V10 into life , and what a roar it gives as it does . A few quick blips of the throttle and im beginning to think GTR who?
Onwards we go and more of the same , pull the right lever and off you go , down to the track and a quick glance to the right, pull out and floor it , and heres where the differences come into play , while the GTR was civilised inside the cabin with only a light growl from the V6 , the Lambo with that V10 sitting right behind you lets out a roar that would wake dead . As you feather the throttle there's a moment where you think nothing is happening at all and theres a moments hesitation, but then as various bits of machinery behind you start doing their thing , you realise your strapped into a nuclear ICBM as she fires off down the track with a cacophany of sound coming from behind your left ear , hit the red line and heres the disappointing part of the lambo , you finger the right paddle to change and the whole thing sort of stops and your thrust forward against the seat belt ,while little italians move one cog out of the way and replace it with another , then your forced back into your seat again for the short hop to third, where the little italians go to work again , and so on .
Whereas in the GTR the gear change was a thing of pleasure , in the lambo you start to get wearisome of it all too soon .
The time comes to hit the brakes and you suddenly feel that ,emm well theres no feel from them at all . The pedal is a big heavy plate , that either turns the brakes on , or off , there's no in between . And when you're braking from high speed, you feel the whole car squirming around trying to break traction,where the GTR stayed straight and true .
The turn in is sharp but somehow not as composed , and as i hit the blue cone for the first time in the lambo i powered on as i had been doing in the GTR , and thats where the sh*t very nearly hit the fan , she started to understeer and i felt the front breaking loose , i lifted off and felt the back starting to go... a slight correction on steering , a bit more power and i came out the other side unscathed and looking like a bit of a pro (thank you forza) . next time around i left the car straighten up a bit more before i hit the pedal . But once i found my comfort zone i could push it on and was starting overtake other lambos driven by inferior drivers .. but the call to come into the paddock came all too soon, and i had to hand her back to the next paying customer .
And therein lies the problem of these days , for the few minutes that car is in your control , shes your slave and she will do anything to please , but as soon as your finished , she is off trying to please her new master . I have to admit i felt a tinge of disgust when i saw someone driving off in the GTR after i had been with her .
Overall though i had a brilliant day doing something that unless i have a major win in the lottery , i wont have the chance to do for real .
I feel that driving the GTR before the lambo had soured the italian somewhat for me ,as it couldnt match the technical prowess of the jap. Its very hard to find a fault with the GTR , it truly is an amazing piece of machinery that was designed with the drivers enjoyment in mind .
That said , if somehow were to offer me a lamborghini for free im sure i could over look her little niggles .





thats me in the white one ... the sound is unreal
 
They are excellent days out. I done one in Elvington last year, got to drive a Ferrari F-430 and a Lambo Murchielago!! Amazing cars!!! :thumbsup:
 
Great write up man. I did that one aswel in Prestwold Hall a couple of years ago, amazing experiance. I drove a ferrari 360 and a Gallardo...If you thought the gear change in the lambo is slow you should try an older Ferrari. Takes an age to change up the gears.. If i was going back id do the GTR and the GT3 RS..Id say the GTR is even better than you have made it out to be
 
I didnt think there was a place you could go to drive such cars ,driving that GTR would be serious
 
That was a fantastic write up!!!! Felt like I was actually in the car with you :clap: :clap:

I'm turning 30 in January, I wonder will himself come up with something as good as that!!!!

Your mrs is very good to you :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 
"as giddy as a nun in a field of cucumbers" :roll: :roll:

great story and well told :clap:

gtr sounds like an amazing drive :icon_headbang:
 
cheers for the positive comments guys ...glad ye liked the write-up ..
I only intended it to be something short , but as always i couldn't stop writing and ended up with nearly 4 A4 pages full.
Must start doing a couple of features and see if i can a few local newspapers interested
The day itself was savage , and words cant describe how good the GTR feels to drive , it truly is the best interface of man and machine ive ever experienced . Its perfection personified .
 
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