“Beginner” track days?!
Discussion
Clearly we can disagree as I was also going to suggest Goodwood
Thruxton is super easy and will teach you a lot about throttle and steering. It's as fast as you make it but its also very technical (yet easy) with it.
Only 2 May be 3 braking zones, one heavy. It's a lovely track
I've yet to do combe (my local) as all you ever see are race cars on trial (pissed me off) and crashes.
Goodwood, like Thruxton are I feel easy as they are fast, this means you have a large margin of potential speed not to exploit.on the others I find you are closer to the car/track potential
Thruxton is super easy and will teach you a lot about throttle and steering. It's as fast as you make it but its also very technical (yet easy) with it.
Only 2 May be 3 braking zones, one heavy. It's a lovely track
I've yet to do combe (my local) as all you ever see are race cars on trial (pissed me off) and crashes.
Goodwood, like Thruxton are I feel easy as they are fast, this means you have a large margin of potential speed not to exploit.on the others I find you are closer to the car/track potential
George Smiley said:
Goodwood, like Thruxton are I feel easy as they are fast, this means you have a large margin of potential speed not to exploit.on the others I find you are closer to the car/track potential
If you say so. Other than Thruxton and Goodwood, which tracks have you track days at?
HustleRussell said:
George Smiley said:
Goodwood, like Thruxton are I feel easy as they are fast, this means you have a large margin of potential speed not to exploit.on the others I find you are closer to the car/track potential
If you say so. Other than Thruxton and Goodwood, which tracks have you track days at?
Mobile chicane.
Good tracks and not too expensive:
Bedford
Cadwell Park (my all time favourite)
Snetterton
Mallory Park
Blyton Park
Croft
Good tracks and more expensive:
Donington Park
Castle Combe
Oulton Park
Angelsey
Goodwood
Good tracks and ludicrously expensive:
Spa Francorchamps
Silverstone
Brands Hatch (either circuit)
Trackdays.co.uk is a good site that lists all track days
Bedford
Cadwell Park (my all time favourite)
Snetterton
Mallory Park
Blyton Park
Croft
Good tracks and more expensive:
Donington Park
Castle Combe
Oulton Park
Angelsey
Goodwood
Good tracks and ludicrously expensive:
Spa Francorchamps
Silverstone
Brands Hatch (either circuit)
Trackdays.co.uk is a good site that lists all track days
Can I offer a diiferent angle on this? A whole lot cheaper and zero risk of losing your car too. Get a circuit ride as a passenger with an experienced race or track day driver before deciding if you want to do track days or go racing yourself. Within a few laps you will either know that its not for you or you will love it and start picking up tips about the racing line, braking, etc.
If you make it to Castle Combe for Saturday the 27th October then you can do this with a big choice of cars, all with experienced drivers eg a McLaren 570S driven by Simon Tilling the Combe outright record holder, or a Ferrari 488GTB driven by Ray Ferguson who has been racing there for years. A 5-lap stint in with one of these guys will cost you £60 of which 100% goes to the Stroke Association charity, on the day. Hot hatch race rides start from £30 and we have a good number of national race drivers in these cars. A newbie can learn a lot from any of them.
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lia-QzV7GHc for the official video
Bristol Motor Club also run a novice Autosolo event in the paddock (the round the cones bit in the video) which you can enter for just £25 (for tuition with The Autosolo Stig and three runs) and drive your own car. There's a Top Gear leaderboard and fastest time wins.
Most fun you can have with your pants on and you're supporting a great charity.
If you make it to Castle Combe for Saturday the 27th October then you can do this with a big choice of cars, all with experienced drivers eg a McLaren 570S driven by Simon Tilling the Combe outright record holder, or a Ferrari 488GTB driven by Ray Ferguson who has been racing there for years. A 5-lap stint in with one of these guys will cost you £60 of which 100% goes to the Stroke Association charity, on the day. Hot hatch race rides start from £30 and we have a good number of national race drivers in these cars. A newbie can learn a lot from any of them.
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lia-QzV7GHc for the official video
Bristol Motor Club also run a novice Autosolo event in the paddock (the round the cones bit in the video) which you can enter for just £25 (for tuition with The Autosolo Stig and three runs) and drive your own car. There's a Top Gear leaderboard and fastest time wins.
Most fun you can have with your pants on and you're supporting a great charity.
