For the past couple of years Silverstone have decided to convert their circuit into a light and laser show over the festive period to fill the void that gets left once the race season finishes. Well, I took the family along to see if it’s worth the journey. I’ll start by saying it was my son’s 5th birthday on the night we decided to take our lap, so we were all on a bit of a sugar high – but then I suppose that could well have aided in our enjoyment of the lap.
I’m not a track day specialist by any stretch so the thought of driving the circuit was quite a big pull for me. There could have been a few marshalls with torches and laser pointers dotted around the lap and they would have pulled a crowd in. But there is so much more than that.
You start by joining the circuit at Luffield and drive the old start/finish line into Copse (looking to see if there’s any remnants of Max’s Red Bull still in the gravel trap – there wasn’t), then the full show gets going just before you turn into the Maggots/Becketts complex, you then get wow’d by lasers, lights, classic trucks, and more all the way past the Wing and out the other side to Village corner where you then exit the circuit. I obviously made sure I hit my apexes just right, my wife and kids were left astounded by my sheer raw untapped driving ability. This is not a fast lap though. They send out pace cars to keep you at a sensible 5mph and your just in an extremely long line of cars all trundling round, there isn’t really the opportunity to ‘open the taps a little’ – but you wouldn’t want to.
In the wing they have a “Lodge” set up where you can buy food, memorabilia, or more sugar for the kids. I will say the pig in blanket with stuffing hot dog is exceptional. Typical event prices apply, on any reasonable day you’d say it was too expensive – but you get in the spirit of it and buy one anyway. I didn’t feel especially hard done by, and I think the whole event was good value for money.
It was a little disorganised on our arrival, some to-ing and fro-ing where to access the event from as we had a buggy. But you could just as easily put that down to we got there early-ish and they weren’t totally set up. If you do go and have a buggy, they want you to park in the blue badge car park.
It was a great afternoon/evening’s entertainment with plenty to occupy the family. But it’s just as engaging without kids. There’s even a free soft drink to the designated driver so they are trying to cater to everyone. There is still plenty of availability and you can book all the way into the new year; my 2p is it’s definitely worth a visit.
To see the 2019 Mercedes W10 with Ant Davidson at the wheel take on the lap at great speed, then look no further!