U Drive Carsレビュー 

Slow: Superday car day where you get to wait around for hours to drive around and do a few parade laps of a car park. It’s like driving your gran down a muddy, bumpy country lane with a tray of eggs on her knees. Only the instructors are more terrified of the approach to corners than your gran would ever be.

Boring: The ‘circuit’ is congested and whilst they ask you to drive at no more than 40-45 mph because it’s slippery, the chances of you doing that are limited given the pedestrian pace of many on circuit. It's refered to as a raceway - presumably it was once a dog track or something. The damage waiver is a bit academic too. At the speed you’re allowed to drive at there more risk of damaging the car if you leave the handbrake off.

Cars not availabale: Two of five cars I booked weren’t available on the day (F360 and AMV8). They were actually a key reason for me choosing to do the ‘day’ so a huge let down and honestly felt cheated. In fact it turned out that the AMV8 was available but I was forced to accept a lesser alternative as they’d clearly over booked it and were trying to free up space by getting me to swap to another car. I had also paid for extra laps in the F360 (which wasn't available) and they refused to refund them when swapping me to a lesser, cheaper car.

Lot's of doing nothing: They give you an hour window per car but suggest you may need up to three hours. I waited over five hours between cars at one point. They have a fancy queuing system online so you can see what's going on - which includes continually inserting new names in to the queue ahead of you.

Staff: The Staff are friendly and unlike many other posts, I'd say they were generally professional. It's a bit confusing at times but there's enough of them and most people are willing to help.

Conclusion: Bit of a joke shop outfit when you consider they also don’t have the cars available that you pay for. There were a couple of young kids getting rides in supercars that really enjoyed it but overall, it's just an process to tick off being in one of these cars rather than really driving one or having fun.

14 October 2022 - Farnborough - Ferrari 360 (not available on the day) - Mclaren 570S - AMV8 Vantage (not available on the day) - Lambo Gallardo - Corvette C8

Very disappointing, due to the unwelcoming, arrogant attitude of the staff. They really go out of their way to make you feel you shouldn’t be at their party and that you are not welcome.

My start time was 8.30 and instructions were to arrive 10 minutes early. I had a long journey including M25 so set off early. I arrived 20 minutes early to the site where most of the staff had arrived and were in place.
I was ignored by a group of instructors at the reception area who refused to acknowledge me, I was then ignored by the reception staff for some time, until one looked up and said we’ll call you when we’re ready.

At 8.30 a queue had formed by customers and still no one was prepared to say hello, welcome, be with you shortly. After check in, I went to installation lap area…where drivers, organisers ignored everyone. The instructors went for a briefing which consisted of much cheering and singing happy birthday etc. at 8.45 they sauntered back to position and started thinking about starting cars.

By 9.00 they were fully into their happy routine of barking orders to everyone and being very rude to anyone who transgressed. One person moved a seat to chat with his friend and was told off as if he was still at school.

Also the driving was disappointing. I chose Abingdon because the description said, long fast straight and fast flowing corners. I felt cheated because the straight was cut in half, and the circuit was made very short. 6/7 corners only. I assume to reduce track time and get more people out so they could sell more laps.

I wasted £10 on slighter lap. Not needed on such a short lap where instructor is telling you where to go, what to do. £25 on collision waiver as you don’t get to do go anywhere that could be a risk.

Very poor experience, avoid.

