Shared trackday cars - Logistics?
Discussion
You're being quite prickly towards Trabi601 OP, but Trabi hasn't been unpleasant towards you and raises some good points. I suppose it's just not what you want to hear.
Nobody has said it's impossible but everybody will unanimously agree that it could result in disappointment.
If you're good mates you probably aren't going to fall out over it and the financial risk is low so if you want to do t, do it- you'll have great fun.
Having seen a few people suggest additional drivers might be £15 or £20 quid I will caution that with some TDOs on the more expensive days it can be three to four times that for each additional driver. On the other hand, several years ago you got free additional drivers at 'circuit-days'.
Nobody has said it's impossible but everybody will unanimously agree that it could result in disappointment.
If you're good mates you probably aren't going to fall out over it and the financial risk is low so if you want to do t, do it- you'll have great fun.
Having seen a few people suggest additional drivers might be £15 or £20 quid I will caution that with some TDOs on the more expensive days it can be three to four times that for each additional driver. On the other hand, several years ago you got free additional drivers at 'circuit-days'.
I was part of a three; started as two then went to three. Was great fun; meant lots of discussion and planning before a track day and lots after. Wound up other halves but in a good way. One of us had access to a trailer and storage. We all chipped in with doing stuff. The car -Mini R53 Cooper S did get some stick (a lot cv boots & drive shafts later and a top-end rebuild); and we had the fun of getting loads of upgrades and extra stuff as in different wheels & tyre combos and made the car ours. And we didnt rest the car enough but who cares; enjoy it and yourselves.
All can be done; we used to go all pver the place: Bedford, Rockingham, Silvestone, Mallory, Cadwell. Sometimes all of us or just two - its all perfectly simple to organise. Enjoy spending time, money and you'll get so much more from it in return as a group of mates.
The mini is now back with me - and i am sharing it with another mate now; as the other two are doing different motorsport stuff.
Let us know how you get on. We managed ca 6 TDs a year; chapeau if you can get more in. Ignore all the boring logistics from others - it will work out if you want it to. And if it doesnt then its just moving on...
All can be done; we used to go all pver the place: Bedford, Rockingham, Silvestone, Mallory, Cadwell. Sometimes all of us or just two - its all perfectly simple to organise. Enjoy spending time, money and you'll get so much more from it in return as a group of mates.
The mini is now back with me - and i am sharing it with another mate now; as the other two are doing different motorsport stuff.
Let us know how you get on. We managed ca 6 TDs a year; chapeau if you can get more in. Ignore all the boring logistics from others - it will work out if you want it to. And if it doesnt then its just moving on...
C70R said:
Thank you so much. Excellent advice and input.
No problem, it can definitely be done using budget cars providing it has some good prep before venturing on track.I tried to send you an email with some info but the system does not allow this, send me a PM so I can reply.
cheers
I'd echo the advice above to try and think through all the scenarios where it could go wrong and agree a strategy amongst yourselves how you will handle it if it happens, before you go ahead and buy the car and get started. I also echo the advice to choose open pitlane events to give you maximum flexibility on the day and take away the time pressure.
This may sound trivial but in your situation I'd be looking for a car with easily adjustable seats and inertia reel seat belts not race harnesses. There's nothing more annoying when you have different size drivers in one car than when you are struggling to get seats to move and harnesses to adjust every single time before the car goes out.
This may sound trivial but in your situation I'd be looking for a car with easily adjustable seats and inertia reel seat belts not race harnesses. There's nothing more annoying when you have different size drivers in one car than when you are struggling to get seats to move and harnesses to adjust every single time before the car goes out.
HustleRussell said:
You're being quite prickly towards Trabi601 OP, but Trabi hasn't been unpleasant towards you and raises some good points. I suppose it's just not what you want to hear.
One or two posts would have been considered helpful. Persistent, repetitive and unfounded doom-mongering (even after I'd said it was no issue) is downright annoying and entirely unwarranted. I discussed this same track day arrangement with two friends during Le Mans a few weeks back.
