- UK’s leading U-17s driver trainer announces new venue at former Top Gear track
- Dunsfold in Surrey will now host regular Young Driver sessions for 9-17 year olds
- Innovative driver-training in latest Suzuki Swifts – successors to famous Suzuki Liana, Top Gear’s Reasonably Priced Car
- Young Driver’s lessons cut newly-qualified drivers’ accident rates by over 80%
- Dunsfold one of ten new Young Driver venues to be announced nationwide
Young Driver, the country’s largest under-17s driver training scheme, will now be giving its students the chance to retrace the tyre tracks of Top Gear’s The Stig – albeit at far safer speeds – in the latest Reasonably Priced Car.
From this month, Young Driver will be holding regular sessions at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey, former home of the BBC’s world-famous motoring programme, best known for its Power Laps and Stars in Reasonably Priced Cars.
But it will be the kids who will be the Stars with Young Driver, and they’ll have the chance to experience the celebrated track in the all-new Suzuki Swift, a natural successor to the long-lived Suzuki Liana, the Reasonably Priced Car which appeared in multiple series of Top Gear.
On May 25th, Young Driver’s first group of ‘test drivers’ experienced the new venue for themselves, meeting the actual Suzuki Liana Reasonably Priced Car driven by multiple celebrities on the track, before taking to the wheel of Young Driver’s new Suzuki Swifts.
Some lucky teens also had the chance to drive Young Driver’s Porsche 911 around the famous television track.
Throughout this year, plenty more children and teens aged from 9-17 years will be taking over Dunsfold during Young Driver’s sessions, learning the basics of safe, responsible driving in the dual-controlled Swifts, under the supervision of fully qualified driving instructors. Young Driver’s next Dunsfold event will be held on Sunday, June 15th.
Young Driver aims to instil good driving habits long before teens obtain their provisional licences. Shockingly, one in five newly qualified drivers crashes within six months of passing their driving test. But for Young Driver’s past pupils, that figure drops dramatically to fewer than 4% – a reduction of more than 80%. And after more than 1.5 million lessons, that means the positive effect of Young Driver training is growing fast.
Casey O’Loughlin, Young Driver’s senior field manager, said: “Dunsfold is a dream location for a driving school. We might be based on a track made famous for fast cars and celebrity lap times, but our sessions are all about calm control, not speed.
“Dunsfold offers a large space so we’ll be able to offer lots of different driving activities for young people, whether they’re beginners, or have already had a few lessons at another of our venues. Training drivers over a longer period of time allows youngsters to have a solid understanding of how to drive a car before they get anywhere near a real road. Research shows that that creates safer drivers – and we believe it creates safer pedestrians and cyclists too.
“But the lessons are also lots of fun and they’re a great general confidence boost for teens and pre-teens, who take the responsibility very seriously. When they’re reverse parking at the end of the first lesson, it’s often a shock for parents! Plus, what young person wouldn’t want to say that they’d driven the Top Gear track?”
And Dunsfold is one of ten new venues recently added to Young Driver’s nationwide network, bringing the total to over 80 sites. As well as Dunsfold, the latest additions include:
Canterbury
Cheshire County Showground
Dundee
Hull
Old Trafford (Manchester)
Plumpton Racecourse (East Sussex)
Shrewsbury
South Cerney Airfield (Gloucs.)
Sunderland
Driving tuition is available for disabled youngsters. Thirty or sixty-minute lessons for 9-17s must be booked in advance and prices start from £46.99.
For more information visit www.youngdriver.com or call 0333 577 9010.