National A license

[codieskid]

Hi all

I am going to do my ARDS test next month to hopefully obtain my national B license. I am then going to look into buying a race car, possibly a seat cupra championship car. The aim is to race next season so that I give myself a bit of time to practice and build up speed and confidence in the car for the rest of this year.

The question I have though is for some championships a National A license is rquired. Can some tell me how you get a National A license. Do you have to take an additional test or is it required to compete in a series of national B races before you can apply for one etc

Many thanks

Trevor

[Piglet]

It's in the Blue Book but I think you need six signatures from National B races.

Edited to add: you can get one signature by spending a day marshalling. I'd highly recommend that you do this, it's a good learning curve for new drivers (it's also useful for marshals to get a drivers eye view).

Edited by Piglet on Wednesday 30th July 15:33

[andygo]

We are running a couple of drivers this year who having got their Nat B licences need to uprade for next year.

Its a good way to go, having a team run you, as you get pro coaching and preparation, saving you £0000's in the long run. PM me if you would like more info.

Andy

[woof]

that's a huge first step to run in the Cupra cup

Why don't you spend a year racing Caterhams or perhaps something more saloon based like the Mini's ?


incidently - i really disagree with the down grading of a National A - used to be 10 race finishes
now you can do it with 3 races and a marshaling day !

[Piglet]

woof said:

used to be 10 race finishes
now you can do it with 3 races and a marshaling day !

??? only if the requirement is four signatures and I'm pretty sure it's not...

[Miss P Pitstop]

You need 6 sigs, with 1 allowed for marshalling so 5 have to be from races. I am currently 3 races down, 2 to go.....!

[absolutely]

woof said:

that's a huge first step to run in the Cupra cup

Why don't you spend a year racing Caterhams or perhaps something more saloon based like the Mini's ?

but Caterhams and Minis are very expensive to join the championships. Start at club level not national. Some of the BTCC drivers have gone in inexperienced, I can think of 1 who has been racing cars 2 seasons. I know of others thanks to their parents bank balance.

[Phoenix]

woof said:

that's a huge first step to run in the Cupra cup

Why don't you spend a year racing Caterhams or perhaps something more saloon based like the Mini's ?


incidently - i really disagree with the down grading of a National A - used to be 10 race finishes
now you can do it with 3 races and a marshaling day !

I thought it used to be 10 as well. I seem to remember just missing out on a couple of upgrade signatures due to non finishes so didn't get to upgrade my licence at renewal time.
Bad idea to bring the number of signatures required down in my opinion. It's a few years since I have had to read the blue book.

I would start of with a season or two in a smaller/cheaper series to get some experience under my belt.

[Simon Mason]

There are actually very few series worth doing (without a big budget at least) that require a National A. Even Clio Cup is Nat B. If your going to run a Cupra Cup car you will have plenty of equally expensive options to get your signatures for 2010.

[Scuffers]

Simon Mason said:

There are actually very few series worth doing (without a big budget at least) that require a National A. Even Clio Cup is Nat B. If your going to run a Cupra Cup car you will have plenty of equally expensive options to get your signatures for 2010.

I agree with that, there is not much you can't do with a Nat B, and I would argue that whatever you consider is enough experiance to do a NAT A event, multiply it by 3!

there are way too many people with Nat A and Int C's that IMHO should not have....

[absolutely]

Scuffers said:

Simon Mason said:

There are actually very few series worth doing (without a big budget at least) that require a National A. Even Clio Cup is Nat B. If your going to run a Cupra Cup car you will have plenty of equally expensive options to get your signatures for 2010.

I agree with that, there is not much you can't do with a Nat B, and I would argue that whatever you consider is enough experiance to do a NAT A event, multiply it by 3!

there are way too many people with Nat A and Int C's that IMHO should not have....

My Dad had an International C just because he fancied it, he did get offered a drive at Le Mans in a Prototype 2 car for £70k, and he did ask around about trying to get a International B which was manditory back then for Le Mans, he had an International Historic for a while but he lost it, sold the car and we are both now National As, no point when neither of us are racing as often as we like and a wee bit more money to pay.

[Scuffers]

absolutely said:

My Dad had an International C just because he fancied it, he did get offered a drive at Le Mans in a Prototype 2 car for £70k, and he did ask around about trying to get a International B which was manditory back then for Le Mans, he had an International Historic for a while but he lost it, sold the car and we are both now National As, no point when neither of us are racing as often as we like and a wee bit more money to pay.

I may be being stupid here, but what point are you trying to make?