Since then we've bought a Saxo vtr car d for £60 at auction plus fee's and will split it three ways. Car already stripped out and ready for new suspension, tyres etc.
There are risks if the car gets binned early days but then I've countered this by only losing a third of costs - £500 against losing £1500.
We'll just get out and drive it and what will be, will be.
Since then we've bought a Saxo vtr car d for £60 at auction plus fee's and will split it three ways. Car already stripped out and ready for new suspension, tyres etc.
There are risks if the car gets binned early days but then I've countered this by only losing a third of costs - £500 against losing £1500.
We'll just get out and drive it and what will be, will be.
Sorry OP a bit late to the party. Myself and 2 sons both live away from home have been running a Radical and doing track days over the last couple of years or so. We share all the costs and haven't had any problems with the TDO's. It works well for us. We tend to go for premium track days SIlverstone and SPA through RMA or Goldtrack mainly due to noise limitations. We find splitting the costs of the event works out well for us, some TDO's charge more than others for the 2 additional drivers so its worth shopping around a bit and we always go for a garage due to open top, setting up etc. Hope you get it set up and enjoy as much as we have. As adults you can work any issues out by good old fashioned talking. We managed to break 4th gear at Spa this year 12 laps into the first day and ended up hiring a car from a trackside company costing a lot but split 3 ways not any where as bad. Enjoy
I'm sharing the race driving of my Dad's 1964 Lotus Elan S2 (26R spec) at the moment. That's another level of risk, pressure and potential hurt. I'm not looking forward of making the mistake which robs him of a race etc. There is maybe one friend I could consider sharing with but risking the car and other people's fun is never far from your mind.
HustleRussell said:
I'm sharing the race driving of my Dad's 1964 Lotus Elan S2 (26R spec) at the moment. That's another level of risk, pressure and potential hurt. I'm not looking forward of making the mistake which robs him of a race etc. There is maybe one friend I could consider sharing with but risking the car and other people's fun is never far from your mind.
With all due respect, and while it sounds fun, that's absolutely nothing like chucking a few hundred quid into a pot with your mates.NickNJ said:
There are risks if the car gets binned early days but then I've countered this by only losing a third of costs - £500 against losing £1500.
We'll just get out and drive it and what will be, will be.
My sentiments exactly, and a conclusion I'd arrived at long before this thread was created!We'll just get out and drive it and what will be, will be.
C70R said:
This is, almost verbatim, our plan. Thank you for the reassurance.
I really feel sorry for the naysayers, thinking that such small amounts of money and trivial problems would be enough to destroy friendships.
It's not the small amount of money you stand to lose that will grate, it's that there is always someone less willing than the other(s) to put the time and effort in after the purchase. Of course, you're not interested in hearing negative replies so enjoy any confirmation bias you find elsewhere in the thread.I really feel sorry for the naysayers, thinking that such small amounts of money and trivial problems would be enough to destroy friendships.
Baryonyx said:
C70R said:
This is, almost verbatim, our plan. Thank you for the reassurance.
I really feel sorry for the naysayers, thinking that such small amounts of money and trivial problems would be enough to destroy friendships.
It's not the small amount of money you stand to lose that will grate, it's that there is always someone less willing than the other(s) to put the time and effort in after the purchase. Of course, you're not interested in hearing negative replies so enjoy any confirmation bias you find elsewhere in the thread.I really feel sorry for the naysayers, thinking that such small amounts of money and trivial problems would be enough to destroy friendships.
hy reply.I'm very sorry your friends don't make the effort to maintain your relationships.
C70R said:
Camoradi said:
If it is going to be used on track only, a used race car could save you a lot of money. My brother in law recently picked up a Mk2 MR2 which was race ready for the 750 motor club series , road legal with 11 months MOT, for £1750. I was quite amazed at how much he got for the money.
