True costs of track days
Discussion
I’m considering getting a ‘cheap track car’ but once I started to look into the true costs of running a car the term ‘cheap’ seemed to disappear.
Apart from buying the car and any modifications, the fuel, insurance, MOT, Tax, maintenance, track day entry is going to prove a very expensive hobby.
What kind of budgets do people have? And what kind of true costs will I incur on an average track day or per year of running e.g. Saxo vts just for track days.
Cheers
Apart from buying the car and any modifications, the fuel, insurance, MOT, Tax, maintenance, track day entry is going to prove a very expensive hobby.
What kind of budgets do people have? And what kind of true costs will I incur on an average track day or per year of running e.g. Saxo vts just for track days.
Cheers
There are lots of threads on this but i'll give you a little guide anyway.
The average trackday is £150-£200 depending on time of year, circuit, layout and format basically.
Some circuits are close to you, some aren't. Most won't be so you could budget 1.5 tanks of fuel just to get there and back. £30 for a hotel for 1 night. And 1.5 tanks for the trackday.(£75) Say £10 for food/drink too?
So for a trackday not very near to you its anywhere from £330-£400.
A car like a Saxo VTS shouldn't need too much work hopefully, but the consumables will be the brakes and tyres. But with 5 or 6 trackdays a year you could get away with changing the tyres once a year and the brakes slighty less if you get a good setup.
The average trackday is £150-£200 depending on time of year, circuit, layout and format basically.
Some circuits are close to you, some aren't. Most won't be so you could budget 1.5 tanks of fuel just to get there and back. £30 for a hotel for 1 night. And 1.5 tanks for the trackday.(£75) Say £10 for food/drink too?
So for a trackday not very near to you its anywhere from £330-£400.
A car like a Saxo VTS shouldn't need too much work hopefully, but the consumables will be the brakes and tyres. But with 5 or 6 trackdays a year you could get away with changing the tyres once a year and the brakes slighty less if you get a good setup.
If you were going for a hot hatch, surely the beauty is you don't just have to run it for track days? The great strength of tin tops is that you can drive them to the circuit with the air con and the stereo going, do a few laps, then head home in climate controlled comfort again. Most of the track days I've done have been in completely standard cars driven to the circuit - you simply don't need a completely stripped out interior and a trailer.
There's no getting round the fact that it costs quite a lot of money to book a track day and you wil use more consumables than on the road, but it doesn't have to be a completely additional car.
There's no getting round the fact that it costs quite a lot of money to book a track day and you wil use more consumables than on the road, but it doesn't have to be a completely additional car.
Speedy300 said:
I would love to split the costs but finding a friend who wants to do that is the problem...
I advertised on here and started trackdaying with a fellow PH'er as I didn't have space to store my own car.Now I have my own track car I may be advertising for another driver to split the costs with......
chris7676 said:
If you track a road car your cost is per track or even mile, not annually. I would myself assume AROUND £350 per trackday - including: £150-£200 track fee, £75 petrol (track and getting there (100 miles in my case normally)), less than £100 for wear (tyres, brakes, oil, other).
Thats pretty low I would say, though it is obviously highly car dependent.You need to consider:
Track day fee: 200-300 in my experience
Fuel: car dependent
Tyres: again car dependent (but R888s would last 4-5 days in the 911)
Brakes: pads and discs would last perhaps 6-8 days
Food, etc.: 20?
I don't bother with track specific insurance; the cars are insured/taxed/MOTd as a matter of course, so no marginal cost there for track days.
The 911 was easily costing 600-800 a day.
It does depend hugely on what car you use, I run part worn race tyres on my Westfield at £20 each and they have lasted 6 days so far, brakes look the same as they did at the start of the season and it does 18mpg on track so a good day where I might get 150 miles in on track costs me about £40 in fuel.
On the other hand, you do need to allow for occasional breakages, these can be unpredictable so you could do a season without any bills or could pop a box or engine and be out for anything from a few hundred quid upwards.............
Steve H
TA-OL
On the other hand, you do need to allow for occasional breakages, these can be unpredictable so you could do a season without any bills or could pop a box or engine and be out for anything from a few hundred quid upwards.............
Steve H
TA-OL
Luckily I live in North Wiltshire, so I can drive to the Motorsport event track days within 20-25 mins at Hullavington, Colerne, Keevil and i think they have one other near here. They are all airfield days and cost between £99 and £119- so no hotel, no extra petrol just that for the track day. Of course the car maintenance could be anything!
As mentioned on another post, I ended up taking my saxo vts round last week, so the repair bill couldnt get too high before you throw it in a bin (after folding it up) and getting another one!
As mentioned on another post, I ended up taking my saxo vts round last week, so the repair bill couldnt get too high before you throw it in a bin (after folding it up) and getting another one!
Jon Doe said:
Luckily I live in North Wiltshire, so I can drive to the Motorsport event track days within 20-25 mins at Hullavington, Colerne, Keevil and i think they have one other near here. They are all airfield days and cost between £99 and £119- so no hotel, no extra petrol just that for the track day. Of course the car maintenance could be anything!
As mentioned on another post, I ended up taking my saxo vts round last week, so the repair bill couldnt get too high before you throw it in a bin (after folding it up) and getting another one!
The extra cost is in the tyre wear though.As mentioned on another post, I ended up taking my saxo vts round last week, so the repair bill couldnt get too high before you throw it in a bin (after folding it up) and getting another one!
I have to work hard to ruin a set of tyres on a circuit, but I can do so in 1 hour on an (dry/damp) airfield. An extra set of tyres in a day would add £600 to the total (for me and my car obviously - for a Mini on 10" tyres it wouldn't be so costly).
kaese said:
I'm currently looking at £300-£400 per track day - that's sharing a BaT Caterham with my Dad.
The cost pales into insignificance when you get out on track for the first lap though...
If you have someone to share with, I don't think it is actually possible to do track days for less than the cost of a shared BaT Caterham. Once you factor in the real costs (including acquiring and depreciating the car, fuel,servicing and consumables) it is unbeatable. It is gutting when you can't comfortably fit in them The cost pales into insignificance when you get out on track for the first lap though...
ridds said:
I had great fun with my Audi Coupe 2.0 8V around Goodwood.
Cost me nothing but the fuel and the cost of the day itself.
You don't need to spend lots of money to have fun. I certainly had more fun than the guys who crashed both and M3 and an RX7.
It also cost you tyre wear, brakes, used oil and need to replace it, etc. But still can be a few houndred pounds.Cost me nothing but the fuel and the cost of the day itself.
You don't need to spend lots of money to have fun. I certainly had more fun than the guys who crashed both and M3 and an RX7.
Btw, I think they may have had more fun than you until they crashed;)
Oh indeed it used brakes etc but on a car like that you'll use what 25-50% of a set of pads on a sessioned day.
Goodwoods not that heavy on the brakes tbh.
I'm pretty sure they weren't as I passed both of them during the day.
Which is also another point if you're out there learning it's good to do it in something sacrifical.
Goodwoods not that heavy on the brakes tbh.
I'm pretty sure they weren't as I passed both of them during the day.
Which is also another point if you're out there learning it's good to do it in something sacrifical.
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