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Rob beat me to it, but I’ll add a couple of our photos anyway.

Sim had his rally drive experience today. Family and friends had tipped in a bunch of cash as a 21st present for him. Rallydrive is located near Rockbank in Melbourne’s west and lets members of the public ride in a rally car at speed with a pro driver and also drive it as fast as you like for as many laps as you can afford.

With light rain falling to help bed the dirt track down a bit Sim certainly went for it on the course. No spins but a fair bit of sideways action and plenty of snarly engine revving. His car was a tiptronic Magna AWD, and before you say “Magna??????” here’s what the Rallydrive web site has to say:

These cars were driven by Ross Dunkerton and team mate Bill Hayes and secured 1st and 2nd place in the Australian Cup.

The Rally Drive cars have not been altered or de-tuned in any way and produce over 280hp. The cars are full FIA spec which means you could race these cars in any rally anywhere in the world.

When he’d had his 10 laps or so he was taken around for another 4 laps by one of the drivers at top speed (the last pic). It’s fair to say that there was triple the sideways action and quadruple the snarly engine revving.

Looked like great fun.

I have to say, though, that it would be hard for anyone to not look back on it and wish they’d gone even harder. Still, I suppose that’s what keeps you coming back for another go (and another $500) …..!

Through the chicane:

Too fast for me in this pic:

Trying to catch the slowpoke in the Suby (he did):

Sliding around on one of the hot laps: