Velocity Driving — Local services in Town of Babylon

Was a bit disappointed with the overall experience, but this can be very fun for people who want to spend the time and money.

I'm personally not a major car person. And especially not a major sports car person. I wanted to try this experience out and see how it'd go, so my wife and I visited the location on 7/6 to redeem a Groupon for a 4 lap driving experience I had bought in 2022. I personally forgotten about it but still wanted to try it, so I was thankful that I was able to reserve and redeem the voucher with no problems.

Lime Rock Park is a very large, beautiful sports driving park with incredible views and sights. This is important to know, because the actual Velocity Driving track is located in a smaller corner of the entire park, which might be confusing for people new to the area, even if they read through the emails that are given prior to the appointment. Parking is mostly on dirt grounds. So it can feel tricky knowing where exactly to park, but there didn't appear to be many issues with the employees with parking in awkward spots.

There wasn't a lot of options for cars. Only two Mitsubishis, a Porsche, and a Ferrari were available from what I saw on my date. Car options likely change over time but I'm not fully sure.

There's some info on the specs of the car, but if you're not a major car person, you probably wouldn't realize what that would mean when driving the vehicle. And there is a decent wait time which gives the employees time to inspect and make sure the cars are driveable, even if you were there first. We waited about 30 minutes but other people waited much longer.

For obvious reasons, there's a driving instructor that sits with you to coach you on how to drive your chosen car correctly. My coach was a bit aggressive and clearly frustrated with my own careful driving (how could you not be a bit reluctant if you've never driven these cars before?), which really wasn't that poor compared to other drivers I saw, who were similarly driving slowly.

The track itself has a lot of bends and turns which presents a decent learning curve for people doing this their first time. It really felt more like a quick class in race driving, but the expectation for most people might be "drive as fast and reckless as possible for fun". Which this unfortunately won't be.

The 4 lap experience is definitely not enough for the average person. But the cost is pretty high at $100+ for additional rides. There is a $45 for insurance to cover "off-road, private course, designed for competition" vehicles (most normal insurance providers won't count).

The biggest disappointment really was more in the overall rudeness of the employees. It felt like many didn't want to really be there and were somewhat standoffish. My wife said there was one person who seemed to have a lot of bad things to say about my own driving, which seemed like a targeted attack since I was one of the first people to drive. I can't fault this enterprise for a few bad eggs, but I can't help but wonder if this would've been a slightly better review if not for the...

Let me break this down simply. The driving experience is "five stars." Full stop. The exotic cars they bring are some of the best and most beautiful in the world. The instructors knowledgeable and friendly. And although 8 laps go by quickly, it's a worthwhile* experience.

*One note about the driving experience—which is just a note, not a ding—is that you should temper your expectations on how fast you'll go. They're not letting civilians off the street take $300k supercars open a track and go 140mph. Just not how it works from a safety or insurance standpoint. They're generally shorter tracks where you can fully explore more of the performance aspects of the vehicles (taking turns, acceleration, apex, etc) that simply opening it up. If you get any of the vehicles over 70 it'd be for a second. All that said, it's still very much worth it.

Now, to the "operations" aspect:

I've read a few people complain about the processing and it can be a bit of a mess. My scheduled ride was for 2pm (arrived 30 min early) and didn't get on track till 4:20. This was the case for many people and felt quite disorganized.

The worst (and inexcusable) part was that at this tracks (Limerock in this case) are wide open, no shade and on black asphalt. It was 87º there that day and save for a few light pop-up tents that offered some folks a brief respite from the relentless sun, there was barely any shade, and ZERO provisions of any kind. No water, no drinks, no snacks, no food. Nothing. Stating there for 2+ hours was brutal. There was a lone vending machine 200 yards away that I'd walked to but it didn't take credit and no one had dollar bills on them (who does anymore). I'd asked why this was as any vendor would've made a fortune that day and they said it was a "licensing" issue with the track and wasn't "worth it" for them. They do mention that they don't serve food/beverages deep in their FAQ on their website but either have bottled water for people for the price that pay or let people know in a reminder email they need to stay hydrated and bring their own. It was BRUTAL.

Additionally, I'm sure they make a lot of their money on the extras like photo/video options. They're adamant about you not taking pics so they can sell their to you...fine, I get it. But if that's your policy, then TAKE GOOD PICS for this bucket list event! These aren't photographers, they're "people with cameras." The lighting was awful. Composition askew. Shadows everywhere. And the backdrops for your closeup with a supercar has random pickup trucks and trailers in the background. Not really frame-worthy. It's so simple to set these up better and they just don't. And know that the video is merely a go-pro dash-cam. Which is fine, but you're not getting footage of "you driving" or the car in motion, just a POV of your ride. Again, that's fine if you want that but know it going in.

If those things were addressed (and they're easy to do so) this would be a 5-Star experience through...

Not recommended! What a ripoff / scam!

My girlfriend bought me 4-laps with Velocity Driving at the Richmond International Raceway as a birthday gift. I was really excited until I actually made it to the track. FYI, you don't actually drive on the track. You drive on a cone course in the parking lot of the Richmond International Raceway. It's extremely deceptive to advertise the experience as being at the track when all the driving takes place in the parking lot. Honestly, this event could take place at any parking lot but they advertise it in such away that you think it's taking place on an actual track. They even show pictures of actual race tracks and road courses on their website and denote driving the cars on a "private track". Based on the other reviews it appears this is a common tactic for Velocity Driving.

Once you arrive you go to a little trailer to sign in and then they try to scam you into buying insurance coverage which cost an additional $40. While they mention this coverage on their website they don't post the pricing. They have a large cone on display along with broken pieces of bumper plastic with the warning that you will be responsible for any and all damages. It was a fairly cold day so they really tried to sell the fact that the cold weather would make it easier for the bumper plastic to break from the cones. In actuality the cones are all of three inches tall and it probably wouldn't scratch the car if you ran over a continuous line of them at 100+ miles per hour. It's frustrating to think of all the people they scammed with this scare tactic.

On to the driving experience. The entire course was maybe 1/10th of a mile long, maybe, and you never got out of second gear due to the short length of the one and only straight. Even with super car acceleration I would be amazed if I cracked 85mph on the straight. My girlfriend recorded all four of my laps and it took a grand total of 1 minute and 48 seconds start to finish. 1 minute and 48 seconds! The cost for all this excitement...... $200 dollars. Thank god my girlfriend got a groupon and only paid $89 but even at that price it was a complete rip off. My girlfriend felt terrible that it was such a let down and I truly feel bad for anyone who actually paid full price.

Overall the entire experience was a complete and utter disappointment. I would never, ever, do it again nor would I recommend it to anyone. I reached higher speeds on the interstate on my way to this so called "driving experience". Unless your goal is the ability to say that you drove a "911" or a "lambo" find another way to spend your hard earned money. Even then I still couldn't recommend it. Get a part time job as a valet or go to a car show and the experience would be better.

In closing, I truly cannot express just how crappy the whole experience was. If you are thinking about doing this driving experience just don't. A can assure you that nothing but...