Ian Dickson writes

Pictured left to right: Tom Collyer, Chris Lunn, Nigel Swan and myself

You may recall almost a year ago a team from MSN Cars won a Nissan GT Academy Playstation event (if you don’t, you can read all about it here).

Well, the prize – as well as gaining a nifty little cup for the trophy cabinet (which has currently only that on display) – was exclusive places at the next Nissan Race Academy.

This is where 370Z and GT-R owners go to learn more about the Nissan performance cars they have just bought.

So, along we went one cold Friday to Silverstone, myself, Nige Swan, Chris Lunn and our work experience chap, Tom Collyer. We didn’t really know what to expect, just that we would be taking part in a series of driving events.

Nige and me were paired up, and our first driving challenge – after a hearty BBQ lunch cooked on the front of an old 911 (got to hand it to you Nissan, that is inspired!) our first experience was the timed run.

Set up on two parallel courses, we were thrust into two GT-Rs and, after a three-second count down, had to drive around a cone course as quickly as possible.

I was reasonably quick, but stupidly didn’t come to a complete stop at the final cone gate and added precious seconds to my time, though on my third go did post a 26.22 – second quickest of our group but alas, only the first two timed runs counted. Nige was on the ball, though, sprinting around the track – and stopping - in an impressive 26.36.

After that it was time to tackle the main Silverstone circuit in first a 370Z and then a GT-R. An instructor sat alongside to point out our failings but welcomed us to push as hard as we wanted. Which we did. The 370Z is a blinding car on track, very well balanced and easy to provoke if you’re feeling hairy-chested, but the GT-R is in a league of its own.

It’s a heavy car this, but you wouldn’t know it, the steering very direct and turning the nose in with absolute precision. Then when you get the lock wound off you can just nail the throttle and the car just erupts forward. Our man Chris found it so hard on his constitution he threw up.

Then the instructors climbed behind the wheel and had an informal race – well, I say informal, but they were bloody serious about it; my instructor was just millimetres off the bumper of the car in front as we speared down the straights at well over 140mph.

Coming back to the virtual race we won last year for a moment, we got to ride with the lucky chap who won the Nissan/Playstation Race Academy where would be racers had to post their best times on Gran Turismo. Luca Ordonez won the event and went on to race professionally for Nissan in the Dubai 24 Hours earlier this year.

He took us out in his 350Z for a few brief laps of the track. If he was an amateur last year, he certainly isn’t now. Like a true racing driver, he was using the weight transfer of the car to point it into corners and was on top of any oversteer in an instant. Very impressive driving!

Ending the day, we went down to the skid pan in a 370Z to smoke some Yokohamas. Our instructor is an ex-rally racer and made drifting around cones look easy – but as ever, it isn’t and Nige very nearly blew the tyres he was enjoying himself so much.

Tom, our workie chap, had this to say about the day: “Every event was different ensuring you could hone your driving ability on certain styles and areas of car control. My favourite event was the autocross course where you could be let go with no instructor in the car to watch over you…and your every mistake. It’s also taught me to drive a lot smoother. Driving around Silverstone South circuit felt like a great privilege, knowing what other racing greats had been on the same tarmac as I had. The GTR was a complete beast, but a tame one at that. The fact it was so composed hid how fast you were really going and gave me the added confidence to push.”

If Top Gear needs a new Stig, perhaps they should give Tom a call – he had the best score of the four of us on the day!

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