Bedford a good place to start , quite a fast circuit but loads of runoff and very hard to get into any real trouble it’s part of MSV, been there quite a few times now and instruction available on any given day which will really help. Do 2/3 days there and then 2 at the Ring annually ...the Ring a diff prospect of course . What’s the vibe with Brands Hatch? It is my local track but I haven’t gone around there yet might try before Xmas
Snetters MSV novice days are what I and my oldest boy cut our teeth on. The usual briefing (do this, don't effing do that, respect the flags etc etc), sighting laps at c.50 mph and a number of short sessions to settle you in, not overheat the car or the driver. We enjoyed them and they were not overrun by track test caterhams etc (except when they were but all was timed accordingly)
Race schools offer a practical way to gain some experience and get some training, before attending open track days in your own car. That is how I started out a very long time ago, attending Cadwell park, Donnington & Thruxton, as well as the Welsh Forest experience and the Penti Arikula school. The advantage of these is you tend to get a range of experience in different classes, starting in Road cars or Group N and progressing into open wheel cars like FF1600 and F2000.
Castle Combe with CCC was my first set of track days with my own car and it is a tricky circuit to master, I think much more difficult and risky than Thruxton. Camp and Avon/Quarry can both easily catch out beginners, you start them slow, like the breaking before the blind rise at Avon and find everybody passing you, which tempts you to push it, you come over Avon and see the corner and get so tempted to brake hard before the car is well settled. Had near misses on both Quarry and Camp early on and witnessed plenty of prangs on them by others. Thruxton by contrast feels tricky with its high speed corners which leads to an abundance of caution, but has plenty of space and allows a slow build up of speed as you progress.
Castle Combe with CCC was my first set of track days with my own car and it is a tricky circuit to master, I think much more difficult and risky than Thruxton. Camp and Avon/Quarry can both easily catch out beginners, you start them slow, like the breaking before the blind rise at Avon and find everybody passing you, which tempts you to push it, you come over Avon and see the corner and get so tempted to brake hard before the car is well settled. Had near misses on both Quarry and Camp early on and witnessed plenty of prangs on them by others. Thruxton by contrast feels tricky with its high speed corners which leads to an abundance of caution, but has plenty of space and allows a slow build up of speed as you progress.
First ever track day was back in Feb, had the car a whole 2 weeks beforehand!
fresh discs, pads, fluid, reasonable rubber, lid.
Pick a track with plenty of runoff, Bedford and Blyton are good for this.
GET TUITION. £20 well spent. If you're feeling flush, do 2x 20 min tuition sessions, one AM one PM.
Bang a novice sticker on the back.
Send it.
fresh discs, pads, fluid, reasonable rubber, lid.
Pick a track with plenty of runoff, Bedford and Blyton are good for this.
GET TUITION. £20 well spent. If you're feeling flush, do 2x 20 min tuition sessions, one AM one PM.
Bang a novice sticker on the back.
Send it.
JB! said:
First ever track day was back in Feb, had the car a whole 2 weeks beforehand!
fresh discs, pads, fluid, reasonable rubber, lid.
Pick a track with plenty of runoff, Bedford and Blyton are good for this.
GET TUITION. £20 well spent. If you're feeling flush, do 2x 20 min tuition sessions, one AM one PM.
Bang a novice sticker on the back.
Send it.
Blyton is great for light cars. I think tuition is the best way to enjoy the day, personally. What the instructor gives you in the short session will move you on leaps and bounds ahead of where you'd be trying to learn a track on your own. fresh discs, pads, fluid, reasonable rubber, lid.
Pick a track with plenty of runoff, Bedford and Blyton are good for this.
GET TUITION. £20 well spent. If you're feeling flush, do 2x 20 min tuition sessions, one AM one PM.
Bang a novice sticker on the back.
Send it.
JB! said:
First ever track day was back in Feb, had the car a whole 2 weeks beforehand!
fresh discs, pads, fluid, reasonable rubber, lid.
Pick a track with plenty of runoff, Bedford and Blyton are good for this.
GET TUITION. £20 well spent. If you're feeling flush, do 2x 20 min tuition sessions, one AM one PM.
Bang a novice sticker on the back.
Send it.
Excellent advice!fresh discs, pads, fluid, reasonable rubber, lid.
Pick a track with plenty of runoff, Bedford and Blyton are good for this.
GET TUITION. £20 well spent. If you're feeling flush, do 2x 20 min tuition sessions, one AM one PM.
Bang a novice sticker on the back.
Send it.
Abingdon airfield would be my suggestion, nothing to hit other than cones. I started off there and then moved on to session based trackdays on the smaller tracks, beginner/int/advanced groups. Add in a bit of instruction along the way and have fun.
Spa last week...friend in the M3 just behind...no racing/timing obviously
Spa last week...friend in the M3 just behind...no racing/timing obviously
Edited by AndrewO on Tuesday 30th October 13:31
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