Track Days – Kirk Martinez

Thruxton sport 2000 in 1999 – very grippy!

our BMW 318 at Brands hatch 2006 – excellent way to find the limits of your own car – at the expense of tyre wear! It was also the first time racing-sim games were useful for practice..

Aston martin vantage in 2012- track day in Thruxton

Cayman in Thruxton 2012 – the “warm up” car at Thruxton

Formula Renault single seaters are amazing at Thruxton

Video of 2012 Thruxton drives on Youtube

Rally driving in 2013 – video on Youtube

Porsche Cayman in Thruxton track in 2014

Lamborghini Gallardo - on a very wet day in Thruxton 2014 — Lamborghini Gallardo – on a very wet day in Thruxton 2014

Video of me in the Ferrari and 911 on youtube

Ariel Atom in Castle Combe 2015 – Video on Youtube

Duxford 2016 — Audi R8 V10 at Dunsfold (Top Gear track) 2016 – good grip with its 4×4 on the damp track. Great sound but over-sharp brakes. The instructor was glad I had learnt the track from youtube – and it was just as well as we went straight out without seeing the track

BMW i8 in Duxford — BMW i8 in Dunsfold – wierd but quite nice semi-synth sound – amazing torque – an everyday hybrid supercar!?

Ferrari 458 Italia at Duxford — Ferrari 458 Italia at Dunsfold – Fantastic sound and handling

Maclaren MP4-12c at Duxford — Maclaren MP4-12c at Dunsfold – – incredible torque, great smooth handling – I managed to brake hard enough for the wing to pop up

The Lotus Elise around Anglesea track – was excellent (2017)

The formula Ford racecar around the shorter Anglesea track, in the dry, was a superb single seater experience. (2017)

learning to drift at Donington Park in 2018. Doughnuts are simple, 8s quite hard and slalom very tough!

2023: Lotus Emira at Thruxton – nice design, comfy interior, smooth double wishbone suspension, 400bhp – I hope they do well selling these! It was one of the grumpiest manual gearchanges at speed that I have encountered though. The excellent instructor pointed out that it would wiggle on high speed curves if changed – I’d recommend the DCT to any lucky buyers!

I also had a practice in one of my favoutites – the 981 porsche cayman – superb!

2024 Brands Hatch – Formula 4 – amazing grip and G forces around the corners (and 185bhp). During 15 mins I really perfected some lines and managed to be only 0.07 behind the fastest driver. Paddle-shift gears make it much nicer than previous seingle seaters. Brands is really nice for practicing lines as it is a lap under 60s (57.5 my best) and has a variety of interesting corners to learn.

The first car to learn with in Brands was a BMW M4 track car (full roll cage etc!). Amazing to experience a 510bhp version of our i4 clipping apexes! Great instructor with MSV – was happy that I knew the basics.

2026 Palmer sport bedford autodrome – the instructor in this JP-LM was excellent – saying “full power” much more than “brake brake!”. He got my fastest lap from me!

The instruction was invaluable as these cars are not limited – and they “allow” up to two spins! This is their Formula 3000 with its Cosworth 250bhp engine and lots of grip/downforce. I did spin it once trying the full power exit so was careful after that. Incredible cars and their track was very nice – complex but safe.

Here is my in-car fastest lap video.

A fun challenge was in the caterhams!

In summary I think this is the peak of track driving experiences! I would recommend doing some other ones before giving this a go though…