Looking to start Track Days

[BackEndOut]

Hi,

Does anyone know of anywhere to look for people to share track days with? I am looking to get into it, however, I would like to split the costs as it can get quite expensive and don't know anyone personally who would like to get involved. I live in Norwich, so Snetterton would be the main track, but still open to others.

[shalmaneser]

How would you go about splitting a track day? Sharing a car with a stranger seems a risky move...

You're best off going for an evening trackday at somewhere like Bedford for around £50 if you're super hard up but the cost of the trackday can easily be the cheapest bit - you might well need new brake pads or tyres afterwards of yours are low, and you'll be using a lot of fuel getting to and going around the track at a minimum!

[motorhole]

shalmaneser said:

How would you go about splitting a track day? Sharing a car with a stranger seems a risky move...

You're best off going for an evening trackday at somewhere like Bedford for around £50 if you're super hard up but the cost of the trackday can easily be the cheapest bit - you might well need new brake pads or tyres afterwards of yours are low, and you'll be using a lot of fuel getting to and going around the track at a minimum!

Deffo. I think a lot of newcomers underestimate the fuel usage for a trackday - very easy for me to burn over £100 in fuel in the course of a day. Spread tyre and brake pad wear over the number of trackdays I'll get out of them and that's another £120 - and I'm lucky enough to get about 6 trackdays out of a set of tyres & pads. Many cars consume these faster.

Then that's still not accounting for brake fluid and oil change intervals (2 & 4 trackdays respectively)...and whether or not you want to insure your car for the day (typically £60-£80 - and I don't).

So the entry fee is typically less than the cost of wear, tear and consumables.

Edit: I should add that the cheapest way to share is to get a car and share it with a trusted friend or two. Of course there are arrangements that need to be made (e.g. in the event of crashing it/blowing it up who pays?) but plenty do this successfully.

Edited by motorhole on Thursday 16th May 13:47

[Black_S3]

I toyed with the idea for years and could never make sense of it as if you’re on a tight budget sharing a car brings bills when you might not want them... If it’s your own car you just don’t use it that month if your disposable money is called upon for the likes of holidays.

Best route to start cheaply imo is an old french hatch like a 172, saxo or 106 , give it an oil change, fresh brake fluid, pads and 4 matching tyres and you can be pretty much good to start having fun for less than £1500...I came to the conclusion if I needed to go half on an initial outlay of £1500 I couldn’t afford the admission/fuel costs regularly enough to justify having a share in a car and I would end up subsidising the maintenance of it.

[motorhole]

That's a very fair point, but if keeping the car road legal for driving to/from track, insurance, MOT and tax can be a big part of the running cost, particularly for younger drivers. That's where sharing can be helpful

[Black_S3]

when it comes to tax, mot and insurance for a track only car a trailer can pay for itself pretty quickly, especially for younger drivers. That can be a pretty big outlay so when starting off so if the car is kept fairly simple without mods it gets through mots easier and it’s also possible to use one day policies to get you to and from the track cheaply.... The younger people struggling for insurance can always rope in an older friend or relative to drive the car to the track for them for the first couple of seasons .

[QBee]

It's not a cheap hobby.

[E-bmw]

Just in consumables the cost is excruciating!

Tyres (even cheapo 2nd hand decent tyres) around £80/day.

Brake pads (ones that are worth buying & save in the long run) around £50/day

Petrol (at 8 mpg on track) around £75/day.

Entry fee around £150 - 300/day

+ car costs + repair costs + servicing at double the normal frequency...……..

Get ready for bankruptcy!

[Scribble BM]

As said above, make sure you are aware of costs before doing a track day. There’s no point forming out £3k on track day car if you can’t afford to track it.

If you aren’t planning on doing many days in the year, either go on a BMW advanced driving day or similar. Alternatively save the investment on a track car and just spend it on tracking and maintaining your daily.

I run an M140i as a daily and a day at Anglesey circuit cost me the following:

Track Day - £150
2 tanks of fuel - £120
Track day insurance - £140

That’s £410 before you even consider wear and tear!

[QBee]

If we were realistic about the cost of our track cars, we would toddle along to Book-a-track with a mate and share one of their Caterhams for the day.
All expenses paid, just under a grand for the day - so shared two ways, around £500 each. There is no way you will each want to drive more than four hours per track day, so it's just the car that gets a hard time.

All you have to do is get there and get home.....

....and not bin it on track - there is a £2500 excess on any damage to their car.

All this might have changed since they sold out to Ginetta, but that was where they were at last time i looked.

[Black_S3]

E-bmw said:

Tyres (even cheapo 2nd hand decent tyres) around £80/day.

Brake pads (ones that are worth buying & save in the long run) around £50/day

Are people really getting through a set of tyres and pads every 2-3 track days? I can sort of see how a gtr could do it, or potentially the likes of an m3 which I’m guessing by your username could be what you run but sub 1000kg stuff like stripped clios surely must be getting 10+ days out of a proper set of pads?

[JayK12]

I recently moved back to track days after about 4 years away. Previously I ran a Civic Cup car and costs were approx:

Car £6500
Towbar £350

Trackday circa £300 (some a cheaper some are more)
Fuel £80 - £100
Trailer rental £50

The car extremely light and cheap to run. Running on Toyo R888s, standard sized brakes but EBC heat treated discs with Carbon Lorraine pads and Castrol SRF fluid. The car would easily do 40 minute stints and the wear on tyres and brakes was low. No MOT, or Insurance. easy and cost effective to work on if required. Obviously you have to expect some issues as your on track, we had a gearbox failure which was in the end was a £500 fix.

