True costs of track days

[Furyous]

mattdaniels said:

Budget 500 quid per trackday total, averaged over a year.

Or rent a trackcar instead. I've given up having a trackday car - renting is the way forward.

From what Ive seen, thats the best part of a grand per day ?

[philevo6]

Furyous said:

mattdaniels said:

Budget 500 quid per trackday total, averaged over a year.

Or rent a trackcar instead. I've given up having a trackday car - renting is the way forward.

From what Ive seen, thats the best part of a grand per day ?

Ok,you buy maintain and fix your own car for trackdays...the costs are expensive too,BUT id have more enjoyment running my own car.

Ive done about 20 trackdays (£130 a time in fuel!!)...the total costs are approx £400+ per day.

£220 ish for trackday.
£130 fuel (evo does 7mpg round a track..lol)
£50 food/van petrol etc etc.

[jleroux]

Furyous said:

mattdaniels said:

Budget 500 quid per trackday total, averaged over a year.

Or rent a trackcar instead. I've given up having a trackday car - renting is the way forward.

From what Ive seen, thats the best part of a grand per day ?

Average cost for a Caterham Superlight for a day is about £700 all inclusive. Bearing in mind there are no mechanical issues to pay for, no depreciation, insurance, tax (or trailer/towing costs) and a maximum exposure of £1500 if you total the car (full insurance with a £1500 excess).

I personally think renting offers good value for money when compared with running a car of your own specifically for track days. Obviously if you want a road/track car then it will seem quite expensive.

Jonny
BaT

[Decky_Q]

Ive just spent a clean fortune on clothing for tracking, e bay is just too handy to click away silly sums of money for stuff I dont even need ffs!

Still I will shortly be getting a sparco nomex suit, balaclava, boots, gloves and an OMP helmet specifically for track use, of course all 'bargains' and completely different colours to eachother lol

[mmm-five]

philevo6 said:

Ive done about 20 trackdays (£130 a time in fuel!!)...the total costs are approx £400+ per day.

£220 ish for trackday.
£130 fuel (evo does 7mpg round a track..lol)
£50 food/van petrol etc etc.

What about tyres, brakes, oil changes, etc?

I'd guess you'd use a set of tyres and pads every 2-3 events - which would add about £900 extra for 3 events, to bring your total up to £700/event.

How about insurance? How about fuel to and from the track? How often would you need brake disks? How often would you replace brake fluid? How much extra maintenance does the rest of the car require solely due to the track days.

Edited by mmm-five on Monday 31st August 19:57

[mattdaniels]

philevo6 said:

Ive done about 20 trackdays (£130 a time in fuel!!)...the total costs are approx £400+ per day.

What's the time scale here? 20 trackdays ever? 20 trackdays this month?

Jonny's post has made me re-check my spendage (dang it!) and yeah he's right, probably closer to 700 per event than my guesstimate of 500 per event. BUT selling the the Elise going down the Superlight hire route still makes sense for me when you look at financial aspects and "smiles per trackday" aspects. Financial aspects - car storage, insurance, mot's, servicing, fuel, depreciation, and bearing in mind that if you track the car then all of the above is radically increased if you track it based on one track mile equalling ten road miles (so eg. servicing happens quicker, you need more oil/pads etc than normal). Smiles per trackday not sure how you can put a price on strolling in to the event having a car there ready for you, beareded and fueled up, drive as much as you want, they beard it, put fuel in it, fix it if it breaks and stick an instructor next to you when you want one. Pretty good deal IMO and I have no desire to run a track car at the moment when there are offers like this around.

[haircutmike]

Depends what you want......

I love improving and preping my car, something you obviously don't get with a rental.

Of course if you are not that way inclined, can't twiddle spanners and don't want the hassle then, rental could be for you.

Different strokes etc.

Peter.

[Jon Doe]

mmm-five said:

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.

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).

Really- didnt know about that- is that comparing a wet day on a circuit to a wet airfield day? What surfaces as well? I hear concrete tears through tyres- but the airfields I have been to (Colerne and Hullavington) were tarmac. Tyres are hidden in my stupidly infinite 'maint. could be anything'.

