Mondello Park proves a perfect day out for the fast and the furious...

​Have you ever dreamed of driving a Ferrari on an international race track? Well you are not the only one.

However, just some weeks back an 83-year-old Irish grandmother fulfilled that dream which she had for many decades to become one of the oldest drivers on Ireland’s only internationally accredited racetrack – Mondello Park.

The race-mad OAP’s only complaint was that the straight wasn’t long enough for her and she ‘could have gone faster’.

Mondello Park offers holders of a full driving licence all types of driving trill on its international track.

Myself and my 19-year-old son got to experience some of the thrills this week and, as you would imagine, he was blown away by the experience.

Thankfully, there are qualified driving instructors on hand to help you every step of the way.

My driving instructor for the day was 24-year-old Irish Racing driver Alex Denning.

Alex was crowned Motorsport Ireland ‘Young Driver of the Year’, which also landed him a €50,000 support prize to help him with his career that has since sky-rocketed.

Behind the wheel of a sports car since he was just eight years old, Alex was spotted by none other than McLaren Motorsport while racing in the UK last year and is currently one of its drivers in the GT4 Supercar series.

Currently working part-time as a driving instructor in Mondello, Alex’s dream is to become a factory driver for McLaren getting paid to test its cars in all shapes and sizes.

The young lad is headed in the right direction all right and is on the right trajectory to achieving that, he just needs the results to go his way in the GT4 Series and who knows where it may take him. Keep an eye out for the name in the racing world.

Meanwhile, Alex is one of the crew who will help you experience the thrill of your life in Mondello Park. It would actually make the perfect Christmas present for a loved one or family member who loves all things Fast and Furious.

First off there’s the Porsche Driving experience, where you grab a once-in-a-lifetime thrill of driving a high-performance Porsche Cayman on the exhilarating Mondello Park National Circuit. Here you can experience the speed, power and handling of a thoroughbred Porsche for five exciting laps with an instructor alongside to help you make the most of your time behind the wheel.

As mentioned earlier, if you’ve ever dreamed of driving a Ferrari F430 Spider on an internationally accredited racetrack without any traffic or speed limits, this could be your moment.

This supercar is a masterpiece from every angle, designed to be both beautiful and purposeful on the track. It packs a 4.3-litre V8 engine that churns out an impressive 490bhp. Feel the thrill as you imagine reaching a top speed of 315 km/h and hitting 0-60 mph in just 3.8 seconds.

For those of you who want something entirely different, Mondello Park also offers customers the chance to slide their way around the track with its Drifting Experience.

You can try to re-enact scenes from The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift by skidding around some of specially-designed track with fantastic instructors. But believe me it’s not easy and you may end up doing doughnuts just like myself. Check out mondello.ie for full list.