I go to learn how to drive a rally car and discover I must have had Miss Daisy in the back seat.

So, I was given a present of a course in Rally Driving and a HOT Lap for my birthday.

The Rally School company www.rallyschool.com.au calls it their ‘2 car Rally Blast’.

Here we get the opportunity to drive one of their two rally cars, 4 laps on 2 different circuits after which we are strapped in for a HOTLAP.

My sons have also given each other or themselves the same gift so it was going to be the three of us plus others whom we do not know who were also booked for the morning experience.

Early start as we are definitely on the other side of town and a starting time at the track being 8:30 am

So what happens when we arrive?

We begin with a welcome and then the intro briefing into the world of Rally Driving. The briefing includes some of the basic rally driving techniques. How to hold the steering wheel, when to brake, when to accelerate and it’s all back to front to my normal driving. The biggest fear is, I will forget and stuff up.

The professional instructor sits next to me in the Subaru WRX, I think it has larger seats than the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo.

My instructor was very patient and with my new found ‘Driving Miss Daisy in the Dirt’ style, it’s incredible he didn’t fall asleep. The new driving style may have been from being shown pictures of previous customers’ outcomes, upside down cars, cars on their sides and having explained the danger and cost of hitting trees.

I think my laps speeds on the first track grew but I didn’t watch the speedo as I was too busy watching what I was supposed to be doing. Not getting back to second gear out of the corners was just one of things I did wrong. Did I mention you have to get both your hands back on the wheel after a gear change? I haven’t loaded the 'DBR Nanny Drive' as you would fall asleep for sure.