Fastlane Driving School

A lot of what people tell me about going fast is that it doesn’t matter how many ponies are under the bonnet, it’s about the skill of the driver. Having watched that Top Gear episode where Sabine Schmitz drives a diesel transit van around the Nurburgring, I can well believe it.

Plus, my Dad seems to like driving fast, so why not combine the two, I thought. So I bought Dad a day driving Formula Fords at Waneroo Raceway for Christmas, and thought I’d treat myself as well.

The whole day was pretty slickly run – first, you get divided into groups based on height and build, so that they can put you in a car with something close to what you need. After a bit of heel-and-toe practice in the car, you get taken out in an SS Commodore for a run of the track.

The organisers had helpfully put out little signs indicating where to brake and change gear for each corner. At this stage, the only observation I could make was that the braking zones appeared to start rather close to the corners themselves…..

Anyway, after that it was back to actually drive the cars. The Formula Fords we were driving were powered by 110bhp Ford Crossflow engines – relatively common a few years ago in Clubmans, but now superceded by newer engine designs. However, given the weight of 420 kg, this is enough to propel them to 100kph in under 5 seconds. Strangely, given that I’m after a 220bhp car that weighs around 600kg (but with a higher drag) the performance in a straight line should be similar to the Birkin. They'll probably go around corners faster.....

So, first out is 10 laps behind a pace car – fairly tame, but useful for working out the racing lines and practicing the gear changes.

The next 10 laps are on your own, where you are supposed to gradually feel your way into the performance of the car. Bugger that. I prefer to rush into these things and find out where the overlap between driver confidence and ability ends, so of course I spun out on the first lap. However, it did give me a feel for what the car does when it lets go, which will prove useful later on.

After lunch, another 10 laps were spent doing timed circuits, and this is where Fastlane differentiate themselves from other trackdays I’ve been on. You get some pretty decent feedback from guys who actually race these things professionally, so they can tell you what you’re doing wrong at which points. As long as you listen, you can make some pretty serious inroads. I’d started out in the mid-60’s early on in the time sessions, but was down to 59 seconds a lap by the end.

After that, it was the serious business of the timed race. Obviously, they don’t let you rub bumpers with each other (only two overtaking zones allowed, both on long straights), so the timed sessions were used to space us out to avoid traffic. However, after some final advice, they basically let you out to go as fast as (safely) possible. Spinning out, however, meant disqualification, as the idea was to get the lowest average time over 10 laps.

And the result – need you ask? I was damn pleased to see an average time of 58.6 seconds, and a fastest lap of 57, which is only a few (but extremely hard to find) seconds off something competitive. Got a little trophy and everything. Dad’s laptimes were rapidly improving by the end, and with a few more laps would have been pretty competitive.

Overall, I reckon the Fastlane operation was the best trackday I’ve done by far. Most other times they just bolt you in and give you all sorts of dire warnings about crashing, then let you loose. Fastlane treat this as a school, so you’re there to learn and improve rather than just go as fast as possible. I actually learnt something about driving, the capabilities of the cars and my own driving style that day, which will stand me in good stead with my own car. I'd recommend them to anyone in the Perth area looking to improve their own track driving, esp with a Clubman.