Just to make sure they really were dead, Walshy jumped in the drivers seat to do a demonstration drift lap:

Having arrived back home from Austin and SxSW, the following day held in store a once in a lifetime experience that no amount of jetlag would keep me away from.

Arriving home from the airport gave me enough time for a couple of hours sleep before jumping in the car and heading up to the hotel in Bedford for the night.

First thing the next morning we were all up and drove across to Bedford Autodrome, where we were signed in a sat down to breakfast (mmm breakfast… I had missed proper breakfasts for the last week. The Americans seem to have a thing for brightly coloured cereals and random sweet breads. That’s sweet doughy things rather than meats you wouldn’t feed to your dog.)

Over breakfast we were given a briefing about the cars and circuits we would be driving. The line-up was awesome consisting of a Caterham Seven (both on track and in head to head autotest style races, Renault Clio Cup, Porsche 911 JP3, Jaguar XKR, Landrover, Kart, Jaguar JP1 and the single seat Formula Jaguar!

Our team started the day in the rather lively Caterham Seven Superlights on the East Circuit. With a claimed power to weight ratio of 286bhp/tonne these cars are quick. Combine that with their weight of a mere 490kg and they are a handful. A lot of fun to drive although possibly not straight after a big breakfast.

With no time wasted, we were then taken to the North Circuit where the Renault Clio Cup Racers and Porsche 911 JP3s were waiting for us. First up for me was the Renault. Stripped of all creature comforts and fitted with a six-speed sequential gearbox operated by paddles, this car is absolutely nothing like the road-going version.

Then I was into the Porsche. I got in the car hoping that driving it would change my preconception of Porsches. I didn’t like Porsches. The design lacks imagination. They are incredibly well engineered, but I expected a lesser driving experience from them with all their ‘electrickery’. However, driving this particular model seemed to suit my driving style, surprising me with the fastest lap time in my team.

Last up before lunch was the Jaguar XKR on the South Circuit. Powered by a 420bhp 4.2 litre supercharged V8 this car promised a lot. Grip levels were astounding, but as I tried to be more precise with throwing it into the corners, my lap times dropped. I guess I just didn’t click with this car.

After lunch we headed over to the West Circuit and were installed into the Formula Jaguars. This is a ‘slicks and wings’ F1 style car. 0-60mph is 3.1 seconds with only 1.6 seconds for 60-0mph. It is powered by a 3.0 litre V6 engine and is capable of 2.3G whilst cornering. I spent the first few laps getting to grips with the way the car felt and responded to my input and gradually started pushing harder. Unfortunately all too soon the session came to an end. I would love to go back and try this machine again. I’m sure I didn’t manage to explore more than a tenth of its capabilities.

Next was a complete change of pace as we were put in Landrovers on the off-road course. This involved driving across seesaws, beams and insane gradients all the while looking to score points by hitting tennis balls suspended around the course with targets on the wing-mirrors and in the centre of the windscreen.

Then we were back on the pace for head to head timed runs round a wetted down autotest circuit in Caterham Sevens that were similar to those we had driven earlier in the day, but these had been set up to slide. This gave us the opportunity to compete against each other directly and show how good our handling skills were. Keeping the car pointing in the right direction was not easy, but it was great fun sliding the car round the bends.

We finished up the day in the Jaguar JP1, a slicks and wings two-seater with an instructor to help us get the best out of the car.

A couple of years ago, Andy and I were coincidentally given flights at Airkix as presents. Here’s the video:

All started off innocently enough with what I thought was a few days away, but then on Thursday things started getting scary.

We arrived at Ellesmere Port and had a wander round the Blue Planet aquarium, spending quite a bit of time looking at the big tank which had in it various species of sharks including Nurse, Lemon, Black and White Tips and Sand Tigers, not to forget the rather large Stingrays. The largest Sand Tiger shark being 10ft long and about 30 stone:

Then she turned to me and announced that I was going in that tank!

But no, she wasn’t joking. A few hours later, after being briefed, kitted up and trained on how the use the scuba gear I was in at the deep end:

Someone could have let me know I was being stalked:

Still I managed to get out in one piece and with a huge grin on my face. This was attempt number one.

So having survived attempt number one, I was told that day two was to be a little more chilled out with a trip to the Knowsley Safari Park.

What she ‘forgot’ to tell me was that the day was to begin at the safari park with an hour or so of me doing an aerial assault course:

You get the idea. Anyway, that was attempt number 2. Survived.

With the adrenaline still flowing from the shark encounter (nevermind the assault course), I was rushed out of bed on Saturday early and shoved into the car to a dodgy converted steelworks near Rotherham.

After signing my life away for the third time in as many days, I was taken through into the main area and the guy pointed upwards saying “that’ll be you in a minute”. I just had time to look up to see a body come flying down in front of me.

Yes, having failed to kill me on the previous two attempts, she had me doing a 140ft bungy jump. Indoors.

I barely had time to realise what was going on before I was at the top of the building looking down through dry ice at the floor below. A long way below.

So that was attempt number 3. Once again survived. I am invincible.