Track Day Car Hire

[dr chuff]

Hi Chaps,

This is a fairly general inquiry, hence it's not in the Track Day bit.

Having been laid off for the second time in a year I was thinking of new careers, including starting a track day car hire service.

Since we are a varied and knowledgable bunch, I would be grateful of your comments, such as cars (E30, elise?) to have, my degree of insanity, competition etc.

Cheers
Dr C

[GreenV8S]

Hi Chaps,

This is a fairly general inquiry, hence it's not in the Track Day bit.

Having been laid off for the second time in a year I was thinking of new careers, including starting a track day car hire service.

Since we are a varied and knowledgable bunch, I would be grateful of your comments, such as cars (E30, elise?) to have, my degree of insanity, competition etc.

Cheers
Dr C

There are a couple of places already doing this - TopCats for example. I think you would need to look at the economics carefully to see whether you could cover wear and tear and accident damage. FWIW I think you might be best going for cheap-ish cars that are totally impractical for the road, rather than supercars. They will be a new experience for most people and hopefully not too expensive to run. Locaterfield with a modest engine and good suspension setup, that sort of thing?

Would you plan to provide tuition with the cars, or just send people out to play on their own?

[domster]

Competition:

www.polarisdrive.co.uk

They do track time in Porsche 944s with instruction for £75 a session (15-20 mins).

I am looking to try them out this year, but am currently awaiting their timetable of events.

Cheers
Domster

[dr chuff]

I would supply tution if the market demanded it - at the moment that would mean hiring a suitably qualified person as well though. I've looked at most of the other companies doing this, and they provide at least one familiarisation/appraisal lap for the punter.

As for cars, I chose E30 because it's cheap to run and repair, fun to drive, and you can drive it in all weathers; some people may baulk at driving a Locaterfield in rain. The Elise I chose purely because it looks like a sports car as some may be put off by the saloon looks of an E30-55 etc.

At the moment it's just speculation, but there must be more to life than endless interviews for jobs you don't really want.

Dr C