Kartcentrum Zwolle/Karba

In Zwolle, the capital of the province of Overijssel, Kartcentrum Zwolle, long known as Karba, lays claim to what it calls the finest outdoor track in the region. The layout, around five hundred metres long, lines up some fifteen corners whose shape draws on great Formula 1 circuits. The lap is not the country's longest, but it leaves real room for overtaking, which keeps the racing tight and sharp.

People come for hire by the lap or by the session, but also for timed races, company cups, children's birthdays and even driving lessons to sharpen up behind the wheel. The track opens much of the week, from Wednesday to Sunday, with hours that shift through the seasons. The mood stays that of an open-air centre, where you drive in daylight and take the weather as it comes.

Zwolle is a former Hanseatic town set on the IJssel, recognisable by its fortified Sassenpoort gate and its centre ringed by star-shaped moats. A trading stop since the Middle Ages, it keeps a lively core of lanes and squares, at the crossroads of the north-eastern Netherlands. Kartcentrum Zwolle rounds off a city visit with a dose of outdoor motorsport, a few minutes from town, in the flat countryside typical of Overijssel. It is the kind of address you come back to, chasing your time once the track has been tamed.