[haircutmike]

I can squeeze about 6 track/airfield days from a set of T1R's down to bald.

Just having a set of triple 8's fitted, if I can get 6 with these then track tyre wear costs £100.00, ouch!

Peter.

[Fourpots]

I've never added up the cost of my track days, I enjoy them to much.

[philevo6]

mmm-five said:

philevo6 said:

Ive done about 20 trackdays (£130 a time in fuel!!)...the total costs are approx £400+ per day.

£220 ish for trackday.
£130 fuel (evo does 7mpg round a track..lol)
£50 food/van petrol etc etc.

What about tyres, brakes, oil changes, etc?

I'd guess you'd use a set of tyres and pads every 2-3 events - which would add about £900 extra for 3 events, to bring your total up to £700/event.

How about insurance? How about fuel to and from the track? How often would you need brake disks? How often would you replace brake fluid? How much extra maintenance does the rest of the car require solely due to the track days.

Edited by mmm-five on Monday 31st August 19:57

My numbers were purely just for the day itself.

(as maintainance/modifying etc are down to the size of your wallet)

Edited by philevo6 on Wednesday 2nd September 20:25

[Earl Grey]

I managed to jolly up 3 other friends giving £200 each to do just that! buy a track day car. We looked around and I found a MR2 MK2 2.0 gts on a J Plate, no tax no MOT on ebay for £560 and a set of 17" wheels with tyres for £60 also on ebay.

We have taken it to the Nurburgring twice and it has done countless trackdays. It gets serviced after every other trackday and depending on the track, maybe a set of tyres.

The car gets Taxed and MOT every year with no problems and insured every year. We have now had the car for over 2 years, and it is still going strong.

We all feel that we have had our money out of the old girl.

So, cost to date!

Car £560 with 140000 miles 19 Toyota services "fsh"
Wheels £60
Spax Suspention springs and shocks £400

Track day cost

Llandow £90 & 3 more drivers £60
Fuel for the day £80

Other cost "things that dont last long"

Tyres £200 can go in 1 day .... but you must bear in mind "the Duchess" does not stop all day! She is the first thing out on track and the last one back into the pits, and gets a pasting. She has some TLC coming to her soon!
Brake pads front £23 - last around 500-700 miles
Rear pads £17 - last around 1000 miles
Oil £17 and gets changed when it starts to look bad or 1000 miles
Oil filter £1.18p

So if you split that between 4 it's not that bad. I'm lucky that the guys that are in on this with me are all top notch guys.

Matt

[teabagger]

Earl Grey said:

I managed to jolly up 3 other friends giving £200 each to do just that! buy a track day car. We looked around and I found a MR2 MK2 2.0 gts on a J Plate, no tax no MOT on ebay for £560 and a set of 17" wheels with tyres for £60 also on ebay.

We have taken it to the Nurburgring twice and it has done countless trackdays. It gets serviced after every other trackday and depending on the track, maybe a set of tyres.

The car gets Taxed and MOT every year with no problems and insured every year. We have now had the car for over 2 years, and it is still going strong.

We all feel that we have had our money out of the old girl.

So, cost to date!

Car £560 with 140000 miles 19 Toyota services "fsh"
Wheels £60
Spax Suspention springs and shocks £400

Track day cost

Llandow £90 & 3 more drivers £60
Fuel for the day £80

Other cost "things that dont last long"

Tyres £200 can go in 1 day .... but you must bear in mind "the Duchess" does not stop all day! She is the first thing out on track and the last one back into the pits, and gets a pasting. She has some TLC coming to her soon!
Brake pads front £23 - last around 500-700 miles
Rear pads £17 - last around 1000 miles
Oil £17 and gets changed when it starts to look bad or 1000 miles
Oil filter £1.18p

So if you split that between 4 it's not that bad. I'm lucky that the guys that are in on this with me are all top notch guys.

Matt

Trackdaying on a budget, I love it.

Camping at the circuit the night before your trackday is another way to have a laugh and keep the costs down. This is possible at Donnington and Cadwell, not sure about any other circuits.