Money-raising idea for Minardi

[Homer Simpson]

Not that this would in any way solve Paul Stoddart's problems, but why doesn't he make some of the older PSXXs available to the public as some sort of rent-a-rides? I, for one, would gladly pay good money for a chance to sample a real F1 car.
Let's say PS dusts off some of the older Minardi chassis, detunes them so that those of us not blessed with talent can have some sort of control, and let us loose out on a safe track (say, Paul Ricard) for 15 minutes. Of course, participants would have to show some ability to handle racecars (in the form of racing school completion, for example), and would have to sign a waiver on their lives. To prevent frequent destruction of the cars, we'd have to drive them with full drivers aids...traction control, abs (shouldn't be too difficult to add), with the setup biased towards slight understeer.
Price? $500 - $1000 would be quite reasonable and should be enough to offset maintenance, fuel, and tire costs. With 10-20 participants per day, Minardi should be able to bring in an extra $1 to $2 million to their budget. That may not sound like much, but considering their current budget, it would be certainly welcome.
How many here would be interested?

[Armco Bender]

Well he has plenty of experience selling renta-rides,and most of those that pay appear not to be blessed with much talent either.
Other than that your $500-1000 seems a bit light,doesn't it cost something like $500-1000 a metre to run a GP car?

[Homer Simpson]

I remember reading that too, but I always asumed that those figures included R&D and manufacturing costs. With older cars available, the costs would primarily come from technical staff, tires, etc...

[mountainstar]

AGS in France was selling rides in their old clunkers for about $1100 for 25 F3 laps and 2 f1 laps.

I think someone else also had a deal going at Mallory Park using 1993 Tyrrells. I think it was 8 laps for about $1500. I don't think they are still in business, but not sure.

There also have been some other F1 experiences that run up to $10000 in more recent cars.

I think for the average person F3000 would be more than sufficient to sample a powerful single seater.

Minardi should stay out of the F1 drive business unless they want to charge a decent amount for the priviledge. $500-1000 is a bit too little to cover costs and make a profit. And most people would not be able to drive them anyways as A. They are too fat to fit in the cars and B. Most have a hard enough time handling a 140bhp Formula Ford much less a detuned 700hp monster regardless of driver aids.

[Sodemo]

What about a car boot sale?

[marcus]

they dont have Boots ?

[DriverT]

I thought Minardi sold a ride in their two-seater a couple of days ago for £100k in Monaco.

[garcon]

Charity auction, to ride in the two seater with Baumgartner, down Regents Street in the F1 London parade. So unless the charity was Minardi, Stoddy won't be seeing that hundred grand...