That's an excellent shout. Where does one look for such unbelievable bargains?http://danielsmotorsport.co.uk/cars_for_sale.php
These guys are very well known for building/running these cars so I'd expect anything they sell to be of good quality, and as part of the deal you can book a trackday with them and receive tuition etc, only paying for the track fee and fuel.
and he's bSlightly different circumstances, but experience nonetheless for you:
4 of us went in on "Project Bottle", a snotter of a 924 that was parked outside my mate's unit just begging to be bought and used again. Bottle being rhyming slang for £200, so £50 each. We bought it so we could all learn to drift at drift days.
I was really good mates with one of them, didn't really know the other 2.
As I already said, my mate was the one with the unit, so we stored it there, and agreed to convene regularly to strip it out, weld the diff, cut the springs, fit bucket seats and all other manner of bodgery.
We chucked a bit of money at it, bought some Kirkey bucket seats, cans of matt black paint, some st wheels, some tyres, harnesses, some more paint to spray the wheels, some st stickers, we fked up welding the diff so took it to someone else, so all in it probably cost £150 each, then we paid to trailer it to the first drift day and each paid £30-40 for entry on the day. So all in, at the first drift day, I think we were in about £250 each.
My mate was driving first since the idea had been his all along, I jumped in the passenger seat, we did one skid then something happened to the K Jet mechanical fuel injection and it didn't work under load for the rest of the day.
We trailered it back to the unit and were all a bit stumped as to why it wouldn't work. We spent a bit more money, but didn't really put a proper amount of effort in. The other 2 guys decided they weren't interested any more, one bought a E36 325 that had already had all the work done to turn it into a drift car, and the other one admitted he was never really that bothered about the whole thing and just liked the idea of telling his VAG mates he owned 1/4 share of a matt black 924 drift car. Me and my mate plugged away at the K Jet thinking we could get it to work, but neither of us being very good at diagnostics gave up after a few months and the car got scrapped.
My mate bought an MX5 and welded the diff and learnt to actually drift on track and I bought an E34 520 and learnt how to show off on deserted roundabouts in the wee hours.
Me and my mate are still mates, he's still mates with his 2 mates, and I think we all spent between £250 and £400 each. Nobody tried to kill each other.
4 of us went in on "Project Bottle", a snotter of a 924 that was parked outside my mate's unit just begging to be bought and used again. Bottle being rhyming slang for £200, so £50 each. We bought it so we could all learn to drift at drift days.
I was really good mates with one of them, didn't really know the other 2.
As I already said, my mate was the one with the unit, so we stored it there, and agreed to convene regularly to strip it out, weld the diff, cut the springs, fit bucket seats and all other manner of bodgery.
We chucked a bit of money at it, bought some Kirkey bucket seats, cans of matt black paint, some s
t wheels, some tyres, harnesses, some more paint to spray the wheels, some st stickers, we fked up welding the diff so took it to someone else, so all in it probably cost £150 each, then we paid to trailer it to the first drift day and each paid £30-40 for entry on the day. So all in, at the first drift day, I think we were in about £250 each. My mate was driving first since the idea had been his all along, I jumped in the passenger seat, we did one skid then something happened to the K Jet mechanical fuel injection and it didn't work under load for the rest of the day.
We trailered it back to the unit and were all a bit stumped as to why it wouldn't work. We spent a bit more money, but didn't really put a proper amount of effort in. The other 2 guys decided they weren't interested any more, one bought a E36 325 that had already had all the work done to turn it into a drift car, and the other one admitted he was never really that bothered about the whole thing and just liked the idea of telling his VAG mates he owned 1/4 share of a matt black 924 drift car. Me and my mate plugged away at the K Jet thinking we could get it to work, but neither of us being very good at diagnostics gave up after a few months and the car got scrapped.
My mate bought an MX5 and welded the diff and learnt to actually drift on track and I bought an E34 520 and learnt how to show off on deserted roundabouts in the wee hours.
Me and my mate are still mates, he's still mates with his 2 mates, and I think we all spent between £250 and £400 each. Nobody tried to kill each other.
I feel despite writing all that ^^^ I've missed out on the crux of the matter.
Me and my mate did all the work, the other two did nothing other than spraying one panel matt black, and driving the car onto the trailer.
