Are track day prices going up fast?
Discussion
C70R said:
Back on topic - trackday prices haven't really risen significantly for a number of years. I'm sure there was a time in the 90s where you could rock up to Knockhill in an MOT failure and rag it all day for £30, but prices have hovered around the same mark for a good few years.
MOT failures and bangers keep getting mentioned. Until Covid struck, I drove at track days at least once a month during the season (about 9 per annum) and have never encountered anything close to an MOT failure or banger.Do you mean cars over a certain age perhaps? We run two race cars of 1983 and 1958 vintage. Perhaps they're bangers too?
E-bmw said:
Me neither, with one notable exception.
First day I ever did at Cadwell a guy rocked up with a very ratty Golf gti he bought the day before for £200 without an MOT/tax.
Needless to say he fried the brakes in the first hour or 2 and sat out most of the day.
Early Golf GTs could fry their brakes in 3 laps especially at Cadwell First day I ever did at Cadwell a guy rocked up with a very ratty Golf gti he bought the day before for £200 without an MOT/tax.
Needless to say he fried the brakes in the first hour or 2 and sat out most of the day.
bigothunter said:
MOT failures and bangers keep getting mentioned. Until Covid struck, I drove at track days at least once a month during the season (about 9 per annum) and have never encountered anything close to an MOT failure or banger.
Do you mean cars over a certain age perhaps? We run two race cars of 1983 and 1958 vintage. Perhaps they're bangers too?
Obviously I don't mean "cars over a certain age".Do you mean cars over a certain age perhaps? We run two race cars of 1983 and 1958 vintage. Perhaps they're bangers too?
I mean cars like the completely knackered (every panel dented, multiple colours), numberplateless Fiesta on mismatched steelies which was on track with me at Cadwell last year. Scrutineering was nonexistent, and this bloke's driving was at a similar standard to his car.
320d is all you need said:
So the long and short of it is that you can't judge the quality of the day by price alone.
Whilst not quite a track day, the quality of driving at a £30 a session weekend ”action day” is horrendous yet owners of some pretty expensive and highly modified cars seem happy to share the track with these muppets who’ve borrowed their mum’s people carrier for the day. The lower the price for track access, the lower the driving standards.I have a standard MX5, I know I’ll be the slowest thing on track so I don’t try to do anything but have fun and be courteous to others. It may seem daft paying 1/4 of the cars value for a track day but I’m much happier that way.
I specifically bought a £1.5k car for Sprints and Track days. It is a bit ratty, it has scratches, the wing mirror is floppy, the paintwork isn't great. It smells!
However, it works. It's cheap to run on a track day and my driving is perfectly sensible.
Track Days should not be about how expensive a car is, or how fast.
Track Days should be about having fun and driving sensibly.
An expensive brand new car, doesn't guarantee sense nor ability.
However, it works. It's cheap to run on a track day and my driving is perfectly sensible.
Track Days should not be about how expensive a car is, or how fast.
Track Days should be about having fun and driving sensibly.
An expensive brand new car, doesn't guarantee sense nor ability.
pablo said:
Whilst not quite a track day, the quality of driving at a £30 a session weekend ”action day” is horrendous yet owners of some pretty expensive and highly modified cars seem happy to share the track with these muppets who’ve borrowed their mum’s people carrier for the day. The lower the price for track access, the lower the driving standards.
I have a standard MX5, I know I’ll be the slowest thing on track so I don’t try to do anything but have fun and be courteous to others. It may seem daft paying 1/4 of the cars value for a track day but I’m much happier that way.
I certainly agree that Action Days can be awful.I have a standard MX5, I know I’ll be the slowest thing on track so I don’t try to do anything but have fun and be courteous to others. It may seem daft paying 1/4 of the cars value for a track day but I’m much happier that way.
I don't really view them as track days, I've only ever drive on one Action Day many years ago, fortunately they had 2 hour sessions instead of 30 minute ones, so the driving was better as everyone wasn't going hell for leather all the time. I
also picked the morning session which was very quiet, quieter than most track days.
I wasn't at this track day but someone told me at a Bedford evening session last year someone in a Galant or some other Japanese Micro-hatch back crashed into a Mercedes AMG of some description... neither party insured... Oops ! :-(
I can see why people choose cheaper cars, the risk is lower and generally parts more affordable!
