Best value track time with car included

[GTR LUST]

Hi,
I'm very tempted to get myself a car for track days, but having only done a couple of days I figure I might be best to purchase a day with car included.
I'm not after any particular car to use, but rear wheel drive would be much preferred.
What I really want is instructed time on the track to help me become a better driver. Lots of companies seem to base these kinds of days on the 'experience' of driving a certain car for a very limited amount of time, ideally I want around 4 hours of track time, with around half of that with an instructor.
I'm based South of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, and wonder what is available local to me, although I'm happy to drive a couple of hours too!
Thanks in advance for the advise
Paul

[spyderman8]

You can hire a decent instructor and a race-ready car for around £1k for a whole day (on top of the track day fee). Sharing would make it cheaper and you'd still get quite a lot of time. What sort of car are you looking at? I can point you to a Lotus Elise or a Porsche Boxster and excellent instructors.

Chris.

[jonnyleroux]

We're all over this Paul. You're unlikely to get anything cheaper (on a £ per minute basis) than renting a Caterham R300 from us. The standard rental includes 1 x 20 minute session with the instructor, but additional sessions can be booked online at the same time so you can achieve what you want to quite easily.

cheers,

Jonny
BaT

[gruffalo]

My choice would be hire a car from BaT and book Mike Cooper to sit in the seat next to you all day, he is brilliant and I promise you will not believe where he can get you in a day.

http://www.drivertuition.com/mike_cooper.htm

[patently]

I looked into this as a precursor to joining the Caterham Academy. You're right that most companies want to put you in an "experience" car for 10 mins and let you pootle round with limited revs with someone in the passenger seat to stop you doing anything naughty/fun.

If you want to spend the day or most of it in the rental car and also get genuine instruction on driving it then the principal candidates are Johnny and the BatCats (see above) or Opentrack. Dave at Opentrack has a Tiger Avon which he hires out at £750 for the day; that includes both the trackday cost (if you hire it for one of his days) and tuition. I'd recommend both, tbh.

[Far Cough]

GTR LUST said:

Hi,
I'm very tempted to get myself a car for track days, but having only done a couple of days I figure I might be best to purchase a day with car included.
I'm not after any particular car to use, but rear wheel drive would be much preferred.
What I really want is instructed time on the track to help me become a better driver. Lots of companies seem to base these kinds of days on the 'experience' of driving a certain car for a very limited amount of time, ideally I want around 4 hours of track time, with around half of that with an instructor.
I'm based South of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, and wonder what is available local to me, although I'm happy to drive a couple of hours too!
Thanks in advance for the advise
Paul

Have a look here buddy ... http://www.opentrack.co.uk/track-car-hire/

[Neil - YVM]

I would suggest hiring a Tiger kit car from either Dave at Opentrack, or Simon at Trackdaycarhire, both their cars are well prepared, and good fun. Cost is approx £750 for summer, which i think includes the trackday cost, and some tuition.

Edited by Neil - YVM on Wednesday 25th June 17:15

[src1971]

I've hired from Opentrack twice this year. Great fun and fantastic value for money. £750 for the day which includes the track day itself and tuition. They are based in Cambs I think so fairly local to you.

[Oibren85]

With the others, Dave at opentrack runs a great track day and his kit car looks to be a top bit of kit at a great price. Highly recommend.

[John stevens]

I can highly recommend a great company. Trackday car hire are brilliant. Everything you need is there! http://www.trackdaycarhire.co.uk click on the link and start the experience!!

[SamT]

Can highly recommend Dave at Open Track, not only are his trackdays one of the best around, that Tiger is a proper giggle and excellent VFM

[TypeRTom]

Something cheaper and local to you that might be worth a look:
http://www.bccarsmotorsport.co.uk/
Not hired one myself but have met the owner (Brian Chandler) and he's a good guy.

[radical78]

javelin trackdays woodbridge must be close to you

[Murray993]

I have hired cars quite a few times from the companies mentioned on here. My advice would be to go with someone else and share the day. You will still get plenty of track time and you can go twice for the money of one day. Plus having someone else you know with you really enhances the experience.

You have to be a little careful though and quite firm with the companies. Half the time I have been out the car has broken down and either needed repairing or twice replacing due to mechanical faults. Its just the nature of the game.

Whilst I am not big fan of BATs customer service I would say they organise a good day. Car and track normally come in around 900 - 1000 and even sharing the day you feel like you have had enough time on track by the end of the day. I started off on a day with sessions rather than open pit at goodwood, was one of the best days I can ever remember.

From where you are Rockingham, Bedford or Silverstone I imagine are closest. If you havent been before I found Bedford the easier track as Silverstone is very fast and Rockingham has walls everywhere.

The only bad option would be not to do it in my opinion.

[clarki]

Hired from BaT earlier this week and it was worth every penny.

Sharing the car is deffo a good suggestion. There were 2 of us on the day and we both had more than enough track time - its hard work in an R300 on a hot day - despite plenty of water breaks.

We did bedford to get used to the car. Coming from 5 years in an R26R thought it best to get used to RWD at speed somewhere forgiving first. Car didnt miss a beat, very quick (think a GT3RS and exige 260 cup were about the only things to pass us on the day).

We'll be at donington in one next month for sure. If you can get someone reliable to share the car with it is probably the best way of going trackdaying tbh.

[GTR LUST]

Thanks for all your input, I think splitting the day between 2 is an excellent idea as keeping concentrated for a whole day would be difficult. I must admit it it pretty expensive, but I can understand why!! Will ask a couple of mates to see who is keenest to do this. At these prices I'm tempted to get myself a cheap MX5 and commit to a few days. Thanks again.

[GTR LUST]

It seems most of these companies have an excess in case of accident too which I didn't expect!

[james_gt3rs]

What car do you drive now? Any reason why you can't do a normal track day in that. Some airfield days cost less than £150 for a full day!

[jonnyleroux]

GTR LUST said:

It seems most of these companies have an excess in case of accident too which I didn't expect!

to be fair, this isn't red-letter-day cr4p you're talking about here - you don't have an instructor in the passenger seat with dual controls and a kill-switch - you are totally in control and with that amount of freedom comes an expected level of responsibility.

we have guys who rent our R300's and get pretty close to race pace in them - it's a far cry from the £199 experience days.

Jonny
BaT

[boxsey]

GTR LUST said:

It seems most of these companies have an excess in case of accident too which I didn't expect!

I guess they don't want people thinking it's not my car and therefore it doesn't matter if I bin it. Which sounds fair enough to me.