Track driving club?
Discussion
I'm a massive petrolhead and love my cars and fast driving. Having been through a number of fast road cars (Golf GTI's, Type R's, 911) I'm now in the fortunate position to have an everyday car (A4) and a Caterham Seven for fun.
I've done a number of trackdays in the Caterham and really enjoy them, but feel like just 4 or 5 days a year is not enough track time to improve my skills significantly.
I've thought about doing some performance driver training courses, but again these are quite expensive and you really need time to practise and memorise the new skills.
I've been thinking about the Golf Club business model (bear with me here) and wondering if anyone's thought to apply that to track driving. I'm thinking of a track driving club, with a number of members paying an annual or monthly fee, who get regular access to drive the club's track, maybe on certain evenings or days, much the same way a golfer gets access to play their club's course.
Can anyone think of any ways to get more track time, other than simply doing more track days?
I've done a number of trackdays in the Caterham and really enjoy them, but feel like just 4 or 5 days a year is not enough track time to improve my skills significantly.
I've thought about doing some performance driver training courses, but again these are quite expensive and you really need time to practise and memorise the new skills.
I've been thinking about the Golf Club business model (bear with me here) and wondering if anyone's thought to apply that to track driving. I'm thinking of a track driving club, with a number of members paying an annual or monthly fee, who get regular access to drive the club's track, maybe on certain evenings or days, much the same way a golfer gets access to play their club's course.
Can anyone think of any ways to get more track time, other than simply doing more track days?
TrackMegane said:
Do more track days & enter some races maybe. All depends on cash flow. Do you know how much a circuit is to rent, its not cheap.
iirc there is one company you can pay 5k to and get track time but i forget the company
Thanks TrackMegane, interesting to look at Gold Track, although that looks to be a fairly basic model (i.e. multiply the cost of 1 trackday by 26 and charge that annually). Would be great if someone could do something that included a social element to it also.iirc there is one company you can pay 5k to and get track time but i forget the company
Regarding the cost of a track, do you know what it does actually cost to hire a track for a day or an evening? Maybe it could use an airfield track for regular practise sessions and then occasional sessions on a local track?
Some wild guesses on track hire prices here. Based in Hants OP you have limited choice regarding hiring your own track for an evening. Places like Castle Combe and Goodwood don't run evenings, Brands Hatch does but you'd have to pay the going rate which iirc is something like £3500 + vat for a summer evening. You can hire Goodwood and Castle Combe for the day but you'll need deep pockets.
The simple answer to your question about getting more time is to do more track days. If you lived further north then I'd suggest Blyton Park as you can hire that much more cost effectively than some circuits if you are "testing". Not much like that exists down south.
In Essex you can do Walshy days on North Weald with a bunch of mates, but again, not in an evening, days only. Not exactly track time but great fun nonetheless around the sprint circuits Walshy sets up
The simple answer to your question about getting more time is to do more track days. If you lived further north then I'd suggest Blyton Park as you can hire that much more cost effectively than some circuits if you are "testing". Not much like that exists down south.
In Essex you can do Walshy days on North Weald with a bunch of mates, but again, not in an evening, days only. Not exactly track time but great fun nonetheless around the sprint circuits Walshy sets up
vx220 said:
I think the issue would be marshalling
You can turn up and play at a golf club without a team of orange-suited heroes, and no need for fire/first aid/recovery training and equipment
I think you're absolutely right vx220, the requirement for marshalling and safety would be the big difference. Maybe a members club type setup could make do with less marshalling?You can turn up and play at a golf club without a team of orange-suited heroes, and no need for fire/first aid/recovery training and equipment
Stephanie Plum said:
Some wild guesses on track hire prices here. Based in Hants OP you have limited choice regarding hiring your own track for an evening. Places like Castle Combe and Goodwood don't run evenings, Brands Hatch does but you'd have to pay the going rate which iirc is something like £3500 + vat for a summer evening. You can hire Goodwood and Castle Combe for the day but you'll need deep pockets.
The simple answer to your question about getting more time is to do more track days. If you lived further north then I'd suggest Blyton Park as you can hire that much more cost effectively than some circuits if you are "testing". Not much like that exists down south.
In Essex you can do Walshy days on North Weald with a bunch of mates, but again, not in an evening, days only. Not exactly track time but great fun nonetheless around the sprint circuits Walshy sets up
Thanks Stephanie, I think you're right about the choice of circuits and timings. Obviously 'proper' circuits at peak times are going to be expensive, while airfield or alternative circuits such as Blyton in off peak times may well be more reasonable.The simple answer to your question about getting more time is to do more track days. If you lived further north then I'd suggest Blyton Park as you can hire that much more cost effectively than some circuits if you are "testing". Not much like that exists down south.
In Essex you can do Walshy days on North Weald with a bunch of mates, but again, not in an evening, days only. Not exactly track time but great fun nonetheless around the sprint circuits Walshy sets up
Am I right in thinking you organise some days at tracks in northern France? Is that for the adventure or because they offer better value for money?
