Gareth Evans (who works for the wonderful Parkers) has been learning to race – he’s going to talk us through the process from weeing into a cup, to actually getting on track. The first part of his tale is after the jump. Enjoy. Read more

I arrived at Silverstone over half an hour early on the Monday morning of the test. Guided towards a cafe attached to our base for the day – known as the ‘Driving Experience Centre’ – I got a cup of tea and once more buried my nose into the Blue Book in the hope I could absorb a morsel or two of extra information for the day ahead. Read more

We were taken by minibus to a section of open tarmac with a coned course laid out, and two Renault Meganés perched on caster wheels. The idea behind the latter is to simulate oversteer, and while the otherwise bog-standard Meganés were driven by the front wheels only, believe me – they are seriously tail-happy. Read more

Once we were done skidding, we jumped back on to the minibus and made our way back to the pits for our next round of driving on the track. The same Megane RS, the same instructor and a very wet track... Read more

After feeding time it was back into the classroom and time for the written part of the ARDS test. It’s composed of four sections – the written flag test is the first bit, and you can’t afford one slip-up. The rest is mainly about racing safely, and isn’t too challenging if you’ve got a bit of common sense. It was over in less than 15 minutes, and you could almost feel the sigh of relief as we filed out of the room. Read more

I waited while Dan took someone else out. Although my watch says 15 minutes went by it was definitely no more than 30 seconds. Definitely. Read more

The next day I went to book my licence exam, known as the ARDS (Association of Racing Drivers) test. I knew I wanted to do it at Silverstone. Call me fickle but if I’m going to start somewhere, it might as well be the British GP venue. There were two dates available in the coming months, but I had a prior engagement on the April one with a car company in another part of the world. May 9th it was, then. Read more

It’s not just a rebodied version of the five-door hatch. It’s much, much more than that. Read more