The gift was kindly meant, but I found it hard to hide my disappointment. About 20 birthdays ago, my parents bought me a supercar experience. You know the sort of thing: drive a fast car – a Ferrari 360 Modena in my case – around a track, then take home a framed photograph to prove it. After a doom-laden safety briefing, I spent more time signing insurance waivers than actually behind the wheel. Then, when we finally ventured onto the circuit, my chaperone urged me to go slower and shift up sooner to “protect the engine”.
The PalmerSport experience day is absolutely nothing like that. Over the course of nine action-packed hours, you will drive an array of bona fide competition cars, from a Caterham Seven to a McLaren Artura GT4. The instructors are all racing drivers who live and breathe motorsport (a certain Sir Lewis Hamilton once worked here), and each activity is timed so you can compete against your colleagues. Oh, and you are encouraged to push the cars to their limits, driving as fast as you possibly can.
PalmerSport was established in 1991 by former Formula 1 and BTCC driver, Jonathan Palmer. His company, MotorSport Vision, owns and operates circuits such as Brands Hatch, Donington Park and Snetterton, and runs a variety of race series – including the GB3 Championship, Ferrari Challenge UK and Renault Clio Cup. In 1999, PalmerSport moved from its original base at Bruntingthorpe airfield to the purpose-built Bedford Autodrome, where it has remained ever since.
Taking a plunge
The milky winter sun has barely edged above the horizon when I sign in at Bedford, but the forecast is dry and unseasonably warm. Phew. Over a cooked breakfast and coffee, a fellow guest tells me about the Le Mans simulator rig he has at home. Clearly, unlike me, not everyone here is a racing rookie.
We watch a briefing video presented by Martin Brundle, then jump on a bus to the South Circuit for the first drives of the day. It turns out I've been thrown straight in at the deep end…
Yep, I'm starting off in the McLaren Artura GT4. The new pride of the PalmerSport fleet is a full-blooded endurance racer with slick tires, an F1-style steering yoke and an air jacking system for quicker pit stops. Its twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 does without the plug-in hybrid tech of the regular Artura, which is outlawed by GT4 regulations. Kerb weight is thus around 1,200kg – nearly 200kg less than its street-legal sibling.
Playing by Papaya rules
In vibrant papaya orange with Palmersport decals, the McLaren has an aura of single-minded intent. Folding myself through a beefy rollcage, its cabin looks cluttered yet starkly functional. The bucket seat is fixed in position, but a sliding pedal box means you can find a good driving position. “Ready?” asks my instructor over the in-helmet intercom. I pull the right paddle to engage first gear with a clunk. “As I'll ever be.”
No question, the McLaren feels brutally quick, its shorter-ratio gearbox blaming through 8,500rpm upshifts before the bellowing V6 can pause for breath. Once the Pirelli P-Zero tires are up to temperature, though, it isn't the untamed animal you might expect.
In fact, it's relatively easy to drive, as befits a turn-key customer racing car, with smooth steering, fade-free carbon brakes and staunch grip. Its balance feels neutral, erring towards safe understeer at the limit, although stomping on the throttle too early can certainly unstick the rear end – as I discovered on only my second lap.
Getting back to basics
Driving any circuit for the first time, most of your brain's bandwidth is occupied by where you are going: the racing line, braking points, the correct gear for each corner and so on. With the PalmerSport instructor's crisp, calm directions in my ear, however, I felt able to relax and simply enjoy the car. And what a car! The Artura feels up on its toes, reacting instantly to your inputs. Yet also seems to flatter your mistakes, encouraging you to commit to fast corners and feel the enhanced downforce at work.
Back in the hospitality suite, I rush over to the electronic leaderboard. Hmmm. A fastest lap of 1min 6.16sec puts me 11th out of 12 in our group – a sobering reminder that perhaps I'm not a driving deity after all. I quietly resolve to do better in the next challenge: the back-to-basics Palmer JP-LM.
A roofless (and ruthless) sports prototype with a spaceframe chassis and mid-mounted 3.0-liter Cosworth V6, the JP-LM is an unapologetically raw racing car. Dropping down into its snug cockpit feels like wriggling into a 164mph bathtub, facing a tiny steering wheel and simple LCD rev counter. My backside is millimeters from the tarmac and the mirrors are filled by a hulking rear wing. There are no driver aids – not even anti-lock brakes – and no excuses.
Mario Kart made real
I'd thought the McLaren would be an abrupt wake-up call, but in retrospect it mollycoddled me. With 450hp per tonne and no windscreen, the JP-LM takes no prisoners; it's an assault on the senses. The cacophony is such that my co-driver uses hand signals, rather than the intercom, to indicate gear shifts and braking points, encouraging me to clip kerbs and use every inch of the track in the quest for quicker lap times.