Regarding 'Walshy days', have you any experience of these?
The club is a great idea in theory.....just unlikely to work in practice.
I tried to organise a simple trackday for a group of TVR owners last year.
Talked to Brands, Rockingham, Donington, Blyton, Cadwell Park. Spent hours on the phone.
More obstacles than an army assault course, of which the main one was price, and most real race tracks (as opposed to converted airfields) were prohibitively expensive, and fully booked for most of the summer.
Rockingham, for example, was just under £10,000 for a full day, fully marshalled. Plus you would need insurance as the organiser.
Blyton was a lot cheaper, and seemed keen to have us at first, then back-tracked faster than a government minister when they found out that we weren't a car club.
It actually gave me a renewed respect for track day organisers, my maths suggested that they needed something over 90% take up for a day to make a profit at all.
At the end of the day there was such a good range of tracks and dates available from them at good prices, that I gave up trying to get 40 friends to agree on a specific date and location, and actually turn up and pay for what they had expressed such interest in only a few weeks earlier. Especially as many of the tracks available are not exactly centrally located.
You might get 60 people signed up in theory, but those people will be coming from all over the country and only four tracks that I can think of are central (Rockingham, Donington, Mallory and Bedford at a pinch), and a 200 mile journey at each end of the day in (or towing) a track car makes most more distant track days really expensive.
For example, Blyton is near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire. 200 miles from leafy Surrey when Brands or Goodwood is so much closer. Blyton is my closest track, and while I would love to do Goodwood, Brands or Castle Combe for example, 20 gallons of fuel just to get there and back in my TVR is quite a turn off. And with a 7.30 am kick off I would have to add in either two overnight stays, or driving at both ends of the day totally exhausted. So I tend to go to Blyton, Cadwell, Bedford and Snetterton as they are reasonably local to me. I will go to Mallory soon, and would do Donington if I could spot a day with a high enough noise limit and a low enough price.
The best we managed last year as a group of keen TVR driving friends was 10 cars at the same track day at Snetterton. Booking through a track day organiser. For £144 each.
The TVR car club, with thousands of members, really struggled to cover its costs organising just one track day this year for members, eventually getting some 45 cars to turn up at Cadwell Park in June for £154 each, but about 10 of those weren't even TVRs
Sorry this is a ramble, but hopefully you get my point.
I tried to organise a simple trackday for a group of TVR owners last year.
Talked to Brands, Rockingham, Donington, Blyton, Cadwell Park. Spent hours on the phone.
More obstacles than an army assault course, of which the main one was price, and most real race tracks (as opposed to converted airfields) were prohibitively expensive, and fully booked for most of the summer.
Rockingham, for example, was just under £10,000 for a full day, fully marshalled. Plus you would need insurance as the organiser.
Blyton was a lot cheaper, and seemed keen to have us at first, then back-tracked faster than a government minister when they found out that we weren't a car club.
It actually gave me a renewed respect for track day organisers, my maths suggested that they needed something over 90% take up for a day to make a profit at all.
At the end of the day there was such a good range of tracks and dates available from them at good prices, that I gave up trying to get 40 friends to agree on a specific date and location, and actually turn up and pay for what they had expressed such interest in only a few weeks earlier. Especially as many of the tracks available are not exactly centrally located.
You might get 60 people signed up in theory, but those people will be coming from all over the country and only four tracks that I can think of are central (Rockingham, Donington, Mallory and Bedford at a pinch), and a 200 mile journey at each end of the day in (or towing) a track car makes most more distant track days really expensive.
For example, Blyton is near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire. 200 miles from leafy Surrey when Brands or Goodwood is so much closer. Blyton is my closest track, and while I would love to do Goodwood, Brands or Castle Combe for example, 20 gallons of fuel just to get there and back in my TVR is quite a turn off. And with a 7.30 am kick off I would have to add in either two overnight stays, or driving at both ends of the day totally exhausted. So I tend to go to Blyton, Cadwell, Bedford and Snetterton as they are reasonably local to me. I will go to Mallory soon, and would do Donington if I could spot a day with a high enough noise limit and a low enough price.
The best we managed last year as a group of keen TVR driving friends was 10 cars at the same track day at Snetterton. Booking through a track day organiser. For £144 each.
The TVR car club, with thousands of members, really struggled to cover its costs organising just one track day this year for members, eventually getting some 45 cars to turn up at Cadwell Park in June for £154 each, but about 10 of those weren't even TVRs
Sorry this is a ramble, but hopefully you get my point.
QBee said:
The club is a great idea in theory.....just unlikely to work in practice.
I tried to organise a simple trackday for a group of TVR owners last year.
Talked to Brands, Rockingham, Donington, Blyton, Cadwell Park. Spent hours on the phone.
More obstacles than an army assault course, of which the main one was price, and most real race tracks (as opposed to converted airfields) were prohibitively expensive, and fully booked for most of the summer.
Rockingham, for example, was just under £10,000 for a full day, fully marshalled. Plus you would need insurance as the organiser.
