Bill Gwynne Rallyschool International

Fantastic experience: Amazing experience. Great organisation.

Fantastic experience: What an amazing experience, and to finish off with qualifying for my BARS was even better. Very professional instructors with a great teaching ethic and a strong focus on fun. Paul Gwynne is a credit to motorsport, very supportive - you're treated with respect and as an individual. This place doesn't get enough credit. For a rally experience or BARS test look no further than Bill Gwynne Rallyschool.

Fantastic experience: Brilliant day and the guys where excellent with my daughter's and have progressed them to the point of being able to enter their first events

Fantastic experience: Fantastic! forget your EVO's and Impreza's a rear wheel drive mk2 Escort on gravel is the best rallying fun.

Fantastic experience: Last Saturday, September On what must have been one of the hottest days of the year, I was so impressed with the keen-ness and professionalism of all the staff. Rob the instructor was wonderful. The experience was a birthday present for my eldest daughter and she absolutely loved it! 5 stars, definitely!

Fantastic experience: A truly fantastic one day experience in a classic MKII Ford Escort. Thanks to Rob - who was a very patient, helpful and generous instructor - I learnt so much about my driving, how to get the best from the car, plus the need to push back against those niggling doubts and of course completely disregard most things that you were taught to do. In the end I was very proud of my achievements and had so much fun as well. Cannot recommend highly enough. Did not want the day to end.

Fantastic experience: So much fun and learnt so much. Day was brilliant, the guys are super knowledgeable. Definitely try all 3 cars out

Fantastic experience: Had a fantastic day with Paul and Rob at the Rallyschool. My brother had a great time in the full package, but loved taking the Mk2 escort sideways over everything. I had some excellent tuition from Rob, and took a lot away that I need to practice. I know I will have improved as a result of Robs lessons . Great lunch, good chat and a friendly welcoming atmosphere, absolutely exceeded my expectations.

Positive experience: Really good day in the Company of Paul and my instructor, Rob. I would definitely recommend this day to make you smile,sweat, mildly panic and bring out a need to instantly leave and buy a mk2 Escort...I loved it!! They want you to drive beyond what you know and get out of your comfort zone. Ultimately they want you having fun. Point to consider: You all share the same instructor so lots of waiting between driving. Not an issue as you can watch everyone else. Lots of tea,coffee, chocolate available to keep you going and a sarnie fir lunch, all good. My advice is only take someone if you need to due to the waiting around so if you take someone there is only a portaloo and a gazebo, not a criticism just a heads up. Would I do it again...YES, in a heartbeat. They are a great team, really friendly and thrive on you going beyond your limits. If you are thinking about it, don't! Just get it booked!!!

Positive experience: Whilst I enjoyed the chance to drive the Mk2 and Impreza, I was a bit underwhelmed with my full-day rally experience at the school. There wasn’t really much tuition to go on, and the instructor seemed to assume that you’d know what you were meant to be doing. Otherwise, you were just told instructions and barked at when you got something wrong. Students were changed over so rapidly that you never really found your flow - a couple of laps and then it was onto the next. Could do with more tuition, feedback and more time in the car. Could be just a little better.

Fantastic experience: Professional, fun, superb rally & motorsport tuition. We booked a full day's 1 to 1 tuition at Bill Gwynne Rally School for our two sons (19 & 20). Dad wanted them to learn about car balance, prior to moving up from karts to motorsport in cars, in a safe, professional environment. Initially, they were keen to go to a forest rally centre until they realised that they would not to capable or allowed to drive at speed like Colin McRae. I searched rally schools and luckily found Bill Gwynne which was, in fact, the first UK rally school, established decades ago and who had seen many race drivers through its doors. If you just want a rally experience, they do this too, and with the set up they have, it would be a fabulous venue for corporate team building events, adult birthdays etc. For us though, we wanted the lads to be pushed, to learn and to enjoy themselves and Paul ensured all of this. They had real, bone fide champion instructors who were brilliant- encouraging, explained the techniques thoroughly and by the end of the day, the lads looked like they had been doing it for years! The day ended with a detailed assessment and a certificate. The lads said the day was "lots of fun and i learned a lot, considering I didn't have much experience ". If we lived nearer, we'd be here regularly, that I can guarantee! Thank you to Paul, Dom and Ian - superb!!

Fantastic experience: Fantastic experience, well guided with some excellent tuition from the ever-patient Rob(!) I can’t wait to go again.

Negative experience: Really poor experience albeit that I had to change the date once due to a death in the family, but a few days before the rearranged date, I receive an email from Paul stating the date needs to be changed due to track surface being repaired by the landlord. Of course this is out of their control, but the annoying thing is as no other dates suit me so I need to cancel; which has been the nightmare. Paul seems too busy and the only person that can do the refund, even from calling over the past 3 weeks to get this resolved. This shows the lack of professionalism that Bill Gywnne has as a business, which will stop me from ever buying a course with them in the future. For these reasons, I would not recommend this company and suggest looking at an alternative.

Fantastic experience: Great fun, expert tuition, well established..... follow in the footsteps of Richard Hammond! I thoroughly enjoyed the experience....even with a broken driver's windscreen wiper in the rain... Challenging.

Fantastic experience: A great day, Paul and the Team were excellent, new skills learnt from Rob and lots of fun to be had. P.s, just try to miss the tyres.

