Stagg do track day

[timtoo2]

Hi all,

i'm getting hitched next year and currently looking for ideas for my stag do, and have given some responsibility to my best man but doing some looking myself.

i'm really into cars and motorsport but don't own a fast car (Kia Rio 09 1.4!). i'm probably going to be doing some adventure activities combined with karting at some point. however i would really love to do a track day experience with a bunch of mates.

I understand that you can go with a few people and share the driving, but i just wondered if anyone has ever gone/participated in a larger group, say 10-15 with maybe the idea of sharing a car or two for the whole day - and if anyone knows the insurance complications of doing this.

budget is small (£100-150 a person but not like £300) and i would only be looking for a novice session/bring your road car along (i have a mate with an M3 who is happy to let me have a go in it - but not sure he would let everyone!) and would love to see timed lap comparisons between all of us (we would have all ranges of capabilities)- again this is all just a bit of fun and its more the experience i'm looking for, to be around other cars and things rather than to be competitive. my car would probs be too slow to be safe - not to mention insuring it for a trackday - but can you really take any car?

p.s. i only passed my test 14 months ago (as having never needed to drive until i was 25) - are there restrictions with minimum license experience for track days?

any ideas and advice would be welcomed!

[framerateuk]

Just throwing it out there, but have you thought about a go karting grand prix style race at an outdoor track?

It'll cost a lot less than a real car, and to be honest you'll probably have a lot more fun! I used to go karting indoors a lot, once I went on an outdoor track I couldn't bring myself to go back indoors again. It's a massively different experience!

Some of the outdoor karts really shift too!

[sjg]

Karting, or for a mate's stag we're doing the Caterham Slalom day:

http://experience.caterham.co.uk/category.php?id_c...

£125 half day / £210 full day and a lot of fun.

[framerateuk]

The Caterham days look excellent.

I'm thinking of booking my mrs into one of those so she can get used to a Caterham without breaking ours

[lurch86]

timtoo2 said:

Hi all,

i'm getting hitched next year and currently looking for ideas for my stag do, and have given some responsibility to my best man but doing some looking myself.

i'm really into cars and motorsport but don't own a fast car (Kia Rio 09 1.4!). i'm probably going to be doing some adventure activities combined with karting at some point. however i would really love to do a track day experience with a bunch of mates.

I understand that you can go with a few people and share the driving, but i just wondered if anyone has ever gone/participated in a larger group, say 10-15 with maybe the idea of sharing a car or two for the whole day - and if anyone knows the insurance complications of doing this.

budget is small (£100-150 a person but not like £300) and i would only be looking for a novice session/bring your road car along (i have a mate with an M3 who is happy to let me have a go in it - but not sure he would let everyone!) and would love to see timed lap comparisons between all of us (we would have all ranges of capabilities)- again this is all just a bit of fun and its more the experience i'm looking for, to be around other cars and things rather than to be competitive. my car would probs be too slow to be safe - not to mention insuring it for a trackday - but can you really take any car?

p.s. i only passed my test 14 months ago (as having never needed to drive until i was 25) - are there restrictions with minimum license experience for track days?

any ideas and advice would be welcomed!

I don't think you'd be able to have 10- 15 additional drivers to one car. Most track days only allow 1-2 additional drivers, plus if you did a sessioned track day not everyone would get a go. Also your not allowed to time your laps on a track day. I think for a stag do go-karting would be ideal. With that many people it would just be you lot and they may give tophies out for 1st, 2nd and 3rd as most do...

[OdramaSwimLaden]

sjg said:

Karting, or for a mate's stag we're doing the Caterham Slalom day:

http://experience.caterham.co.uk/category.php?id_c...

£125 half day / £210 full day and a lot of fun.

A very enjoyable day out; it would be ideal for a stag do unless your mates are all very fat wkers.

They do group discount too so haggle!

[mrmr96]

timtoo2 said:

i just wondered if anyone has ever gone/participated in a larger group, say 10-15 with maybe the idea of sharing a car or two for the whole day

There are companies which will hire out a track car for one or two people to share the driving of over the course of a trackday, but don't think they will go to more than that. Reason being that everyone will have such a short stint in the car that they'll likely give it more abuse, and also likely push too hard to "get the most out of" their limited wheel time.

As such I don't think that a trackday is really what you're after.

There are loads of "fast car related" types of events:
Trackday - Bring your own car, drive on a track. One or two drivers per car. Bring your own or use a car hire company (very expensive to hire one.)

Go Karting - All using similar karts, on track, racing.

Driving Experience - Super car, one at a time on a circuit or airfield coned course. Cheaper but they might not let you drive that hard.

Driver training day - either their cars or your own, one at a time, the instructor teaches you stuff.