C70R said:
Thanks for stalking me though. Suggest some English lessons first.
__
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It's not stalking, I doubt you're worth that attention. It was just our conversations in the other thread on track days over the last couple of days (related to Electric cars).__
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In one hand you claim to be an all accepting person and state that track days should welcome everyone, then you make comments which contradict that. I would go and multi-quote them but frankly, I can't be arsed. We both know what you said. Unless you struggled to understand what I said then no need to mention anything to do with my spelling and/or grammar either, again that seems to be something sad individuals like to do on this particular forum (slow clap for you).
bigothunter said:
Far Cough said:
Must be across the board as we planned to book a noisy Donnington day but at £465 we bailed out.
£465 is not affordable to me either It wouldn't surprise me if typical prices in 2021 will be say 30% more expensive, i.e. much more than inflation but not a doubling of prices either. No-one likes that but the reasons are understandable.
And then prices will only starting coming down as demand slips away and TDOs struggle to fill their days. So 2022 or even 2023... Or never!
pablo said:
320d is all you need said:
So the long and short of it is that you can't judge the quality of the day by price alone.
Whilst not quite a track day, the quality of driving at a £30 a session weekend ”action day” is horrendous yet owners of some pretty expensive and highly modified cars seem happy to share the track with these muppets who’ve borrowed their mum’s people carrier for the day. The lower the price for track access, the lower the driving standards.I have a standard MX5, I know I’ll be the slowest thing on track so I don’t try to do anything but have fun and be courteous to others. It may seem daft paying 1/4 of the cars value for a track day but I’m much happier that way.
It was also the most expensive day.
I don't think a higher price is going to mean the driving standard is any better, in nearly 15 years of doing track days I've never seen so many red flags!
bigothunter said:
E-bmw said:
Me neither, with one notable exception.
First day I ever did at Cadwell a guy rocked up with a very ratty Golf gti he bought the day before for £200 without an MOT/tax.
Needless to say he fried the brakes in the first hour or 2 and sat out most of the day.
Early Golf GTs could fry their brakes in 3 laps especially at Cadwell First day I ever did at Cadwell a guy rocked up with a very ratty Golf gti he bought the day before for £200 without an MOT/tax.
Needless to say he fried the brakes in the first hour or 2 and sat out most of the day.
rossyl said:
Track Days should not be about how expensive a car is, or how fast.
Track Days should be about having fun and driving sensibly.
An expensive brand new car, doesn't guarantee sense nor ability.
I don't think anyone was saying any of those things... I'm not sure what point you're responding to here.Track Days should be about having fun and driving sensibly.
An expensive brand new car, doesn't guarantee sense nor ability.
E-bmw said:
bigothunter said:
E-bmw said:
Me neither, with one notable exception.
First day I ever did at Cadwell a guy rocked up with a very ratty Golf gti he bought the day before for £200 without an MOT/tax.
Needless to say he fried the brakes in the first hour or 2 and sat out most of the day.
Early Golf GTs could fry their brakes in 3 laps especially at Cadwell First day I ever did at Cadwell a guy rocked up with a very ratty Golf gti he bought the day before for £200 without an MOT/tax.
Needless to say he fried the brakes in the first hour or 2 and sat out most of the day.
If you can afford to properly prep a car, by at least spending a couple of hundred quid on making sure your brakes are up to the task, it's not a big ask to spend an extra few quid on the cost of your day and protect the future of the industry.
C70R said:
E-bmw said:
bigothunter said:
E-bmw said:
Me neither, with one notable exception.
First day I ever did at Cadwell a guy rocked up with a very ratty Golf gti he bought the day before for £200 without an MOT/tax.
Needless to say he fried the brakes in the first hour or 2 and sat out most of the day.
Early Golf GTs could fry their brakes in 3 laps especially at Cadwell First day I ever did at Cadwell a guy rocked up with a very ratty Golf gti he bought the day before for £200 without an MOT/tax.
Needless to say he fried the brakes in the first hour or 2 and sat out most of the day.
If you can afford to properly prep a car, by at least spending a couple of hundred quid on making sure your brakes are up to the task, it's not a big ask to spend an extra few quid on the cost of your day and protect the future of the industry.