It works. When I stumbled dizzily out of the car, face flushed and fingers tingling, my best time for the lap of the North Circuit is 1min 24.25sec, placing me fourth overall. It's an encouraging result, although a further reality check comes from my instructor, who takes me for a passenger lap in the JP-LM and promptly goes 10 seconds faster. Point taken.
Next up is go-karting, perhaps the purest motorsport of them all. Despite mustering just 13hp, the Honda-engined karts are raring to go fast and sideways. As two groups of six drivers take turns on the circuit, what ensues feels like a real-life version of Mario Kart. I'm wrestling with the steering wheel, bouncing off stacks of tires and drifting through corners at 90 degrees like I've just hit one of Bowser's banana skins. By the time the checkered flag falls, my wrists are aching with the strain, but I have set the third fastest lap. Onwards and upwards.
Flying with wings
Suddenly, things get serious again; it's time to go it alone in Formula 3000 cars on the West Circuit. After another video pep talk from Martin Brundle, I pull on a fireproof race suit and clamber into the cramped, single-seat cockpit. Under its skin, the F3000 is closely related to the JP-LM, with the same 250hp V6 and paddle-shift gearbox, but it has less weight and a lot more downforce. Two onboard video cameras will also capture my performance for posterity.
Taking a deep breath, I exit the pit lane and start steadily, acutely conscious of my cold tires. The gear shifts feel jarring at first and I seem to be steering in a series of straight lines, like the perimeter of a 50p piece. As my speed increases, though, everything starts to coalesce. Being able to see the front wheels means you can place the car more precisely and nail each apex.
Still, the window between grip and slip is a narrow one, and learning to trust the F3000 through high-speed corners feels like a leap of faith. When the fun stops, my fastest lap of 1min 29.17sec is good for third place – albeit an eternity behind the pro record of 1min 12.1sec. Practice makes perfect, I suppose.
Mud, sweat and gears
After a delicious steak-and-salad lunch that does my power-to-weight ratio no favors, we head for the off-road course in a convoy of Land Rovers. Each one has a target sticker in the middle of its windscreen, the idea being to score points by hitting the bullseye with tennis balls that are suspended on strings above each obstacle. Like most things I've attempted today, it's harder than it looks, but I can't fault the classic Defender. Up steep ramps, through water splashes and balancing on parallel logs, it maintains a dogged, low-range crawl while I simply steer. As another ball misses the target, this feels like a showcase of the 4×4's ability more than mine.
Next we're back on track in the Caterham PalmerSport: a bespoke racing version of the Seven that weighs less than 650kg and hits 60mph in 3.9 seconds. The first challenge is a back-to-back drift battle on identical oval circuits, finishing with a tire-smoking donut around a traffic cone. Having previously taken part in a Caterham Drift Day at Brands Hatch, I know how readily these cars spin up their rear wheels and slide around. However, doing so against the clock requires a cool head and measured inputs. “The traction control is your right foot,” my instructor says.
I ended up finishing in second place, then headed to the East Circuit brimming with confidence. Yet pride inevitably comes before a fall, and I have my first spin of the day, sending the Caterham backwards across the grass until we glide to an undignified halt. If anything, the Seven – which is shod with Falken winter tires – feels even more playful here, demanding constant corrections as you barrel into each corner at 90 degrees to the direction of travel. It's the closest thing I've driven to a go-kart since, well, earlier today.
Seven in a spin
Given my unplanned pirouette, I'm satisfied with fifth place on-track in the Caterham. Now, as the daylight starts to fade, there is only one car left on our agenda: the Ginetta G56 GTA. A derivative of the most successful GT4 racer of all time, the British-built Ginetta has a 270hp 3.7-liter Ford V6, rear-wheel drive and perfect 50:50 weight distribution. After a few sighting laps of the short and tightly coiled North Circuit in an electric Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, I'm ready for a last blast.
All day I've been focused on lap times, but what follows next feels like a race. With my instructor shouting over the metallic thrash of the Ginetta's dog-ring gearbox, I'm driving flat-out, tight on the bumper of the car in front with another G56 looming large in my mirrors. I'm desperately trying to defend my position while looking for opportunities to overtake.
Shifting up as the LEDs on the steering wheel flicker red, then braking as late as I dare, the experience is intense and all-consuming. By the time the marshals end our session, I've set a fastest lap of 52.73 seconds – only 2.4 seconds slower than the pro target and good for third place. I'm mentally exhilarated and physically exhausted.
A dream day for drivers
The PalmerSport experience isn't cheap, with prices from £1,000 for a full day. That said, in terms of the cars available and how hard you're encouraged to push, there really is nothing like it. Bedford Autodrome also has conference facilities for corporate guests, so you can discuss sales strategies in the morning, then hit the circuit after lunch. For car or motorsport fanatics, it's the ultimate driving day out.
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