Airfield training day - as above but on an airfield, not a circuit.

I reckon that a trackday isn't really suitable for what you're asking for. At £100-150 each you're probably best looking at Outdoor Go Karting at one of the big circuits. Or doing some kind of driving experience day. The Palmer Sport day is excellent, but it's out of budget. However if there's a big group of you they might be able to put something less expensive together for you which might still be suitable. (That's driving their cars, several on track at once, each with an instructor, pushing crazy hard at their request!)

[mrmr96]

lurch86 said:

I don't think you'd be able to have 10- 15 additional drivers to one car. Most track days only allow 1-2 additional drivers, plus if you did a sessioned track day not everyone would get a go. Also your not allowed to time your laps on a track day. I think for a stag do go-karting would be ideal. With that many people it would just be you lot and they may give tophies out for 1st, 2nd and 3rd as most do...

+1 to this. (Didn't read this before I posted, but you're thinking on the same lines as me.)

[sparkyhx]

for the price you can get airfield track days, but may depend on the time of year and whether you do a weekend or a weekday and whether you are sharing.

but you would have to use your own cars, or share one between 2/3 people.
Insurance wise ...........no problem, you won't have any!!! You can get track insurance, but its costly and the excesses make it almost pointless dependent on the car.

No such thing as a too slow car, it just means you spend time letting people past.

'Timing' wise, bit naughty, but if you film sessions you can work out lap times after the event. But if you are all in different cars its a bit pointless.

Personally I'd go for the go-Karting

[FlyingTrotter]

Hammered the night before and track days doesn't really go together that we'll - have done the stag go-karting al and that was ok - stag still sick in his helmet but the rest had a laugh and all walked away to enjoy another cracking night

Pick you venue carefully - some great outdoor tracks are more remote - we had a long coach trip but all in all fun

[JQ]

I've done plenty of trackdays and plenty of stag do's and I don't think the 2 combine particularly well. And definitely don't combine well if you're sharing only a handful of cars. Lots of people will spend most of the day standing around.

Personally, I'd go for karting - you need some competition and banter on a stag do. If you want to do it properly source a fast outdoor track where you can hire decent karts such a Three Sisters.

[timtoo2]

Thanks all - you all seem to have confirmed what i kinda thought really. I really like the Caterham idea so will look into that, and yeah if i can find some sort of grand prix style karting place that would be great fun.

(and i personally would do the karting before the drinking!)

jokingly said to my finace that if i didn't get to do Caterham experience could we rent one for the weekend and she said yes?!?! dont think she knows what it really, but i think i will make sure i get round to actually doing some karting first!

thanks again!

[Stubby Pete]

Track day organisers tend to limit the number of drivers per car so you'd need about 5 cars for 15 people. Alternatively, hiring a circuit like Llandow mid week would set you back about £1,700 then you can do what you like for the day. Maybe join with another party doing the same, either Stag, Corporate or just a bunch of mates.

Hire cars can be booked separately through several places but check the t's&c's carefully. One I've seen states max 15 minutes of each hour on track!!

[Evangelion]

Don't forget that anyone who's had a skinful the night before is likely to be over the limit the next day.

[Lorientfo]

If it's of any interest we've run a few stag do events alongside our airfield trackdays, basically timed runs on a coned sprint course in our MX5's but you've got your own area to play in. Venues would be near York & Ipswich so it would obviously depend on where you're based and when you wanted it as to whether it'd be viable for you.

Not sure exactly what I can link on here so feel free to message me if you want some more details.

[mad4amanda]

there have been a number of these run at brands in the past the best would be to do the rally school in my opinion and with that number they could run it as a corporate for you?

[RB Will]

Outdoor karting is best bet but maybe a run what ya brung day at Santa pod? Dunno how they feel about car sharing but u do get timing slips. Would need someone to donate their car though or club together and buy a shed to share

[DiscoColin]

Ask bookatrack what they can do you for 4 per car in Caterham rentals. I think that is the closest to what you want that you are going to get but it is still going to be £200/head or more.

[mrmr96]

RB Will said:

Outdoor karting is best bet but maybe a run what ya brung day at Santa pod? Dunno how they feel about car sharing but u do get timing slips. Would need someone to donate their car though or club together and buy a shed to share

Hmmm, taking a shed to RWYB@Santa Pod - you guys will be REAL popular when the car finally sts itself and closes the track for everyone else.

Why do some fk-heads think it's OK to take a shed to ANY driving event? The inevitable failure will waste time of the day for everyone else, but you apparently don't give a toss about anyone but yourself. Take a well maintained car, or hire one, or do a bloody go-kart day - but don't take a "Shed" so you can fk things up for everyone else.