A Day at the Races: Learning to Drive in a Sports Car
By Kim Sherwood
‘I know that you don’t have a driver’s licence, but how much experience do you have behind the wheel?’ asks the man in charge.
‘Literally zero,’ I tell him.
Lorne Mitchener, the Sales Manager at Thruxton Circuit – the fastest race track in the UK – takes this with admirable calm, as they’re about to let me get behind the wheel of an Alpine. He asks if I’m OK with speed and I flat out lie. No one here needs to know I’ve been sick in a Jaguar and a Tesla before.
How did I get myself into this position?
It started with Double or Nothing, my first novel expanding the world of James Bond. The Ian Fleming estate asked if I could include the Alpine A110S in the novel, as it’s a favourite of the managing director and Ian Fleming loved to include interesting cars in his books. I took one look at this beautiful car and decided that was the easiest editorial note in the world. Johanna Harwood (003) was now the proud driver of a matt thunder grey Alpine A110S.
There was only one hitch – I can’t drive. So a rally driver took me out in the car in Edinburgh to give me a taste. This was a covert mission as I wasn’t yet announced as the new author of James Bond. When I got in the car, I thanked the driver, explaining my driving illiteracy. We had a thrilling afternoon bombing around as I made notes on the sound of the engine and sensation of the low suspension. Then the driver asked me what I was doing there, exactly.
‘Um… I’m writing a book about cars.’
A beat. ‘But you just told me you can’t drive.’
‘Right.’ Thinking furiously. ‘It’s a very limited book about cars.’
The fact that I can’t drive but I’m writing in the Bond universe proved such a rich irony that we’ve now got to a point where journalists open interviews by saying: ‘So, it’s a famous fact about you that you can’t drive…’
Well, I don’t know if it’s a famous fact, but when Alpine got wind of this, they offered to teach me how to drive at Thruxton Race Circuit. What better way to learn to drive than in a £70,000 work of art?
The day began with racer and F1 commentator Peter “Snowy” Snowden taking me out in the Alpine to get a feel of it on the track. As we passed 125mph, I piped up that I do actually sometimes get car sick… He told me we weren’t going fast yet, and would I be happy with a little more speed? Well, when in Rome/Andover.
Reader, I loved it.
As Snowy hurtled between points, showing me how the car can open up on the track, nimble as a dancer and fast as a rocket, I realised this wasn’t driving. This was interdimensional travel and I just had to enjoy the ride. I’ve never grinned so much while holding on for dear life. Inside the vehicle, you’re so low to the ground every revolution of the wheel spins your stomach and rattles your bones. But outside, Snowy told me we would look smooth: just like a swan, serene on the surface, furious underneath. (The Serene & The Furious probably wouldn’t make such a successful franchise.)
Snowy also turned out to be a Bond and Aston Martin aficionado, so our drive turned into the fastest interview I’ve ever done. Check out the videos on my Instagram!
Then it was my turn. Lorne put me behind the wheel of a Toyota GT86 first, to see how my feet fared (I also didn’t disclose that my feet are not to be relied upon at the best of times – if it’s between me and a villain in a foot race, the villain is winning). The moment I eased off the brakes and let the car coast forward felt like flying. Soon I was weaving between cones, and I suppose my feet did alright because the Alpine A110S arrived next.
Now, if you’re panicking at this point, let me reassure you I was learning to drive for the very first time in a race car but not on a race track. I was very far from anyone I could hit. Apart from my family. When Lorne told me to drive over to them, he did have to add: ‘… but don’t drive into them.’
The Alpine was an entirely different beast from the Toyota. The car wanted to hurtle forward with the slightest touch. I was nervous at first but Lorne distracted me with questions about growing up in London and then before I knew it I was rounding corners at top speed. Possibly too much top speed.
‘That’s a really well-taken corner,’ said Lorne. ‘But you do need to apply the brakes.’
Right. Learning as I go!
I didn’t want to get out of the car. Driving gave me a new appreciation not only for the incredible car stunts in the Bond franchise, but most especially for Johanna Harwood’s relationship with her car. It is an extension of herself: agile, responsive, tough, bat-out-of-hell, beautiful.
I was already dancing with victory when Lorne said they had one more surprise for me. They couldn’t let me go without getting me in an Aston Martin. If the Alpine A110S is a dancer, the Aston Martin Vantage AMR is all muscle. You’ll be relieved to hear I wasn’t driving. That responsibility was given to James Steventon. He also didn’t bother braking around the corners, and as we tested the fabric of space and time, I told him he looked remarkably relaxed, while every single muscle in my body was tensed.
‘That’s the trick,’ he said. ‘I’m half asleep right now. You have to be loose to have fast reflexes.’
It was eye-opening for me as a writer, and a dream come true for me as a Bond fan.
And the thrills weren’t over yet. At the end of the day, Lorne told me that if I actually learn to drive, I can get behind the wheel of any car I want and take it on the track. I’m already arranging lessons.
But for now, the next time a journalist asks me if I can drive, I’ll tell them: ‘Yes, but only sports cars…’
Kim is the author of the Double O series, which expands the Bond universe. Learn more about book one, Double or Nothing, here. Book two, A Spy Like Me, is out in the US on April 23rd, and in the UK on April 25th. You can see clips from her day at Thruxton over on Kim’s Instagram.
