A British company is offering a supercar driving experience to any youngster who can see over the steering wheel without a booster seat.
For about US$135, 6th Gear’s Teen Track Attack program gives kids track time in sweet rides like the Lamborghini Gallardo, Ferrari 360 Spyder, Aston Martin DB9 and Audi R8 — just so long as they’re at least 4 feet 10 inches tall. The kids, whose parents are waaaay cooler than ours ever were, get 10 to 15 minutes on a coned-out circuit. For an extra $30, 6th Gear offers a ‘Hot Lap’ with an instructor giving the grinning kid ‘a thrilling high speed passenger ride which is sure to keep them smiling,’ says the company web site. If Mom and Dad are brave enough, they can watch it all from a nearby spectator area.
We’re all a little old for the Teen Track Attack, but when we heard about it our first instinct was to beg our parents to let us go.
Already offering track days for those with legal drivers licenses since 2006, 6th Gear started giving the keys to kids after witnessing a rival company let kids drive Peugeot 206s. 6th Gear says it ‘had to go one better’ and fitted one of their cars with dual controls and ‘an instructor (and insurance company) with nerves of steel.’
We’re especially impressed by their advertising technique: parking a supercar in the middle of a mall and having salespeople hawk gift vouchers to parents whose kids have glued themselves to the windows of an R8. Gift vouchers are also available online, though we suspect those folks who got upset about the kid driving in that ‘A Boy’s Dream’ Corvette ad from a few years ago won’t be among those purchasing them.
