TrackPERFORMANCE DRIVER

"Ourstanding Performance Driving Course I did the 1 day Performance Driving Course (Level 1) on a one-to-one with instructor Colin Hoad - both to learn new driving skills and to give my car a decent 'shakedown' after several modifications. The course was fantastic - informative and great fun - plenty of variety. We spent several hours in the car, and it was A LOT to digest, but there was never a dull moment. We used several of the extensive and excellent facilities at Millbrook Proving Ground to illustrate and understand different techniques. Colin Had is a great instructor - his expansive knowledge and experience of vehicle and motorsport building, testing, driving and racing was shared in a meaningful and straightforward way and including both physical and mental application. At every stage of the course, an engineering briefing explained and underlined the science, physics and psychology behind the practices being learnt. I came away from it with a hugely enhanced knowledge of the concepts of performance driving, methodology to practice and 'further reading'. This was just the start! I will definitely be back again and it was absolutely worth the money and the time."

Louise Stickland 7th Sept 2020

"I firmly believe in the value of driver training, it is an investment that you can transfer to any car you drive to make you faster, safer, more competitive if you race and one day may just save your life and because of this belief I have attended sessions with many of the well known instructors both in the UK and overseas, I will not name names (save for one) however I will say it includes; - ex touring car champions - the head of chassis development for a major German manufacturer - formula 1 coaches - and many others (including karting with Tiff Needell). It is in this context that I write this review for Cat Driver Training. Colin Hoad, the lead instructor at CATDT, has the ability to implicitly understand your needs as a driver and combined with his engineering knowledge he can explain the fundamental reasons why you are not as fast as you wish you were! .... "

Neil 28 Oct 2015

"I have witnessed this on several occasions; on test days where the assembled crew of "performance drivers" had been practicing all day in the car to achieve a target time only to have Colin meet or improve our time when challenged to do the same in a single lap with no prior time in the car - this is a rare ability and is testimony to his exemplary understanding of the limits of a car. He is also fearless, perhaps from his ADI experience developing novices, perhaps from his powerboat racing, somehow he remains calm, placid and focused on the students needs, coaching you to improve not just by correcting your mistakes but by educating the understanding so that you can transfer the knowledge to future experiences. I have also witnessed his leadership whilst he managed a novice race team, he coached the drivers to improve from the back of the grid to top 10 finishes in a single season in a highly competitive series..... "

Neil 28 Oct 2015

"The team at CATDT are tireless in their commitment to ensure you are satisfied as a customer and demonstrate the professional behaviors you would expect from the best large organisation whilst continuing to deliver a personal service second to none. I have no hesitation in recommending them to anyone that wishes to improve or hone their driving ability whether trying to get the best from your car, be safer on the road, faster on the track or learn the subtleties of the Nurburgring. One further unique selling point is their location - Millbrook proving ground is where the motor industry go to test their cars because it provides every type of surface, corner and driving challenge that you will face anywhere in one location enabling you the student to experience things in one day that it might take a decade of driving experiences to discover and forget track days, try any of the things you can try at Millbrook on a track day and you will get black flagged. A class outfit, I have visited many times and will do again."

Neil 28 Oct 2015

"Amazing day at Milbrook I signed up for the Performance Driving Course with CAT after wanting to develop my all round driving abilities and start doing some track days in 2020. The course itself surpassed my expectations by a mile. Paul's clear and tailored guidance helped me to understand why the car reacts to different inputs, having the confidence to feel for the limits and what to do when you go past them. As previous reviews have stated. You'll learn more in one day than however many years you've been driving previously. I'll definitely be back for more soon."

Rob 24 Dec 2019

"Having driven track days for many years, I had reached a plateau in terms of what I could teach myself or gain from the usual instruction over a few laps at most track days. I wanted to learn some of the more advanced track driving techniques, such as race braking, trail braking, left foot braking, etc. to improve my speed and car control. CAT took an holistic approach to my objectives, applying a combination of repeatable process, discussion of the theory and engineering principles that underpin the techniques, and repetition of exercises to get comfortable with the practical application. I left the day feeling very well informed on these techniques, and crucially that I had a solid foundation in these new techniques that I could apply in future. Paul and the team are very approachable, consultative and extremely knowledgeable. They are also refreshingly humble about their immense talents! Whilst there is not an inconsiderable outlay for the day, I feel I have gained far more value in terms of confidence and control than I would have by investing in yet more go-faster bits!"

Charlie West 28 Aug 2019

"NOVICE TRACK DAY DRIVER Just an awesome day out. As a novice to any type of training or track day the team immediately made me feel at ease. The technical explanations were done in layman terms and when combined with the practical driving just made it all easier to understand why a car does what it does and what you need to do. All driving done in the safest environment ( even in wet conditions ) with personal instructor by your side at all times. I ended the day with so much more confidence in my car and myself whilst also realising there is so much more to learn - I will be back and have no hesitation in recommending CAT Driver Training to anyone - 5+ stars from me"

Thomas Hammon 21 Jul 2019

"Simply excellent..... What a great day....not hesitation at all. My objective was to enjoy my car, safely on the road and not end up in a ditch! I wanted to find the cars limits (if I could) in a safe environment. For ref, Colin has some very wealthy clients with some truly special cars, however, mine was a second hand car, bought 3 months prior, sub £40K car / 400+ BHP. Not cheap but neither was it a Mclaren. I enjoy driving, and wanted to 'learn' how and why cars do what they do under speed / braking etc. Never had any previous training, and whilst I wanted to have a great day, it wasn't really just about driving fast, but also about taking away as much as I could to use moving forward....That is why I didn't do a Palmer type day or equivalent - they are a great day, and you do learn, but no way as much as I did with Colin. They are just a different kind of experience. The day was set up to have the morning at Milbrook, and the afternoon on the road. As it turned out we spent the whole day at Milbrook (exc lunch at a local pub). We had an initial 1 hour in the classroom (my choice to get all the theory done) and then we spent the rest of the day just driving. Negatives: - It feels bloody expensive (see note below) - You realise that a BMW 330d (Colin's car) is probably good enough! Positives: - For me, its was actually great value for money. I challenge anyone to learn what I did in a day, and make the improvements in 8 hours. - You can learn so much (that's also down to you...) - Colin's has bags of experience, and adapts the day to what you want. This is genuine, you often read that sort of comment, but it is the case. It really helps for you to try to be clear on what your objective is for the day - I sort of did (enough at least), and it really helps Colin understand where your head is at, which is in your interest too! - You learn the theory (and that's important - and not complicated), and then you put it into practice, to and beyond the limit (again your choice - your not pushed in anyway) - We spent probably over half the day specifically on the handling circuit, and not for 1 moment did I get bored. Every time, I got quicker, and at the end got to a point where it did feel like you were making the car dance, with a light touch on the steering wheel and not trying to wring its neck. - Colin is a lovely guy to spend the day with.. Thank you..."

James Robinson 11 Dec 2018

"I took the performance driver course last week ( first part and half of part 2) Colin was great, very good teacher and the ideas and information were presented extremely well. I liked the way the approach was flexible, so that we could fast forward through stuff I was already up to speed with and tackle stuff from the next module on my first day. The facilities at Millbrook are first class, as is CAT's set up. I thoroughly enjoyed my day, (so much I booked Colin for the next modules and a day of one to one training for a track day at Donnington coming up) and went away with some really useful pointers on what to work on and improve. The cost is not at the cheaper end of the training market, but 100% worth it. You wont be disappointed!"

Mark Turner 31 Mar 2017