Watch out for these hidden costs on your rally experience

Watch out for spending extra cash on your rally day!

So you’ve got a rally driving experience booked and paid for, you think you can just turn up and drive?
Those clever experience day providers have a number of money-making ideas to separate you from your money.

Here’s a countdown of the most expensive extras they’ll be hassling you to pay for, on top of the price of the rally experience day.

Pay extra for your insurance.
The biggest extra payment is usually your insurance. Every rally experience varies, but generally the experience companies will ask if you want to buy insurance when you turn up. This is a considerable charge, usually coming in at about £20.

If you don’t want to pay this insurance, and you damage the car, you’ll have to pay a big excess of £2000 or more.

Naturally, the insurance brings in a fortune for these companies. Most are usually covered for these cars by their  own insurance companies already, so they keep all the cash whatever happens.

Just think of the amount of money that’s involved here. We’ve had a look at some statistics from rally experience providers and there have been virtually no claims, thanks to the experts in the passenger seat who make sure you keep the rally car under control at all times.

Of course that doesn’t mean you won’t be the first to  need to make a claim, but it’s interesting to  remember this when they’re trying to scare you with how much  you could lose. 

On some tracks  they will make  an insurance payment compulsory before you get in the car, and if this happens to you, you’ve got no choice but to pay.

Photographs of your rally driving day
These rally experiences you have a professional photographer taking snaps of your rally experience. These are often close up photos of you sitting in the driving seat before you start, or the car jumping and screeching round corners.

Now, these pictures are fun and great to show off to your friends, but again you’ll be paying hand over fist for them. You’ll usually get a single printed picture in a cheap frame for £25, with an option to get all the pictures on a CD for £10 extra. Not a bargain when you could have asked a friend with a camera to come.

Again it’s up to you though. The photographer can get up close, so these snaps are usually good and a great reminder of the experience. But it’s an extra price to think about.

Buying food on the day?
These courses usually have a selection of overpriced coffee and dodgy sandwiches. If you have lunch here you’ll be paying an extra £5 each at least.

We’re not quibbling about spending a few pounds for a drink, it’s just the depressing level of moneygrabbing that really seems unnecessary. Surely once you’ve handed over your cash for the actual experience day, it would be a nice gesture to give all the participants this stuff without charging through the nose.

Buying a video too?
Some rally courses even have digital video cameras in the car meaning they can also sell you a video of your face as you navigate the course So how much will this extra cost you?
You’ll usually be able to take away a video on a data stick for £20 or £30


So don’t forget to take some cash on your rally day - To be fair the companies won’t demand you cough up for these things.But if someone’s bought you a gift costing over £100 for a rally experience day, it can be easy to fork over more than you want 

Rally driving experiences - why you need one

There are so many rally driving experiences avaiable from the big expeirence providers, such as red letter days and Virgin experience days. Flinging a rally car along a course is totally exhilerating and if you love rally, you'll love rally driving experiences.


You can get rally driving experiences as birthday presents, christmas gifts, or any other gift, and we think they're prefect for anyone.

OK, so why do you need a rally driving experience? 
Over 80% of adults in the UK drive, but how many of them really drive? Really know what it's like to zook accross a country lane and screech round corners, driving on the edge of their skill? That's what rally driving is, a chance to actually enjoy driving, rather than trudging to work and back at 10mph during the rush hour.


Here's a nice video from a guy on his first rally driving experience. You can see how fast it is - it's looks so much faster when you're inside doesn't it? 



Do you think you're up to it? Take a look at this information about rally experience days to see which are the best experiences and where's the cheapest place you can buy time in a rally car.

What is rally driving?

Rally driving doesn't run on a normal circuit like formula 1. Instead, but instead it runs ao a cross-counret track, fininsheing in a different place from where it started. Usually each team is made up of a driver, and a co-driver, who reads the map and shouts out instructions, allowing the rally car to cover the course at breakneck speed. On rally driving experience days, you'll be driving, with a professional there to keep you under control.

Rally driving has two main types - road rallies and stage rallies. The vast majority of professional rally driving now takes place as a stage rally, judged on how fast they can drive over stretches of road closed. A team wins a rally either by driving accross the course in the fastet time, or by keeping up with or beating an ideal journey for each stage.

Usually a rally takes place over asphalt roads, on roads that have been closed to the public - These cars cover the countryside at over 100 mph so you can't have any other traffic, but the courses are often lined with fans, hoping to get a closer look (but not get too close!).

Usually, rally driving experiences are on existing rally tracks - not the professional standard rally courses, but often country roads on private estates.