131mirafiori forum

A Ford Escort that is! I know that's probably like swearing on this forum but I have to admit it was a nice car to drive.

As I am now a man of leisure with a couple of Red Letter Day (http://www.redletterdays.co.uk/Home) vouchers, I decided to have an afternoon of fun driving a rear wheel drive MkII Escort at the Bill Gwynne Rallyschool International (http://www.billgwynne.com). They are based in Brackley and I was planning to go there in the 131, in fact I washed and polished the 131 yesterday, but having got up this morning to about an inch of snow, I decided to leave the 131 tucked warmly in its garage and took modern Mercedes transport instead (so keeping to rear wheel drive  ;) ). The temperature at the Rallyschool in Brackley never got above 2 degrees today so while they didn't have snow, there was ice on top of gravel on top of loose surface. So it was sideways all the way!  ;D ;D

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Luckily for me, it's the time of year when they don't get much call for their rally lessons so not only I got a half price deal, I got the school to myself as there were no other 'students' this afternoon; just the owner, my instructor and me  :D

I think I'll be back there in the new year....  ;) ;D

(if you are wondering who took the photos, they are not of me but 'library' photos I lifted off their website  ;) )

I'd give Hugo a run on the course next time  ;D ;D

I suggested that and Bill said "we'll have to fill in some of the pot holes before a standard road car can go on that course".

My son and I are doing the same thing next month.
http://www.wrxdrift.com.au/
Not RWD though. :(

I'm sure he'll have a lot of fun!  :D
If any members here are interested in having a go at Bill Gwynne's, I briefly talked to him about a group deal. I thought a few of us could have a half day driving event in the morning and then go for lunch. There's what seemed like a nice little pub in the village and the larger Green Man pub nearby on the A43. And there's always the Little Chef where I ended up for something to eat on the way back  ;D  If we have 5 people then we get the place to ourselves (the Rallyschool, not the Little Chef  ;D)  Bill offered their standard 20% Corporate discount but we might be able to get a slightly better deal. If anyone is interested then please post here or email me. I'll certainly be going back as I have another Red Letter voucher to use  ;)  but I won't use that for our group meeting if we have one.

How much would it be? I still dream about my first time..... with a RWD rally car on a gravel surface....  ;D I wanted to go visit the UK and that could be an opportunity.. Still not abble to drive any of my 131's for next months but could get on a plane....

The cost will depend on which of the many packages we go for and how many people we get to sign up. I'd suggest a half day event so the range for about 5 people should be from about ?70 for a "Rally Thrill Experience" to about ?120 for the "Clubman Experience".