Aston Martin Performance Driving Course

So I am heading to Aston Martin's PDC for the second time at Millbrook UK this weekend. The last time was in 2006 when I drove a Vanquish, DB9, and Vantage. This time I will drive a DBS, Vantage S, and ?? What I loved about the course the first time I took it was that we went on 7 different courses and there was 1 student per instructor. I had a Formula III pro. By the end of the day, we were catching 3 feet of air on an uphill left hand blind turn. Oh, and the food was really good. I hope it is that good this time. I will report back.

 

Ok, my report.

First a disclaimer. Looks like I ate something bad the night before or just because I could not sleep, on the day of the course, I felt like crap, so drove, puked, drove, puked some more and so on. Despite this, my instructor never gave up on me and was patient as hell.

The course. Just me and a professional Formula III instructor and nobody else but a cook who kept us well fed all day. I have taken the Audi, BMW, and AMG schools, and Aston's school is the best, and VERY different.

In the morning you learn the "limits" of the car through emergency braking in the wet, uneven road, different surface road etc, high speed braking emergency exercisises with different settings (0-100-0), and high speed regular braking exercises (0-160-50 in a short a distance before you enter a right radius turn). then you go to a skid pad and learn how to drift, spin out and recover etc, again with various settings (DSC on/off, TC on/off, sport on/off etc) and directions. You then drive in very tight city courses and other handling courses to test the limits and learn advanced handing skills. All in all, every track you go on is highly technical.

In the afternoon you go to a bowel loop and take it up to 150 or so and then drop to the flats to test the limits of adhesion at speed and then my favorite exercise of all, well into 3 digit speeds with your hands under your legs and chanigng lanes back and forth only with the throttle. Quite scary at first, but very cool once you get the hang of it.

The final cousrse is a 6-7 mile road course with seroius elevation change and lots of blind off camper corners on a very tight course that feels like a serious rollercoaster ride to bring all together what you learned. When I say road course I am not referring to a F1 track, I mean a simiulated European mountain road, with guard rails, fall offs, steep hairpin turns and a couple places where all 4 tires will leave the air.

Will I be back? Yes, probably this year. This was my second PDC. I will be doing the R8 school first for the second time as well, but then back to this. There is no experience like the Aston school at Millbrook in the UK. I highly recommend it. Amazing experience and I drifted my R8 on the way to work today with confidence for the first time ever.

 

They have a constant radius 4 mile banked track that is 6 lanes I think. Each lane has a slightly steeper banking (from dead flat to banked) and each lane has a different minimum speed (100mph at the top one). Because it is constant radius, if you can hold the speed on the banking, you don't need to steer because you are constantly turning and throttle control keeps you in the lane due to g forces.

The 6-7 mile track is a hill road course with grades as high as 26%. Think of a tight twisty mountain road and there you go, except it is a circuit that you can lap on. They do it dead last for a reason. It is increadibly technical and dangerous (at least when I am driving). With the pro driver behind the wheel (on the right side of the car mind you), it is closest thing to a roller coaster I have ever felt in a car.

More than any other track school I have taken, this one is not for those with quesy stomachs (which mine happened to be that day). You pull some major G forces in that thing. But, it was awesome and you really learn a variety of great skills, not just how to go the fastest around a particular circuit.

 

I have never been to that one. Because they are at Ford's Proving Grounds, it sound like the format is likely to be the same as in the UK. If so, then IMO it will be a better school than other 2 day schools in the US that are held at racetracks. You should get more variety on a proving ground as to courses and what you are taught. Most track schools focus on just learing to lap the fastest, although they do have skid pad and slalom components often, but a proving ground would give more even more options to learn the limits of a car.

I have been to numerous schools, but Aston's takes the cake and a delicious cake it is.