Jaguar F-Type Driving Experience at Fen End

In Brief.

Jaguar provide a variety of Driving Experiences, at their Fen End test track near Coventry, which complement their factory tours.  I booked a 1 hour F-type Experience that involved 1-to-1 instruction in a variety of scenarios in a 575hp F-type R.  The scenarios included driving the main track, catching slides on a skid pan, navigating a slalom set out with cones, and hunting for the racing line in a small but technical track. Overall, this gives rise to a memorable if intensive session, with new and unfamiliar skills try to pick up quickly for each of these scenarios. 

The hardware.

What's Here?

Fen End is a former military airfield, and thus in essence a large flat area that houses the various tracks and a few buildings. The main facility on the site prepares vehicles for press activities and model launches.

The session starts with a short briefing about the different activities, and then it is down to action. Each participant is assigned an instructor who is a professional driver; my instructor was a former racing driver, with experience in several significant race series. My schedule was main-track, then skid pan, then slalom then small technical track. All of these have things to put into practice that didn't immediately come naturally to me: causing the rear of the car to slide but not too much, always completing breaking before the bends, ... but by the end of the handling tasks I was certainly much more confident and quicker than at the start, and I eventually had some success on the skid pan.  I am told that I was up to 162 mph on the main track at one point, which is much much quicker than I had driven before, and which is perhaps unlikely to be repeated!

Smart cones.

The session ended with a small competitive activity involving "smart cones".  These have lights at the top; green lights signify the cones to go through next, and blue lights are the ones after that. The idea is to drive between the illuminated green cones, with points for accuracy (being in the middle) and time. I ended up second in this activity of the around six participants ... though I should really have managed to be a bit quicker!

Practicalities.

Distance from Manchester Town Hall: 103 miles

Drive Time: 2 hours 5 minutes

Price: $$$. Needs to be booked ahead.

Parking: Included in the experience price.

Food and Drink: Coffee and cookies are provided on arrival.

Retail Therapy: There's no sign that the cars are available for purchase!

Child Friendly: Children are not even allowed as spectators.

Toilets: Yes.

Do it justice in: The 1 hour experience lasted about 2 hours, including a briefing and coffee.

Inside-Outside: 20:80.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chester Zoo

Image
In Brief. Chester Zoo is a substantial modern zoo, with a remarkable collection of animals of all sizes, from land, sea and air. The Zoo is divided into several zones, for example there is an islands zone and a Madagascar zone, though it's hard to sense that you are really focusing on anything in particular with such diversity on hand.  The zoo itself is a pleasant environment, with lots of greenery, there are eateries spread across the site, and the enclosures seem in good condition and not too cramped. The flamingos What's Here? This is rather a formidable zoo, with everything from an aquarium and a butterfly house to large mammals (elephants and rhinos) and predators (jaguars and lions). There is so much to see that any day trip is unlikely to do it justice, and you can't help but find yourself wandering past potentially interesting things on the way to something you spotted on a sign or in the app.  For a typical animal, there will be some signs highlighting area of or
Read more

Hardwick Hall

Image
In Brief. Hardwick Hall is a grand, well preserved Elizabethan country house, run by the National Trust, with a walled garden and extensive grounds. The adjacent garden includes an orchard and some fine views over the fields, but the highlight is the house. Built for a grand dame of the Elizabethan period, the hall retains many of its original features, being largely spared from generations of home improvements. The site also includes the adjacent  Hardwick Old Hall , which is run by English Heritage, but they certainly drew the short straw as only the shell of the Old Hall survives. What's Here. Hardwick Hall was built to suit the needs and reflect the status of Bess of Hardwick (1521-1608), who was born on the site, outlived a succession of husbands, and accumulated significant wealth in the process.  Her initials (ES - Elizabeth Shrewsbury) adorn the towers. The house spent a considerable time in the possession of descendants who also owned the even more imposing Chatsworth ,
Read more

Liverpool Waterfront

Image
In Brief. The Liverpool Waterfront, on the tidal River Mersey, is one of the most recognisable urban spaces in the UK. Though stripped of its World Heritage status because of unsympathetic modern developments, the core of the current waterfront area around the Albert Dock both preserves and repurposes historical landmarks and hosts a variety of cultural venues that enable a rich and varied visit. The Three Graces beyond the Museum of Liverpool What's Here? This is a destination that combines a collection of things to look at (notably the Three Graces from the early 20th Century and the surviving Victorian Docks), and things to go inside (such as Tate Liverpool, The Museum of Liverpool, The Maritime Museum, The International Slavery Museum and The Beatles Story). A colourful ferry heads across the Mersey. One way of combining looking at with going inside is on The Mersey Ferries,  which offer a 50 minute cruise with a single stop in Birkenhead on the south bank of the Mersey. This c
Read more