I’m a female supercar instructor – blokes always make the same stupid mistake

GETTING paid to race £200,000 supercars around a track sounds like the dream job.

But, for supercar instructor Toni Lee, 59, it’s a reality.

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Toni has worked at Car Chase Heroes for the last five years, giving people the ride of their lives in Lamborghinis, Ferraris and McClarens.

But, with stag dos and boy racers who’ve just learnt to drive sitting in the seat of Toni’s Audi R8 V10 Plus, which start at £134,500, the race ace admits her job can also be “absolutely terrifying” – even though she’s always got her own brake to hand.

“Everybody thinks they can drive, but 90 per cent of people can’t,” laughs Toni. “It can be bloody frightening a lot of the time.

“I have guys who have probably been driving c**p for 50 years, and say to me, ‘I wish I’d come and seen you years ago’.”

“It’s dangerous,” she says. “I’ve been trusted with a £200,000 car. I’ve got to keep the car safe, the people safe and me safe at the same time.”

Petrol head

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Toni has had a passion for cars since she was a teenager, watching stock car racing and motorsport.

“I’ve always been around racing,” she says. “I’ve always watched Formula One and any motorsports on telly. I’m a petrol head. 

“I love my cars. I’ve always had nice cars – Porsches, Toyota Supras, BMWs. I’ve got an Audi TT now.”

Her passion grew further when she met now-husband Barry Lee, who is a four-time World Hot Rod Champion, competed in the Paris Dakar three times and is also a British Truck Racing champion.

The pair travelled around the world together, teaching road safety to students, but it was seven years ago, when she impressed the staff at a driving experience she’d been gifted, that she was offered a job.

Toni recalls: “I drove an Audi R8, an Aston Martin, Ferrari and Lamborghini, and all the instructors said, ‘Who taught you to drive?’ 

“They asked me to come onboard as an instructor, and I thought, ‘Are you joking?’

“I was 52 at the time, and it’s a very young environment. You’ve got young, wannabe racing drivers, some think they’re God’s gift and they’re not.

“There are hardly any women at all, and I did have quite a hard time originally at that company, because they didn’t take me seriously.”

Toni left in the end to go to Car Chase Heroes – but is still one of the only full-time female instructors.

She says: “They now treat me with respect, because they know how hard I work.

“Because it’s a male-dominated environment, I have to be strong. I’ve got to prove myself every day, and show that I am capable of doing this job because it’s a lot of responsibility.”

‘Bloody frightening’

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Toni’s biggest bugbear is “youngsters” who’ve only recently learnt to drive, who she says are the scariest drivers to be in the passenger seat with.

She says: “They pass a test, get given a little Fiesta, then it’s a rainy night, they power in the corners and end up in a ditch.

“You get people who come from a one-litre Corsa that pulls about 110 brake horsepower into the Audi V10 Plus, which is zero to 60 in 3.2 seconds, and they accelerate like they’re hitting their Corsa. 

“I have to hit the brake and grab the wheel. Plus,  I’ve got a brake down there – I’m not that bloody stupid!”

Toni has thankfully never had a crash at work, and actually feels safer on the race track than on the road, after someone went into the back of her four years ago, going over a roundabout.

She says: “I actually had PTSD from that, but I’m fine on the track, because we’re all trained in the same way.”

Stag dos dressed as Batman

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Aside from the scary parts of her job, Toni’s time at Car Chase Heroes has brought with it some hilarious moments – as stag dos often come to test out the cars, as well as Batman fans who come and try out the Batmobile on offer, dressed as the superhero, or Catwoman and Robin.

“These guys come fully kitted out,” she laughs. “I took one guy out, wearing his Batman outfit, which had bulges on it to make it look like he had a six-pack, and I don’t know how I didn’t laugh.

“He was deadly serious and he’d waited all his life to drive this car, so I couldn’t laugh.

I just thought, ‘Imagine if we break down, the police come and look at them.’ It’d be like a sketch out of Only Fools with Del Boy and Rodney dressed up as Batman and Robin!”

To drive in a supercar like Toni, you can get an experience from Buyagift.