What makes you think that those who want to save money on the cost of the day are just cheap all round? Only attending cheap days, means that money saved can be spent elsewhere eg. Car prep, the family, the mortgage, other hobbies.
Nampahc Niloc said:
C70R said:
E-bmw said:
bigothunter said:
E-bmw said:
Me neither, with one notable exception.
First day I ever did at Cadwell a guy rocked up with a very ratty Golf gti he bought the day before for £200 without an MOT/tax.
Needless to say he fried the brakes in the first hour or 2 and sat out most of the day.
Early Golf GTs could fry their brakes in 3 laps especially at Cadwell First day I ever did at Cadwell a guy rocked up with a very ratty Golf gti he bought the day before for £200 without an MOT/tax.
Needless to say he fried the brakes in the first hour or 2 and sat out most of the day.
If you can afford to properly prep a car, by at least spending a couple of hundred quid on making sure your brakes are up to the task, it's not a big ask to spend an extra few quid on the cost of your day and protect the future of the industry.
What makes you think that those who want to save money on the cost of the day are just cheap all round? Only attending cheap days, means that money saved can be spent elsewhere eg. Car prep, the family, the mortgage, other hobbies.
My first track car was shared with a mate. We spent £400 on buying it, and immediately sent it to our mechanic mate to give a thorough check over and make it track-safe (brakes, tyres etc.).
Our first day out in it was Bedford GT in the height of summer, and was ~£200. We did a couple more days in it, and sold it so that we could buy our own track cars. We kept a spreadsheet of costs, and the prices of the events themselves was certainly not the major contributor to the overall number (relative to buying/selling, maintaining, modifying, MOT, tax, insuring for road and track, petrol etc.).
If increasing the cost of a day by £40-50 to safeguard the future of the hobby is too much to stomach, it's probably the wrong hobby.
Edited by C70R on Thursday 11th February 10:28
C70R said:
If increasing the cost of a day by £40-50 to safeguard the future of the hobby is too much to stomach, it's probably the wrong hobby.
Are the circuit owners like Jonathan Palmer really that close to insolvency? Or could temptation to sell circuits for house building be the factor which sways their business plans?TDO business looks flexible with low overheads (eg working from home) so well able to accommodate lean times. How many Track Day Operators have gone bankrupt?
Maybe financial viability is much closer to the line than I perceived
320d is all you need said:
nickfrog said:
rossyl said:
I specifically bought a £1.5k car for Sprints and Track days.
(...)
An expensive brand new car, doesn't guarantee sense nor ability.
A £1.5k car doesn't either. But the driver will probably be less worried about writing it off.(...)
An expensive brand new car, doesn't guarantee sense nor ability.
bigothunter said:
C70R said:
If increasing the cost of a day by £40-50 to safeguard the future of the hobby is too much to stomach, it's probably the wrong hobby.
Are the circuit owners like Jonathan Palmer really that close to insolvency? Or could temptation to sell circuits for house building be the factor which sways their business plans?TDO business looks flexible with low overheads (eg working from home) so well able to accommodate lean times. How many Track Day Operators have gone bankrupt?
Maybe financial viability is much closer to the line than I perceived
I'm sure there are plenty of success stories, particularly in those tracks which regularly host other events and races, but it would be great if we had as much choice of venues and venue types as possible.
Edited by C70R on Thursday 11th February 13:27
C70R said:
Given the decline in low-cost airfield days and the complete demise of some circuits (Rockingham and others) due to unsustainable financials, there would seem to be more than a grain of truth in that.
Rockingham was a white elephant from inception and always destined for closure. Its vast but empty grandstands are testimony to that outcome.I am struggling to identify other circuits which have closed recently. Even Pembrey is still open. Agree Ingliston closed in 1995 and Crystal Palace in 1972. What else are you thinking of?
C70R said:
rossyl said:
Track Days should not be about how expensive a car is, or how fast.
Track Days should be about having fun and driving sensibly.
An expensive brand new car, doesn't guarantee sense nor ability.
I don't think anyone was saying any of those things... I'm not sure what point you're responding to here.Track Days should be about having fun and driving sensibly.
An expensive brand new car, doesn't guarantee sense nor ability.
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