Motorsport fans will probably have heard of autotesting.
It's very technical and sees competitors' flip, spin, slide, and boot their cars in many different directions.
Rally drivers cut their teeth there before graduating to bigger cars.
Its most famous alumnus, Colin Mcrae.
The thing is autotesting is now a big complicated business, and to stage right, AutoSolo.
AutoSolo is like Autotesting, but without any of the tricky backward stuff.
You drive around the wobbly
circuit in a straight line, well, sort of.
The power slides are acceptable, too.
Two types of cars are born to be in this arena.
You got your nippy front-wheel drive superminis and then your powerful rear-wheel drive drift hero.
So we brought the new Seat Mii, one of our favorite new city cars, and a Caterham Supersport along to have a go.
And also, set of event goes thusly.
You rock up to a truck stop or other large concrete area
at silly o'clock on a Sunday morning.
Get your car scrutinized to make sure that it's all road legal and whatnot.
No truck special is allowed here.
Then, using a handy map, do work out the circuit.
First up, the Mii.
I can't remember the route.
I don't know what I'm doing and I'm quite scared.
So, yeah, this should be fun.
It's proper nerve-wracking stuff.
I'm slightly more worried than I thought I would be.
Does anybody across who is merciful?
Oh, it's my go.
Tell me we're not supposed to do this or that, or whatever.
It doesn't work.
Oh no, I'm in reverse.
No.
I've done it wrong.
Right.
This isn't good.
I don't know where I'm going.
I've lost.
I'm probably lost.
Rewind.
Rewind.
Clutch and the handbrake, there we go.
I didn't have to do a three-point turn.
That's always a bonus.
Again, really [unk] down.
Oop.
That was very nearly into the concrete post.
Sorry, sir.
Oh, that's a cone.
I've got it wrong there.
I've got it very wrong.
That could have gone better.
-Yes, I believe it was a wrong test.
-Yeah.
I did have a few problems here, mostly the fact that I can't remember which way the cars went.
I would have looked like a proper fool.
There were so many cones there and I was overwhelmed by the route.
I'm told confusion can happen to rookies.
Still, the Mii handled brilliantly.
It was keen to turning.
I'm perfectly happy to be thrown, but even with its traction control system in off mode, I felt perfectly
secure booting it around the course.
If we did bring the likes of a Toyota Aygo or a Peugeot 107, I doubt I would be this happy to play around.
We've got a little bit of a gap between the Mii and the Caterham, and I haven't done spectacularly well.
I missed lots of gates twice, and yeah.
I'm not through with this.
Next up, the more powerful, more potent Caterham Supersport.
Oh, not again.
It's different from the Seat.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
I was trying to do a spin there, failed basically.
Once again, the second round started much like the first, more the art of the three-point turn in racing.
On this tight course, with the turning circle of the Caterham, it was essential to get the back-end out and floor it, something I found rather tricky at first.
I won nothing.
I posted poor times and even ended up with a touch of sunburn, but it really doesn't matter.
AutoSolo is fantastic, fun, and easy to get involved in.
All you need is a membership to a local car club, Warwickshire in our case, your own road legal car, and 30 quid, then boom,
you're in.
And [unk] be hopes too.
