Ultimate Exotics Track Experience review
I recently attended the Ultimate Exotics Track Experience at Toronto Motorsports Park and wanted to provide my thoughts for anyone that's interested.
To begin, I've never driven on track before and so I had no experience going in. All of my expectations were from watching youtube and televised motorsports events. I attended the event with a friend and we both booked 6 laps. He chose the Nissan GT-R and I selected the 997 Turbo. Our booking was for the first time slot of the day. The check in process was very easy and quick. Once checked in, we were handed our tags which indicated the number of laps we had booked. We stood outside and admired the cars the organizers has brought for the event. There was a Corvette, Gallardo, F430, GT-R and two 997 gen 911 Turbos. One of the Turbos is meant as the Hot Lap car where a professional racing driver (who appeared to be the owner) takes customer out for a hot lap.
To start things off, all attendees were gathered in a room and given a very brief, 10 minute presentation on safety and other typical track precautions. The presenter asked by a show of hands who was driving which car. Of the cars, the Corvette and the 911s were manual. What stood out to me was that part of the presentation that mentioned downshifting at 2000 rpm and upshifting at 4-5000 rpm. This stood out to me and I asked whether we would be able to bring it close redline, to which the presenter said it would be left up to us to decide. This would play in role in my experience as I'll get to later. After the presentation, we all headed to the paddock area and were taken in groups of 3 in a W220 S Class around the track for 2 laps to familiarize us with the layout. While I had watched youtube videos to learn the track prior to the event, this was still much appreciated as it did not waste participants actual track laps to learn the course.
For people that completed the group discovery laps, they were allowed to begin getting into their chosen cars and were taken on their track lap experiences. My friend went out in the GT-R mid-group and had a blast. There was typically 2-3 cars on track at any point. I was one of the last few people to get on track. Once I got on track, the instructor indicated to take it a little easy for the first two laps to familiarize myself with the proper line. While I heard this, I think my adherence to his suggestion went out the window pretty much after the first corner. It's at this point that I think it may be helpful to describe what I aimed to get out of this experience. My intention and thus expectation of a track experience was to drive a high performance car at or near its and my limit the entire time, wringing out its performance and pushing it in corners while still remaining safe. With 6 laps and no prior track experience, I was looking to have fun first and foremost and not necessarily as an instruction lesson on perfecting my line or technique. The short stint does not lend itself to that fact imo. With this mentality, I floored the car every chance I got and took corners relatively hard. I braked when instructed to but felt the instructor seemed visibility nervous with the pace I was driving at. Honestly, I don't blame him, I would be too if I were driving with someone unknown in these types of vehicles. However, I would brake (somewhat reluctantly) at his recommended points even though I felt I had much more room left.
The track could be driven using only 3rd and 4th gear. The sole two shifts points were going up to 4th down the straight and back down to 3rd for the subsequent turn at corner 1. On my 3rd lap, I was still going hard down the straight and did a quick 3-4 shift with minimal clutch slipping on release and mashing the gas going into 4th. I did sense it was a hard shift. After going around the track and coming back toward the pit lane, I saw the owner wave his arm up and down at the instructor in my car seeming to indicate to ease off. The instructor politely asked me to shift at 5k on the remaining laps and use it to practice proper line and cornering. I obliged and at the end of this lap was told to head into the pits. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience thinking my 6 laps were complete. However, chatting my my friend, he was confused by my exit as he thought I had only completed 4 laps. Thinking back, I realized I did only recall passing the front wall only 3 times. The owner was in the paddock area so I went over to speak with him. I apologized to him if I was shifting the car too hard. He was very polite and mentioned that he could hear that I wasn't allowing the clutch to slip and that dropping the clutch was too much for their unit in the 911. He mentioned it wouldn't have been an issue if the car had a race clutch. I then mentioned to him that I had only ran 4 of my 6 laps. Realizing this, he offered me to go back out in the car or have a hot lap with him. I chose the hot lap option and he graciously took me for 2 hot laps in his 911 turbo. Riding with him made me realized how incorrectly my line was on track! It was great to experience to have driven myself and riden with a professional racer.
Overall, I felt it was a great experience and the staff did their best to ensure everyone has a great time. I have realized after the event that this is indeed an experience to drive a high performance car on the track. However, if you purchase a higher lap count, you may not be able to drive the car full bore the entire time.