Fantastic experience: I absolutely loved it here! I would recommend to everyone! All the workers are amazing and make u feel calm the entire time, the atmosphere at the rally school is also very inviting and friendly. I can’t wait to come back!

Fantastic experience: The experience I had at Bill Gwynne Rallyschool is one I will never forget! Paul was very clear with his instructions, clear & calm. He eased me through the day & kept giving me key points to improve my driving. I left feeling satisfied with myself achieving more than I thought possible. Would highly recommend to anyone!!

Fantastic experience: Bill Gwynne Rallyschool is definitely the place to be, if you're a lover of motorsport! The team there go above and beyond out of their way, to create the best rally driving experience possible.

Fantastic experience: Such a cold day, Paul made the 3 day experience one to remember for life. Great people, great food and the best fun you can have outside of a bed. thanks for a wonderful time all. See you before Goodwood

Fantastic experience: What a great day! It was really good fun especially as the instructor allowed me to have full control and make mistakes (within reason) which helped me get a feel of the car and track. The track was a good layout to get up a good speed. The instructor really helped make my day unforgettable, he was really patient, gave me really useful feedback and let me have fun (and he was an entertaining chap with lots of rally history and experience). The day was finished off with a really nice lunch. A great day out for anyone who loves motor sport :)

Negative experience: Really poor place, not even a proper course, would not recommend.

Fantastic experience: I did the full days rallying today and found it very good. Car was awesome (Escort), plenty quick enough and great to drift. Instructor was spot on, loads of feed back. Lots of track time compared to other experiences I've been on. Lunch was a proper sit down affair that could have been served in a restaurant. Buildings aren't fancy but I wasn't there for the architecture. I would happily rebook.

Negative experience: This school is very hard for me to recommend. I left feeling really underwhelmed with the little that I achieved on the day for the price we paid for. Being on an airfield in the middle of the country, it’s a bit of hard work to drive to it, and once we found the entrance to the airfield I felt relaxed. We passed a sign saying “Meeting Point” for the rally school despite the school being located a further mile away. We stopped at a fork in the road. According to the large black signs in front, the rally school was to the left. We went left and found no rally school. If we hadn’t ran into a local farmer, we wouldn’t have known that we were supposed to turn to the right instead. When you name your venue “Bill Gwynne Rallyschool International” and you do eventually find the location, nothing about the venue seems “international”. A large hut with a toilet block, 2 rally cars parked nearby surrounded by cement blocks and tyres scattered around a concrete airfield runway. It’s not as impressive of a site as you think it’s going to be, nor from the satellite view on google maps. There was no personnel in sight to greet us on arrival. We saw a buffet of food that we didn’t know was meant for the all-day group. The briefing was not as thorough as I thought it would be. They had a projector screen switched on inside for such a thing. but instead, I was guided straight into the car, shown around all the controls with no safety instructions. The instructor drives me around the course, and lets me take the helm. The course I got to drive was confined to doing 5 circuits around the leg of the runway, drifting left to right, and practicing handbrake turns around hairpins. You drive the course as he gives commands to you such as “power on” “break” and so on, but I felt that I was always running low on time, not knowing what I was supposed to accomplish. And after each set of laps, I was given no feedback on how I could improve my driving. A group of students were rallying on the same course I was driving on, so a lot of us were waiting to take turns, especially after one of the two cars on site broke down during someone else’s drive and took half an hour before we got going again. Only one instructor was on duty, and no-one to pass on information on what was going on, only by word of mouth from the other students.

Fantastic experience: I had an experience day at the Bill Gwynne Rally School and was thoroughly delighted with the service. All the staff were fantastic, really helpful and friendly. Paul my driving instructor was really patient as I was getting used to the car and by the end my final session I was flying around the track like a pro. As well as a certificate of attendance I also got a written assessment of my performance and progress through the 6 sessions that day. I will definitely go back again!

Negative experience: Not a good day out all. Over priced for what it is. Not a proper course, just a gravel car park with a few tyres, 2 old cars and 1 instructor that couldn't give a dam about his students. Not value for money in any way.

Fantastic experience: My son and I went for a taste of what this sport could be like, The Gwynn family took the time and effort to explain and give us the ride of our life! We will be back next year for a full course (when he gets his drivers license). Thank you guys so much!

Negative experience: There are two board options to choose from here, drive the slower less exciting ford escort which is cheaper in price or the more exciting subaru impreza. The subaru broke down half way through the day which happens with rally cars, I appreciate that, but it was the way it was handled. I was offered 1 extra lap (2 minutes) in the slower less exciting ford as compensation for not being able to complete my day in the subaru. When I expressed that I didnt want to drive the ford focus and would instead like a refund for half the day so that I could come back another time, I started getting a breakdown of costs, so rather than just half my money back, I got; "well you did half the day in the subaru and 1 lap on the second half of the day before it broke down so the cost of that lap is X and then you had lunch (which by the way was a bit of quiche and sausages rolls from tesco with some warmed up new potatoes - that now costs £10 apparently) so take £10 off for that and then the half day booking costs more than if you book a full day so take that into account etc etc so the end result was I was offered £70 credit when the full day cost was £300. The driving instructor was nice and I had fun for the first half of the day, just the manager is a complete idiot and doesnt understand customer service at all, it was like having a discussion with 'that guy' who comes out for a meal with you in a group and start moaning that he had 1 less drink and a cheaper main course so hes paying 4 quid less than everyone else.