Silverstone

Our Great British Adventure

April 21, 2018

As a late Christmas present for Anthony I'd booked him to drive a single seater car on the track at Silverstone. We'd been warned there might be extra traffic because of a vintage car rally being held there on the same day, so we headed off early. Unnecessarily as it turned out. We found our way to the appropriate reception, which was experienced and streamlined so we were sorted out in short order.

Silverstone is actually a set of tracks. There are 2 outer tracks (national and international) with a joiner to combine them into the F1 track. In the middle of the international circuit is a twisty little circuit called Stowe. This is where the single seater cars drive, while the Aston Martin, Ferrari and Caterham drivers drive the outer international circuit. We watched them until it was Anthony's turn for his drive.

There were a dozen people in his group and they first had a half hour briefing about their cars and the track. It was emphasized that they weren't to spin, with a timeout for the first one and immediate retirement for a second, which made him very cautious as he had a hard time judging his grip. They kitted up and headed out for about 10 minutes in groups of 4, each behind a pace car, while they got used to the gears and feel of the cars. Then they pulled in and were sent out at 5s intervals for 20 minutes of driving on their own.

Anthony's caution meant he was relatively slow - his group did have some hard chargers, though none came close to the Stig's time from a previous visit. He had heaps of fun though and would dearly have loved several return visits. We got the results and picked up the media package we'd bought (a 360 degree camera was attached to his car and there was software to show any angle you like).

We were finished and home by lunchtime so we headed back into Oxford for lunch. Being a Saturday the town was much busier, with Morris dancers mingling with lots of people in SF costumes. We decided it was all a bit too crowded so we headed back for a quiet afternoon of writing up trip notes and reading.