This was my first car experience day and on the recommendation of a friend it was a combined Rally and Track Experience at Prestwold Hall. The experience was bought for my wife's birthday, but as an extra surprise I decided to give it a try as well - and how pleased am I for doing that!

We travelled up to Loughborough the night before so that we were fresh for the driving day. We'd signed up to drive Lamborghinis, The Audi R8 and do the rally driving experience. The first thing you do when you get to the Everyman location is sign in and accumulate a mass of stickers which tell you what you're doing and when. It's incredibly disorganised and because of the confusion it meant we almost missed driving the Audis! More on that later!

Before you can drive anything you're briefed about the track and safety and offered an insurance waiver option. For £20 you can protect yourself from paying out £2000 if you damage the cars. After watching the safety videos we both decided to take the insurance option. You're then taken for three laps around the track by an experienced driver. It's all initially a bit disorganised, but as you travel out in small groups you're not waiting around too long.

You're then ready to drive!

When they design Supercars they forget that people have legs or might be taller than 5 feet! Being a shade over 6'3" and wearing a helmet makes driving a Lamborghini Gallardo a bit of a squeeze. Still, that discomfort was nothing compared to the panic and fear I felt about driving the car. The instructor's at Everyman are excellent though and before long you're accelerating round the circuit and breaking into the corners.