Where to start ?

m_stan

As a total newbie, where can you go in Ireland and drive some fast cars 1). without paying a huge amount of money and being ripped off and 2). being able to have some real fun driving cars you would never normally be able to ?

I mean track cars, fast road cars, rally cars, open seaters, whatever.

I have a passion for cars but have never had the opportunity to try it for real aside from karting. Not trying to start a career - just want to get a taste of what it's like to drive something a little more fun than a kart round the kylemore or a 1.6 saloon down the m50.

Where do I start ?

aidan_dunne

Check out Mondello Park's website for details of their Performance Driving Centre courses. That would be a pretty good place to start, I reckon.

Kersh

And Ill be your instructor.

SouperComputer

go for a rally course if you are looking for a once off thing, bit more "inventive" than being on a circuit.

Kersh wont be to pleased with me for saying this, but I wouldnt reccomend the racing school at Mondello. Too slow and too restrictive IMO. *ducks to avoid flame!*

If you want to actually race, karting is a good place to start or indeed stay. Not Kylemore (Go Karting) but proper kart racing. Good bang for your buck, quicker than most classes of cars TBH.

Other than that, theres vees which are "fairly" ecomonmical with good entry numbers and grass racing.

Have a gander on www.motorsportireland.com, pick some types that you think suit you and go to a race.

lastly, theres track days, where you can bring your road car and have a thrash.

Kersh

I agree with souper, if you want arse out action, and mad fun, go with rally school. If you want to be told how to get a decent time out of a car, go to Mondello. So in general, listen to him ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ando

I did both the Mondello performance day course and the Monaghan rally course and IMO I found it more fun to do the mondello performance track. The monaghan rally course didnt do it for me as much as going round the tarmac track. Maybe thats why I'm not into rallying as much as F1

De Hipster

You could try this place : superdrive NI, it's cheaper than RSI & have heard some good reports.

m_stan

some really very helpful posts here. thanks all