To begin, I've never driven on track before and so I had no experience going in. All of my expectations were from watching youtube and televised motorsports events. I attended the event with a friend and we both booked 6 laps. He chose the Nissan GT-R and I selected the 997 Turbo. Our booking was for the first time slot of the day. The check in process was very easy and quick. Once checked in, we were handed our tags which indicated the number of laps we had booked. We stood outside and admired the cars the organizers has brought for the event. There was a Corvette, Gallardo, F430, GT-R and two 997 gen 911 Turbos. One of the Turbos is meant as the Hot Lap car where a professional racing driver (who appeared to be the owner) takes customer out for a hot lap.
To start things off, all attendees were gathered in a room and given a very brief, 10 minute presentation on safety and other typical track precautions. The presenter asked by a show of hands who was driving which car. Of the cars, the Corvette and the 911s were manual. What stood out to me was that part of the presentation that mentioned downshifting at 2000 rpm and upshifting at 4-5000 rpm. This stood out to me and I asked whether we would be able to bring it close redline, to which the presenter said it would be left up to us to decide. This would play in role in my experience as I'll get to later. After the presentation, we all headed to the paddock area and were taken in groups of 3 in a W220 S Class around the track for 2 laps to familiarize us with the layout. While I had watched youtube videos to learn the track prior to the event, this was still much appreciated as it did not waste participants actual track laps to learn the course.
For people that completed the group discovery laps, they were allowed to begin getting into their chosen cars and were taken on their track lap experiences. My friend went out in the GT-R mid-group and had a blast. There was typically 2-3 cars on track at any point. I was one of the last few people to get on track. Once I got on track, the instructor indicated to take it a little easy for the first two laps to familiarize myself with the proper line. While I heard this, I think my adherence to his suggestion went out the window pretty much after the first corner. It's at this point that I think it may be helpful to describe what I aimed to get out of this experience. My intention and thus expectation of a track experience was to drive a high performance car at or near its and my limit the entire time, wringing out its performance and pushing it in corners while still remaining safe. With 6 laps and no prior track experience, I was looking to have fun first and foremost and not necessarily as an instruction lesson on perfecting my line or technique. The short stint does not lend itself to that fact imo. With this mentality, I floored the car every chance I got and took corners relatively hard. I braked when instructed to but felt the instructor seemed visibility nervous with the pace I was driving at. Honestly, I don't blame him, I would be too if I were driving with someone unknown in these types of vehicles. However, I would brake (somewhat reluctantly) at his recommended points even though I felt I had much more room left.
The track could be driven using only 3rd and 4th gear. The sole two shifts points were going up to 4th down the straight and back down to 3rd for the subsequent turn at corner 1. On my 3rd lap, I was still going hard down the straight and did a quick 3-4 shift with minimal clutch slipping on release and mashing the gas going into 4th. I did sense it was a hard shift. After going around the track and coming back toward the pit lane, I saw the owner wave his arm up and down at the instructor in my car seeming to indicate to ease off. The instructor politely asked me to shift at 5k on the remaining laps and use it to practice proper line and cornering. I obliged and at the end of this lap was told to head into the pits. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience thinking my 6 laps were complete. However, chatting my my friend, he was confused by my exit as he thought I had only completed 4 laps. Thinking back, I realized I did only recall passing the front wall only 3 times. The owner was in the paddock area so I went over to speak with him. I apologized to him if I was shifting the car too hard. He was very polite and mentioned that he could hear that I wasn't allowing the clutch to slip and that dropping the clutch was too much for their unit in the 911. He mentioned it wouldn't have been an issue if the car had a race clutch. I then mentioned to him that I had only ran 4 of my 6 laps. Realizing this, he offered me to go back out in the car or have a hot lap with him. I chose the hot lap option and he graciously took me for 2 hot laps in his 911 turbo. Riding with him made me realized how incorrectly my line was on track! It was great to experience to have driven myself and riden with a professional racer.
Overall, I felt it was a great experience and the staff did their best to ensure everyone has a great time. I have realized after the event that this is indeed an experience to drive a high performance car on the track. However, if you purchase a higher lap count, you may not be able to drive the car full bore the entire time.