Formula Jaguar

Went down to Palmer Sport a few weeks ago with a large group. What a day! Brilliant, thoroughly recommended. Did all the cars but a wee review of a Formula Jaguar is in order

The car: http://www.palmersport.com/formulajaguar.aspx

Driving Position

You're obviously sat quite low down - there's a lot of bodywork taking up space in your field of vision. I'm reasonably tall (6'3) which helped a bit in this case. The rear view mirrors are easily adjusted but they're so small and low you're effectively seeing 50% bodywork / tyres there too! I wouldn't call the seat comfortable but it wasn't uncomfortable. The sides are unprotected so i picked up a few elbow and knee bruises from this car! The pedal box was very cramped (but manageable) for my size 12's even wearing the supplied plimsoles.

The Drive

Wow! Ease out the clutch very gently with revs around 4k rpm - it's very easy to stall these but i managed to make it cleanly over from the garage to the pit straight. These cars don't like being run at lower revs so i was left with the choice of a) slip the clutch b.) suffer the juddering about or c) poke my nose inside the rear of the pace car! I chose a mix of a) and b.)

Once you're out on the track there's no use for the clutch, it's a sequential box with flappy paddles and you can do full throttle shifts. The tyres and brakes are cold when you go out so a bit of speeding up and rapidly slowing down behind the pace car on the first 2 laps. Then the pace car heads off to the pits and you're off!

The Steering

The steering doesn't feel like a road car, closest i've driven to this is a Caterham (also at Palmer Sport). Very direct, instantly goes where you point. I'd love to have steering like this on a car i owned. Brilliant to use. The downforce makes for impressive cornering at speed! A slight lift to what must be 80mph+ then straight back on the gas does not feel the right way to take a 90 degree left hander off the end of a fast straight!

The Brakes & Grip

Once the heat gets in the brakes and tyres these are excellent. There's no servo assistance on the brakes so you need to push hard, but you're rewarded for it!

Would I Own One?

Damn right