I booked to drive two cars, an Aston Martin Vantage & DB9 via ‘U-Drive cars’ but on arrival at the venue the queues were very long and not very well organised. The track also appeared to be booked for another company ‘Car Chase Heroes’ however they both appear to be part of ‘Blendini Motorsport’. The drive itself was short but a relatively a good experience and the instructors in the cars with you were friendly making you feel very at ease with the cars. My only disappointment with them was they were automatics not manual and also felt there were too many cars on the track preventing you from getting the most out of your car but this didn’t really reduce the experience too much.
My biggest disappointment though was with the so-called photo/video packages they offer, they are ridiculously expensive and not that great. They charge £25 for photos and if you want a video with it for 1 to 3 cars its £50. At the end of your session, you get to view the photo’s/video’s and although the photos were sort of ok, they were basically all the same where the camera was on burst mode taking multiple pictures on the same spot so there was little variation but I did decide to purchase these.
Regarding the videos the one for the DB9 failed to record but the remaining one for the Vantage was shown to me but due to long queues and time constraints I was only shown snippets of the laps so it appeared to me to be ok so made the purchase. It was only when I got home and played it in its entirety, I realised that this was also corrupt and was not one complete video. It seemed to have stopped recording after two laps so was in two parts, the first of two laps and the second video being the final lap but with part of it completely missing?
I have since contacted ‘Car Chase Heroes’ (the contact for the videos) several times but despite my valid complaint they have decided to totally ignore my issue in that the video is faulty just saying that I viewed it at the time and media is sold as seen so I had accepted it so they will not make any refund, however, it was not seen in its entirety so I couldn’t possible have known about the fault, if I had I would not have purchased it.
My warning to anyone considering a photo/video package is DON’T, its not that great, its too expensive for what it is, not very professional and if like me you have an issue the company will not listen to you.
Read the other reviews re: videos as I am not alone in this opinion.

Uncoordinated, unprofessional, underwhelming and unimpressed.
The whole experience was pretty poor and didn't live up the hype.
Not being able to drive the cars you pick, hidden charges and having to wait around for hours to actually get to drive made this experience frustrating and not enjoyable.

Very bad experience... from the beginning to the end..
Parking issues -- long wait times
The slots are not as provided in the booking, there are long wait times for registering/waiver ... and then we go into a car queue..

This car queue is a catch -- u are in Ready, 20 min, 40 min wait slots, then u move up from 40 to 20 and then to Ready.. but if someone who booked an earlier slot but tuned up late for their slot, they get their slot back i.e. cutting the 40 min wait time literally to nothing..... and you are now pushed from "Ready slot to 20 min wait slot, if there are 2 joining, there are chances u start your clock from 40 min slot. This happened with us.... from 0 to 40 in 3 sec. "

Very Bad organisation, very bad venue, No seating area, very busy food van..
The whole thing was 3 hr 30 min wait for a 10-12 min ride.. Utter waste of time .... but it was an experience for a child..

They also give a link to check your status on your mobile --- however there is hardly any network there.. no display screens either to track.. so people are confused ...waiting for hours and no clue why they have been bumping up and down.

I was giv en a drive in a jaguar E Type by way of a RED LETTER DAYS voucher. When I tried to book on the U Drive website it would not accept this type of voucher - instead it required me to book by telephone. I spent literally hours on the phone, waiting for someone to answer and never got beyond second place in the queue. I eventually got a reply by email from a helpful girl, who only worked from home evenings! She was unable to help much though she did assure me that she had reserved my slot. She put me in touch with Emily, who is supposed to be the General manager to confirm details and take the payment for extras, but, I had no hepl from her either.
On my way to the circuit I had a message to tell me that the car had gone unserviceable and I would have to telephone the office to re-book......................I am still waiting for them to get back to me. HOPELESS. AVOID.

I had paid to drive a Mk1 Lotus Cortina. I opted for the extra three laps so that I got a real feel for the car. I had owned a Lotus Cortina back in the 60/70's for 5 years so I was keen to refresh my memory of its performance. It was a disappointing experience for me, because I came away with the doubts as to its authenticity! The body was of a Mk1 Cortina, but the side badges were not original. The facia was split through the middle - possibly trying to remove it and fit the push button start button (not invented in 1964/5). The gearbox was a 5 speed not the original 4 speed close ratio as per original. The guy told me it had an upgraded gearbox! The woodrim steering wheel was a lookalike version of the original made by Les Leston. The engine performed and sounded like a diesel and didn't want to rev beyond about 3000 revs! An original twincam engine only picked up at 3000 revs and on to 6500 revs- not this one. It also felt very heavy on the front end. All in all it was fun driving round the airfield, but it wasn't a trip 'down memory lane' for me trying to recall the heady fun days of owning a Mk1 Lotus Cortina from my youth!