This past week I had the pleasure of attending a ‘Palmersport’ event at Bedford Autodrome, namely one of their evening programmes, which involved not only driving some incredibly fast cars on their awesome circuit but a BBQ too! The afternoon start time gave my fiance & I plenty of time to make the trip up to Bedford, and upon arrival we were made to feel very welcome by Palmersport’s friendly staff. First up was a run through of the programmes’ format, along with the mandatory safety briefing-but it wasn’t long before we hit the track.
In fact, the first vehicle our group got to sample wasn’t a car at all, but rather something I’ve at least had a fair bit of experience with- a go kart. Specifically a Sodi GT5, which features a 390cc Honda GX engine capable of a (theoretical) top speed of over 48 mph. We had a quick blast around Palmersport’s purpose built karting track before moving on to the larger ‘west’ circuit to drive something with a seat belt (by which I mean ‘racing harness’)!
That ‘something’ turned out to be a full-on mini Le Mans racer - the appropriately named Palmer JP-LM. This was a two seater featuring a 3 litre V6 engine and a sequential ‘flappy paddle’ gearbox. Once tightly strapped in, my instructor Charlie gave me the all-clear over the intercom and we headed out on to the circuit...
This car was insane! It took me a few laps to switch my brain from 'road' to ‘track’ mode (despite the karting) but with Charlie’s encouragement we were soon up to speed, nailing apexes and shifting through the rapid-fire gearbox. I felt like Alonso at Le Mans and despite my rather tentative start my instructor was kind enough to rate my performance as ‘good’ once we’d returned to the pits. The instructors at Palmersport really do encourage you to push yourselves as hard as you feel comfortable on track and to say that you come out of the cars absolutely buzzing would be an understatement- and things were only going to better from here!
Once our group's JP-LM drives were over, we were ushered into another briefing for what would be the highlight of the evening, the Palmersport F3000! A short video featuring Martin Brundle took us through the do’s & don’t’s of the 250 bhp single seaters (including some attention-grabbing footage of an incident from a few years back!) before we found ourselves pulling on race suits & helmets and being introduced to our bright red chariots. Although similar in performance on paper to the JP-LMs, this time of course each driver would be on their own. Like the junior Le Mans cars, the F3000 also featured a six speed paddleshift gearbox mated to a V6 engine, but without the added weight of another person we were reliably told that driving these cars would be like turning everything up to 11-and how right they were!
Despite somewhat embarrassingly stalling as I pulled out of the garage, I soon found myself trundling down the pit lane taking in my new surroundings. Now if you’ve ever watched Formula One on TV, you’ll have no doubt heard the commentators say that ‘the drivers can’t see their own front wings, only the tops of their front tyres and the car’s tiny wing mirrors’, and the exact same thing can be said of the F3000. I took the below photo whilst sat in the pits waiting to head out;
See what I mean? Alongside the tiny steering wheel, this really is a world away from your average family hatchback-yet despite the restricted view once you are out on circuit vision doesn’t ever really become an issue, and things flow more naturally than you might imagine.
(A quick note on the paddleshift gearboxes that each car featured on the evening programme; All of the cars came equipped with three pedals as you would find in a road car, however the clutch was only needed when pulling away from & then coming back to a complete stop. When you are up & running, all you have to do to change gear is flick up and down the gearbox using the wheel-mounted paddles. This did allow for some left foot braking in the JP-LM and F3000 cars, but for the Renault Clio Cup car I reverted back to using my right foot - more on that later!)
I can honestly say that the Palmersport F3000 is hands down the most exhilarating car I’ve ever driven on a track. It’s a complete sensory overload to find yourself travelling at over 100mph, inches off the ground with a V6 engine screaming away behind you. The car really does feel like an extension of your body-it goes, stops and turns exactly how you want it to. Now I won’t claim to have gotten anywhere near the limits of this car (despite some opposite lock moments) but pushing my own limits came so easily in such a confidence-inspiring machine. Lap after lap I found myself braking later, getting on the power earlier and letting the engine do its thing by maximising each gear change (the shift lights above the steering wheel come in handy!) and before I knew it the session was over, the chequered flag was out and we all returned to the pits. Incredible stuff.
Now I’m not going to go into lap times & things here as I don’t feel it’s relevant. Was I the fastest? No way. But neither was I the slowest, and as I said I felt like I pushed myself as far as I was comfortable on a track I had no experience on, in cars I’d never driven (On a side note, in the karts I was third fastest out of twenty six participating drivers). Each driver in my group all stepped out of the cars with huge grins on their faces-suffice to say this was an adrenaline rush like no other. But there was barely time to recover as we were soon ushered onto a mini bus, to be taken over to the ‘north’ circuit for our final activity..
Awaiting us were a handful of full-fat Renault Clio Cup race cars. Looking like giant angry bees in yellow & black, these cars are a million miles away from the Renaults you might see on your neighbour’s driveway. These are the same cars that feature on the BTCC support package, acting as a stepping stone to the top-line touring cars, and feature amongst other things a full roll cage, semi-slick tyres, a turbocharged (1.6 litre, 4 cylinder) engine packing 220 bhp and, of course, front wheel drive. All this combined into a wheel-cocking, 147 mph package undoubtedly capable of embarrassing much more exotic machinery on a track. Oh, and they were all left-hand drive!
My instructor for this activity would be Luke, who again was quite keen to get me up to speed as quickly as possible! Sitting in the Clio Cup car was a bit different than the cars we had sampled on the ‘west circuit’ - not only do you find yourself on the wrong side of the car, but you are also much further back and lower down in the vehicle than you would sit in your normal road car. The reason behind this is of course weight-distribution (and probably safety to some degree) but again it does take a bit of recalibration before you can start to push the limits of the car. If you are wondering though if a Renault Clio is by any way a step down after driving the JP-LM or F3000 you’d be very wrong!
The Clios were like hot hatchbacks on steroids, capable of turning on a sixpence whilst having plenty of punch in a straight line, especially if you are able to keep the turbocharged engine on-song, assisted again by a paddleshift gearbox. The brakes however were something else! Unlike a road car, the brakes in the Renault have no servo-assistance (and certainly no ABS!) and they require you to stamp on the pedal then release rather than apply gradual pressure. Once up to working temperature though the whole thing comes together to deliver more thrills than could be expected from what is a (relatively) unassuming package. I again came away impressed with the handling & speed of the car, and with a new appreciation of the up & coming drivers looking to break into the BTCC proper. Huge respect.
As the light began to fade, all drivers and their respective guests were taken back to one of Palmersport’s hospitality units for a full BBQ buffet and prize-giving ceremony (no trophies for me but I did rank 9th out of 26!) which was a great way to finish off what had been an unforgettable experience. I can’t thank the Palmersport staff enough for putting on such a fantastic evening, and should you ever get the chance to go along to one of their events I couldn’t recommend them highly enough-it’s truly on another level!
For more information about Palmersport events, Bedford Autodrome & Motorsport Vision (MSV) track days, check out the following links;
Thanks for reading!
Ben