[flemke]

Scuffers said:

absolutely said:

My Dad had an International C just because he fancied it, he did get offered a drive at Le Mans in a Prototype 2 car for £70k, and he did ask around about trying to get a International B which was manditory back then for Le Mans, he had an International Historic for a while but he lost it, sold the car and we are both now National As, no point when neither of us are racing as often as we like and a wee bit more money to pay.

I may be being stupid here, but what point are you trying to make?

No harm in a personal anecdote, is there?
The topic is licences, he's telling us why his dad went from International C to National A.

[absolutely]

Scuffers said:

absolutely said:

My Dad had an International C just because he fancied it, he did get offered a drive at Le Mans in a Prototype 2 car for £70k, and he did ask around about trying to get a International B which was manditory back then for Le Mans, he had an International Historic for a while but he lost it, sold the car and we are both now National As, no point when neither of us are racing as often as we like and a wee bit more money to pay.

I may be being stupid here, but what point are you trying to make?

You said:

Scuffers said:

there are way too many people with Nat A and Int C's that IMHO should not have....

I was reiterating your point, showing that some people have International licenses when they don't need them.

[Scuffers]

flemke said:

No harm in a personal anecdote, is there?
The topic is licences, he's telling us why his dad went from International C to National A.

not at all, just did not understand what he was getting at...

absolutely said:

I was reiterating your point, showing that some people have International licenses when they don't need them.

OK, I understand, although that was not the point I was making....

[codieskid]

Hi All

The reason I fancy the Seat Cupra's are they do offer good value for money compared to their age and performance. A good used one can be had from around £25k and with the credit crunch kicking in I am sure you could get one for a little bit less. They are also very well spec'd with DSG boxes, launch control etc so driving them shouldn't be as difficult as other saloon cars.

Admitidly there are probably cheaper cars and options to go for when starting out and theres no rush to get myself a national A license but I thought I quite like a car and can progressive with and develop my skills in over a couple of years rather than keep changing. Ill probably look at running in the Northern Saloon & Sportscar championship or possibly some britcar races to start with to try and get used to the car and racing. Then as my experience improves look to move into something like the Cupra championship

[scubiedoo]

You'll need a total of Six signatures to upgrade your licence.

One can be for a day spent marshalling.
One can be for completing an Advanced ARDS course (silverstone used to run one but stopped it at the end of last year)
The rest, you will need to compete and be classified as a finisher in races ( you can get a maximum of 2 race signatures per day)

[Simon Mason]

codieskid said:

Hi All

The reason I fancy the Seat Cupra's are they do offer good value for money compared to their age and performance. A good used one can be had from around £25k and with the credit crunch kicking in I am sure you could get one for a little bit less. They are also very well spec'd with DSG boxes, launch control etc so driving them shouldn't be as difficult as other saloon cars.

Admitidly there are probably cheaper cars and options to go for when starting out and theres no rush to get myself a national A license but I thought I quite like a car and can progressive with and develop my skills in over a couple of years rather than keep changing. Ill probably look at running in the Northern Saloon & Sportscar championship or possibly some britcar races to start with to try and get used to the car and racing. Then as my experience improves look to move into something like the Cupra championship

Actually you will find they are harder to drive at speed, in fact if you look at the people that win in the main series they are exclusively highly experienced FWD racers with some top names comming in and struggling. They are also one of the hardest FWD cars to set up because so much is adjustable and the dampers are made Santa's little helpers just to make it really complicated. Then of course theres the running costs, all those bespoke parts from Spain, esta Manyana (Can't spell).

Not forgetting of course that in about 3 years time it will be almost certainly be replaced by a new model.

If you want to spend that sort of wedge on going racing right now with that sort of action plan, get yourself an old SEAT Cupra Cup car, a Honda Civic Type R, a Mini Cooper S or a current Clio Cup car and move from there. It will save you a shed load and achieve the same goal.

[absolutely]

codieskid said:

Admitidly there are probably cheaper cars and options to go for when starting out and theres no rush to get myself a national A license but I thought I quite like a car and can progressive with and develop my skills in over a couple of years rather than keep changing. Ill probably look at running in the Northern Saloon & Sportscar championship or possibly some britcar races to start with to try and get used to the car and racing. Then as my experience improves look to move into something like the Cupra championship

Personally I wouldn't, you have Andrew Morrison who has one and is a very good racing driver. Why "waste" money on a £25k Seat and race it in the DDMC when its just club racing. Do you have techies who understand data loggers etc that can engineer your car for you?

[andy97]

The only point to getting a National A licence that I can think of is that some club series have foreign rounds at places such as Spa and these usually require a National A licence. I can think of Monoposto single seaters as an example but there are probably other UK series that make an annula pilgramage.