Hiring a car doesn’t have to involve being ripped off at an airport desk and told your excess insurance isn’t valid. Instead, how about a luxury car that is delivered to wherever you want it? Or a classic car borrowed from the very workshop that built it? Even a full day of race car tuition with eight different vehicles is on the cards.
Welcome to the world of luxury and exotic hire cars and driving experiences. You won’t find a scruffy old Ferrari with a dubious past and a massive insurance excess here. Instead, we’ve picked some of the best luxury hire car services and driving experiences in the UK.
They are far from the budget airport options we’re all used to, but instead offer the sort of unique, elevated experiences you won’t find anywhere else.
Hire a Range Rover for the weekend from The Out
I reviewed The Out a few years ago, and while the raucous Jaguar F-Type R I borrowed that day is no longer available, you can still pick up a brand-new Range Rover or Land Rover Defender whenever you need it.
The Out includes free delivery and collection in London and Manchester with the standard fee, or you can collect the car from a range of airports and train stations. I love the idea of landing at Heathrow, skipping the hire car queue in the terminal, and heading to the car park where a new Range Rover is waiting for me.
Doing exactly that, with a Friday morning pick-up and a Sunday evening return at Heathrow Terminal 5, comes in at £1,213. There’s a chunky £5,000 insurance excess, but to remove that, The Out charges £40 a day. Or you can look at picking up your own excess policy elsewhere.
The equally new Range Rover Sport is a more palatable £845, while the Land Rover Defender 90 is £713 and the Range Rover Velar is £674. All include unlimited mileage, EU travel insurance, and extras like child seats and bike racks are also free.
Hire a Morgan for a day in The Cotswolds
Morgan is the quintessential British sports car maker. Hand-assembled in a workshop in the Malvern Hills using century-old techniques, the Morgan is arguably the perfect car for pottering around the countryside and stopping off at Cotswold villages on a sunny summer’s day.
Unusually, this hire option comes from the car company itself, and is based out of the Morgan factory. There’s a choice of either the Morgan Plus Four (in manual or automatic) or the three-wheeled Super 3, and prices start at £349 for a full day.
Collection is from 09:30 and the return is 16:30 (or 16:00 on Friday and Saturday). Two drivers aged 25 to 75 can be insured on each vehicle and there’s a mileage limit of 200 miles per day. Longer loans are available too, with overnight hire (collection at 09:30 and return at 08:00 the next day) costing £425 and a full weekend from 09:30 Friday to 08:00 Monday being £695.
Drive a fleet of classic cars at Goodwood
The Goodwood Motor Circuit in West Sussex offers several different driving experiences, including a £149 skid pan experience, off-roading in a classic Land Rover from £149, and express track driving tuition from £100.
But the highlight is Goodwood’s Revival Racing Experience. Costing from £595, this gives customers access to a selection of the kind of 1950s and ‘60s cars that take part in the Goodwood Revival historic race meeting.
You get access to four cars (among a selection of 10) during the 4.5-hour experience, for a total of 12 laps around the circuit. A 360-degree video to take home is included, along with two meals (breakfast and lunch or lunch and high tea, depending on your time slot.
Become a race driver for the day at PalmerSport
Often regarded as one of the best tracking driving experiences in the UK, PalmerSport offers a full-day package at a purpose-built facility at Bedford Autodrome. The day includes time in eight vehicles across four different circuits, including a Sodi GT5 kart, two models of Caterham, a Land Rover Defender, an open-cockpit Palmer JP-LM, a Ginetta G56 GTA racer, a McLaren Artura GT4 (from May 2025) and, finally, a single-seat Formula 3000.
Priced from £1,000 to £1,250 plus VAT and available six days a week from March to December, the experience includes live timing for each event, scoring for you and the other guests (up to 12 per session), and prizes for the day’s best drivers.
Breakfast, a two-course lunch and afternoon tea are included, along with refreshments in the company’s trackside suites. Each day runs from 07:45 in the morning until 17:00.
Drive a McLaren race car at Silverstone
The famous Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire offers a broad range of driving experiences. I’ve chosen a package that starts at £329 and sees you get behind the wheel of a McLaren 620R racer. You’ll have a professional instructor beside you and Silverstone says you’ll be “pushing the McLaren 620R to the limit in no time.”
There are no speed restrictions out on track, the circuit says, and you’ll get eight laps at the wheel of the 610-horsepower McLaren. The circuit also offers 50 percent off its museum tickets, for the driver and up to four guests, with any Drive Silverstone voucher purchased from the website.
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