Blyton was a lot cheaper, and seemed keen to have us at first, then back-tracked faster than a government minister when they found out that we weren't a car club.
It actually gave me a renewed respect for track day organisers, my maths suggested that they needed something over 90% take up for a day to make a profit at all.
At the end of the day there was such a good range of tracks and dates available from them at good prices, that I gave up trying to get 40 friends to agree on a specific date and location, and actually turn up and pay for what they had expressed such interest in only a few weeks earlier. Especially as many of the tracks available are not exactly centrally located.
You might get 60 people signed up in theory, but those people will be coming from all over the country and only four tracks that I can think of are central (Rockingham, Donington, Mallory and Bedford at a pinch), and a 200 mile journey at each end of the day in (or towing) a track car makes most more distant track days really expensive.
For example, Blyton is near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire. 200 miles from leafy Surrey when Brands or Goodwood is so much closer. Blyton is my closest track, and while I would love to do Goodwood, Brands or Castle Combe for example, 20 gallons of fuel just to get there and back in my TVR is quite a turn off. And with a 7.30 am kick off I would have to add in either two overnight stays, or driving at both ends of the day totally exhausted. So I tend to go to Blyton, Cadwell, Bedford and Snetterton as they are reasonably local to me. I will go to Mallory soon, and would do Donington if I could spot a day with a high enough noise limit and a low enough price.
The best we managed last year as a group of keen TVR driving friends was 10 cars at the same track day at Snetterton. Booking through a track day organiser. For £144 each.
The TVR car club, with thousands of members, really struggled to cover its costs organising just one track day this year for members, eventually getting some 45 cars to turn up at Cadwell Park in June for £154 each, but about 10 of those weren't even TVRs
Sorry this is a ramble, but hopefully you get my point.
Thanks for your thoughts and your experience.I tried to organise a simple trackday for a group of TVR owners last year.
Talked to Brands, Rockingham, Donington, Blyton, Cadwell Park. Spent hours on the phone.
More obstacles than an army assault course, of which the main one was price, and most real race tracks (as opposed to converted airfields) were prohibitively expensive, and fully booked for most of the summer.
Rockingham, for example, was just under £10,000 for a full day, fully marshalled. Plus you would need insurance as the organiser.
Blyton was a lot cheaper, and seemed keen to have us at first, then back-tracked faster than a government minister when they found out that we weren't a car club.
It actually gave me a renewed respect for track day organisers, my maths suggested that they needed something over 90% take up for a day to make a profit at all.
At the end of the day there was such a good range of tracks and dates available from them at good prices, that I gave up trying to get 40 friends to agree on a specific date and location, and actually turn up and pay for what they had expressed such interest in only a few weeks earlier. Especially as many of the tracks available are not exactly centrally located.
You might get 60 people signed up in theory, but those people will be coming from all over the country and only four tracks that I can think of are central (Rockingham, Donington, Mallory and Bedford at a pinch), and a 200 mile journey at each end of the day in (or towing) a track car makes most more distant track days really expensive.
For example, Blyton is near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire. 200 miles from leafy Surrey when Brands or Goodwood is so much closer. Blyton is my closest track, and while I would love to do Goodwood, Brands or Castle Combe for example, 20 gallons of fuel just to get there and back in my TVR is quite a turn off. And with a 7.30 am kick off I would have to add in either two overnight stays, or driving at both ends of the day totally exhausted. So I tend to go to Blyton, Cadwell, Bedford and Snetterton as they are reasonably local to me. I will go to Mallory soon, and would do Donington if I could spot a day with a high enough noise limit and a low enough price.
The best we managed last year as a group of keen TVR driving friends was 10 cars at the same track day at Snetterton. Booking through a track day organiser. For £144 each.
The TVR car club, with thousands of members, really struggled to cover its costs organising just one track day this year for members, eventually getting some 45 cars to turn up at Cadwell Park in June for £154 each, but about 10 of those weren't even TVRs
Sorry this is a ramble, but hopefully you get my point.
tomperkins said:
Thanks Stephanie, I think you're right about the choice of circuits and timings. Obviously 'proper' circuits at peak times are going to be expensive, while airfield or alternative circuits such as Blyton in off peak times may well be more reasonable.
Am I right in thinking you organise some days at tracks in northern France? Is that for the adventure or because they offer better value for money?
Regarding 'Walshy days', have you any experience of these?
I don't run LOT any more. Three years was enough Am I right in thinking you organise some days at tracks in northern France? Is that for the adventure or because they offer better value for money?
Regarding 'Walshy days', have you any experience of these?
The French days were organised by the Clubs founder, and I'm guessing adventure to start with was behind it. They can offer value for money but as many have said you'd be far better to go on organised days rather than set up your own.
LOT users to organise walshy days for members, cost effective way for 20 mates to get together and rag the arse off their cars in safety. Good fun. Just call them and have a chat, but you would have to get a group together and take responsibility for getting funds in.
Just stick to track days. Much easier in the long run.
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