Have you ever wondered what we experience on a manufacturer’s press launch? As near as we can figure, about the closest one can get to some of the more epic events we attend is the Primland Driving Experience. Held at the Primland Resort in the wilds of Virginia and at Virginia International Raceway—the latter being the home of C/D’s annual Lightning Lap—Primland’s event, entering its second year this fall, puts you behind the wheel of an Audi R8; offers a ride in an R8 LMS with nine-time Le Mans victor Tom Kristensen; offers some seat time in the spindly, dynamic Ariel Atom; and winds up with a free-for-all kart race. Oh, and attendees are shuttled from hotel to racetrack in a fleet of helicopters.
So perhaps it’s slightly more lavish than your average Chevy launch—helicopter rides are very, very rarely part of the journalist deal. Upon arrival in Greensboro, North Carolina, we were shuttled to Meadows of Dan, a crossroads in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Brainchild of the Primat family, Primland began as a logging operation, evolved into a game preserve, and now features a lovely, intimate hotel and a highly-ranked golf course. The morning before the track day, we bombed around the property in a side-by-side ATV, over hill and dale, zipping through the woods, and then tried our hand at blasting clays out of the air with a shotgun. Decently handy with stationary targets and pistols and rifles, we found the clays to be difficult but fun.
The next day, we headed for the track. We were paired in the R8 V10 Plus with a passenger and sent off to chase a pair of very quick instructors in an S4. We wondered why our passenger had his phone out and was filming. He’d put it away and was holding on for some semblance of dear life by the time we passed through the esses. The instructors were happy to push as far as we wanted, something we don’t think our passenger quite appreciated. When we returned to the pits to switch seats, he looked at us, terrified and amazed, asking, “Why didn’t you tell me you were going to do that?” It was then we learned that he’d never been on a racetrack before.
Once the lead-follow sessions were over, we hopped in an R8 LMS with Kristensen. The most violent part of the drive was the launch from the pits. After that, we fell into a quiet, zen place, as Tom whisked us around the track. Two observations: Kristensen is impossibly, wonderfully smooth, and the racing car’s grip and brakes are astounding. After our session with Tom, we hopped back into the V10 Plus, this time riding shotgun with Blancpain Endurance Series Bentley driver Harold Primat, the man responsible for the event. Compared to the LMS, the showroom-fresh R8 felt wallowy and ponderous, despite its power advantage over its race-ready sibling. An hour or so before, it had felt like a perfectly fine track weapon. Tom and the LMS had bent our heads.
After a short briefing on the Ariel Atom—U.S. versions of the car are built here at VIR’s industrial park by TIM AutoTech—we took to VIR’s shorter Patriot Course for some rather sedate lead-follow action. At least, it felt sedate to our hands and feet. Somebody behind us still managed to spin one of the skeletal beasties off the track and into the grass. No harm to driver or vehicle. Lapping done, our group stood and looked out across the hills where Tom Couch’s old T-28 Trojan had crashed not a week before, a stark reminder that a love affair with machines can rather brutally and abruptly come to an end.
Awed solemnity dispensed with, we jumped into golf carts and hooned it over to the kart track for the day’s final activity. After a healthy practice session, it was time for the race. After behaving ourselves all day in cars with consequences, the red mist descended. We wound up with what we’re pretty sure was an exceptionally fast cart, allowing us the latitude to make massive mistakes, then catch up on the long front straight. At one point, we passed Kristensen on the uphill after a hairpin. Elated that we’d managed to pull on Mr. Le Mans, we promptly fell victim to nerves and spun two corners later. In the end, our propensity toward losing the kart’s rear end denied us a spot on the podium, a tragic waste of a fast machine deserving a more dignified place in the standings.
It was, hands down, the most fun of the day.
- Great Dane: The World’s Greatest Racing Driver You’ve Never Heard Of
- 5 Questions for Nine-Time Le Mans Winner and Audi Driver Tom Kristensen
- Lightning Lap 8: We Attack VIR with 25 of the Hottest Performance Cars
After an outdoor farewell dinner in the woods back at Primland, we reflected on the event. At $8500, plus airfare, it’s not exactly cheap. A weekend at Skip Barber or, for motorcyclists, the Yamaha Champions Riding School is significantly less money (assuming you don’t demolish a car or bike) and you’ll come away faster than you went in. If you’re even remotely capable of operating a motorcycle, Danny Walker’s American Supercamp is only 600 bucks (plus travel and lodging) and will break you of bad habits you didn’t even know were bad habits. But as a luxury vacation, Primland’s Driving Experience is certainly more to a gearhead’s liking than a lazy weekend on the beach in Turks and Caicos. After all, they don’t let you shoot anything on the strand. And Tom Kristensen most certainly will not be driving your golf cart.
Davey G. Johnson has been writing about the machines that move us since 2001. His first automobile was an El Camino, his first motorcycle a Guzzi, and his first sports car a Porsche, informing his admittedly fungible belief that one should haul American, drive German, and ride Italian.
