Audi to get experienced

AUDI Australia will offer its Drive Experience driver training programs to the general public from July, with prices for a range of full-day courses starting at $750.

While the company has previously offered shorter half-day courses to the public, it is the first time the full-day version will be run as anything but an invitation-only, dealer-based program.

The launch of the wider-reaching program will see the company’s $6.8 million fleet of 40 cars – including a selection of R8 supercars in road and track guises – travel to various Australia racetracks with a team of instructors.

The defensive course is run in five ‘tiers’, each more expensive and challenging than the one before.

The basic course costs $750 for a full day and includes a slalom course, understeer and oversteer identification, high-speed emergency braking with obstacle avoidance and further education about “sound driving practice”.

Punters will be given the keys to a range of lower-level cars from within the Audi stable to tackle the course.

From top: Audi RS5, A1 and Q7 put through their paces.

The $1190 Performance Driving Experience builds on the basic course by allowing drivers to get behind the wheel of the high-performance S and RS model range, as well as tackling some motorkhana and racetrack exercises.

The next step up is the $2990 Audi Sportscar Experience, in which participants are given one-on-one coaching in high-performance racetrack driving behind the wheel of the RS5 coupe and R8 V10 supercar.

At the top of the tree sits the Race Experience course, which for $5990 gives punters the chance to drive the R8 LMS GT3 racecar that won back-to-back Bathurst 12 Hour races in 2011 and 2012.

Audi also offers a snow and ice training program held in the Southern Hemisphere Proving Ground in New Zealand, priced at $5700.

The Drive Experience has roots in the original and ongoing Quattro Experience defensive driving program was launched in Germany in 1980 to demonstrate what Audi considers the benefits of its all-wheel-drive system.

Program leader for the Australian Drive Experience is former Top Gear Australia host and professional race driver Steve Pizzati.