I could have got pissed off and acted all butthurt but the fact is I wanted to do the work, as did my mate, those two didn't. I knew that before I stumped up my money.
I never got to drive it in anger, in fact I only actually drove it for about 50 metres in total despite spending time and money on it, and I lived in Tottenham in N London and the car lived in deepest Essex so it took over an hour to get to it every time we wanted to meet up.
If you're going to cry about £500, then trackdays aren't the right hobby for you.
Me and my mate did all the work, the other two did nothing other than spraying one panel matt black, and driving the car onto the trailer.
I could have got pissed off and acted all butthurt but the fact is I wanted to do the work, as did my mate, those two didn't. I knew that before I stumped up my money.
I never got to drive it in anger, in fact I only actually drove it for about 50 metres in total despite spending time and money on it, and I lived in Tottenham in N London and the car lived in deepest Essex so it took over an hour to get to it every time we wanted to meet up.
If you're going to cry about £500, then trackdays aren't the right hobby for you.
Just do it.
I started my trackday shenanigans around 10 years ago. Went to a rather upsetting funeral of a uni friend who died far too young and realised you never know when your time will come so you must do what you want to do before it's too late. So on the way back I stopped at a breakers yard and bought an e30 325i that was looking a bit sorry for itself for £100 with some very minor rear end damage. On my return home I asked a friend if he wanted to go halves and we agreed to split everything 50/50. I did research, bought parts and stored car and organised days. He did mechanical works. We decided to build a safe car and put in full roll cage, FIA seats and belts and fire extinguisher system. The car then had a full service, cam belt change, pads and new shocks all round. We decided the car was not to be road legal and it has been trailered to each event since.
First track day was donnington. We were both pretty useless, but got better as they day went on and agreed to go slowly to begin with. We had a fantastic day, my friend spun it once and by the end of the day one of the rear brake callipers seised ending the day early and resulting in a change of underwear for me.
After that day we decided the suspension was not good enough, brakes where fine, tyres needed to match and be better and slowly upgraded parts after each trackday either to replace worn parts or to make car better.
After about 5 track days my friend had had his fun and my father bought his share. The car has now completed about 15 track days and now is a fairly serious bit of kit. Our last outing resulted in some damage as a damp track, hard suspension setting, semi slick tyres and too much throttle resulted in a spin and Armco kiss. Now it's time for a colour change.
What I would advice for your first times out is all get a bit of tuition booked.
I started my trackday shenanigans around 10 years ago. Went to a rather upsetting funeral of a uni friend who died far too young and realised you never know when your time will come so you must do what you want to do before it's too late. So on the way back I stopped at a breakers yard and bought an e30 325i that was looking a bit sorry for itself for £100 with some very minor rear end damage. On my return home I asked a friend if he wanted to go halves and we agreed to split everything 50/50. I did research, bought parts and stored car and organised days. He did mechanical works. We decided to build a safe car and put in full roll cage, FIA seats and belts and fire extinguisher system. The car then had a full service, cam belt change, pads and new shocks all round. We decided the car was not to be road legal and it has been trailered to each event since.
First track day was donnington. We were both pretty useless, but got better as they day went on and agreed to go slowly to begin with. We had a fantastic day, my friend spun it once and by the end of the day one of the rear brake callipers seised ending the day early and resulting in a change of underwear for me.
After that day we decided the suspension was not good enough, brakes where fine, tyres needed to match and be better and slowly upgraded parts after each trackday either to replace worn parts or to make car better.
After about 5 track days my friend had had his fun and my father bought his share. The car has now completed about 15 track days and now is a fairly serious bit of kit. Our last outing resulted in some damage as a damp track, hard suspension setting, semi slick tyres and too much throttle resulted in a spin and Armco kiss. Now it's time for a colour change.
What I would advice for your first times out is all get a bit of tuition booked.
sjg said:
So come on then, as this is so easy and straightforward - what have you bought and when is your first trackday booked for?
Thanks for asking. Two of us are going to view a 206 GTi this evening. The third is busy, but said he's happy for us to buy without him seeing it. I just don't get how people can be so precious about something so trivial.
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