I do think getting a cheap hot hatch is really a good way to start. Things as mentioned like the Clio or Civic Type R. And having it as a dedicated track car is even better, you can lighten it up, sticky tyres, track brake pads and your off.

Edited by JayK12 on Tuesday 21st May 12:11

[E-bmw]

Black_S3 said:

E-bmw said:

Tyres (even cheapo 2nd hand decent tyres) around £80/day.

Brake pads (ones that are worth buying & save in the long run) around £50/day

Are people really getting through a set of tyres and pads every 2-3 track days? I can sort of see how a gtr could do it, or potentially the likes of an m3 which I’m guessing by your username could be what you run but sub 1000kg stuff like stripped clios surely must be getting 10+ days out of a proper set of pads?

Put sh!t pads like EBC & you will be lucky to get a day out of a front set for £115 (328 at 1170 kg all up, 4 -pot APs at the front) or go £230 & get 6 days out of them, no brainer really.

[the_stoat]

Black_S3 said:

Are people really getting through a set of tyres and pads every 2-3 track days? I can sort of see how a gtr could do it, or potentially the likes of an m3 which I’m guessing by your username could be what you run but sub 1000kg stuff like stripped clios surely must be getting 10+ days out of a proper set of pads?

560KG car and I use a set of pads every 3 track days. Before switching to used slicks I would also get 3 days out of Yokohama AO48 mediums. The pads I use are classified as endurance racing by the manufacturer, Wilwood Poly As, I once tried DS2500 and went from new to metal by 3pm. Yes I did bed the DS2500 in as per the instructions before use.

[Munkeyfeet]

It depends on the car, a group of v6 exige owners are attending snetterton on Tuesday 30th July if you want to join us.

If you are going to share anything, share pro tuition.

A lotus will use rear tyres up every 4-6 track days - mainly due to them being heat cycled.

Brakes will last 10+ track days quite happily.

Fuel though, easy to spend £100-150 for a day on track.

Classic line will cover you for unlimited uk track days as standard and not require your no claims on the car. They are also the cheapest for me which is a bonus.

[motorhole]

the_stoat said:

560KG car and I use a set of pads every 3 track days. Before switching to used slicks I would also get 3 days out of Yokohama AO48 mediums. The pads I use are classified as endurance racing by the manufacturer, Wilwood Poly As, I once tried DS2500 and went from new to metal by 3pm. Yes I did bed the DS2500 in as per the instructions before use.

To be fair, DS2500 aren't a proper trackpad. I've been using Carbon Lorraine RC5+ on a 1050 kg car and still about 12 mm of material left after 4 trackdays. 3 trackdays on the R888rs and provided they are rotated, there's another 2 days on those too I reckon.

[veehexx]

interesting.
i've done abingdon a few times in my FK2 typeR.

if it werent for overheating pads, running it is a bit cheaper than others have mentioned.
less than 1 tank of fuel for the entire trackday - probably get 1h drive + full day on track and be empty at home time, but i fill up at lunch since there's plenty of time to spare.

guestimating current wear rates, i'd say brakes will last 2-3 years which includes 9k/yr road and 3 trackdays /yr.
A-plan insurance cover me for road and track, with +£250 for 5 trackday cover.

tyres, probably get 2-3 trackdays without rotation on the same circuit (outter edge takes a beating), so with rotations it should give better life.

i'm budgeting to go with track & on-the-day costs + £100/event for the wear and tear. offsetting a fair bit of the costs with brakes, clutch and tyres just for owning the car in the first place on road.

[Jamescrs]

Black_S3 said:

Are people really getting through a set of tyres and pads every 2-3 track days? I can sort of see how a gtr could do it, or potentially the likes of an m3 which I’m guessing by your username could be what you run but sub 1000kg stuff like stripped clios surely must be getting 10+ days out of a proper set of pads?

I don't agree with this personally, I use an MX-5 on track so a pretty light car and not really hard on brakes due to its relatively low power but I on average do a track day a month from February to October so say 8-9 track days a year and I can last that on one set of EBC Yellow pads and one or two sets of tyres which on 15 inch wheels aren't expensive, say £60 a corner. with occasional road use too it covers 5k a year roughly.

heavier more powerful cars will no doubt go through the consumables much faster but its all relative.

Edit to say before the MX-5 I had a Mk6 Fiesta ST and the costs were fairly similar

[Black_S3]

Jamescrs said:

I don't agree with this personally, I use an MX-5 on track so a pretty light car and not really hard on brakes due to its relatively low power but I on average do a track day a month from February to October so say 8-9 track days a year and I can last that on one set of EBC Yellow pads and one or two sets of tyres which on 15 inch wheels aren't expensive, say £60 a corner. with occasional road use too it covers 5k a year roughly.

heavier more powerful cars will no doubt go through the consumables much faster but its all relative.

Edit to say before the MX-5 I had a Mk6 Fiesta ST and the costs were fairly similar

Yeah that’s more like the wear I’ve experienced which leaves me thinking the people who can eat a set of higher end road pads/low end track pads in a day are probably driving way harder than someone will be when they’re starting out or have cars that are destroying parts that aren’t up to the job. That said I’m not exactly fast and maybe a more experienced/better driver may have problems that don’t seem to effect me.

[E-bmw]

I 100% agree with that & accept that I am HEAVY on brakes as I am proper trying (not always succeeding!) when on track but brakes are one of those things that fall into the category "better be looking at than for!" also if your car doesn't go it isn't much fun, if it doesn't stop! That is wholly different!

So I would always recommend "going nuclear" straight away for me.