Track Day Car Budget?

[Cub911]

Guys,

I'm seeking some kind advice regarding the purchasing and running of a track day car. Myself and two of my friends are considering investing a road legal track toy. We are all reasonably young, keen petrolheads, but recognise the value in enjoying ourselves fully on the track as opposed to on the road.

To that end, we want to invest in a track toy, nothing too extravagant to begin with because we also want to use it to improve our mechanical knowledge on (obviously within reason) so don't want to shed an expensive tear everytime we 'foul up' in our youthful enthusiasm.

We have an indicative budget to purchase a suitable tool, but don't have much of an idea in terms of how much it will cost to develop it into a beginner / intermediate track machine. Equally, how much are the running costs - obviously it depends on how much you use it, but a useful steer would be great.

Thanks,

Cubbage

[alanw89]

I would be interested in the same kind of information aswell. seriously considering buying a small car to take off the road over winter and hopefully have it ready for a few track days next summer. Would also be a learning experience as ive never worked on a car, but thats half the reason I want one. Been looking around and reckon 1-1.5K on a car and same again on things like brakes suspension and a cage etc dont know if this is realistic or not though. budget would be really tight as im only on student pay from college.

cheers.

[Defcon5]

What you will want to do to it depends on what you start with, got any ideas?

[Cub911]

Apologies, more detail;

Capital Budget; Upto £5k, thats all in, so say £1 or 2k for car then £3k on goodies.

Revenue Budget; Probably around £800 a month during peak summer, then ramp it down in the winter.

So, I'd say around 2 trackdays a month in the summer max if time/budget permits such fun............

In terms of what we want to do...blat around a track with a healthy mix of twists and straights.....

Thanks,

Cubbage.

Edited by Cub911 on Sunday 16th August 17:25

[Defcon5]

Got a car in mind? Id spend more on the car than the mods

[WeirdNeville]

I'd say you can spend as much or as little as you want. That's part of the fun and also the pain of Trackdays - you can spend huge amounts if you get seriously into it and decide that you MUST have that upgrade/those tyres, etc etc.

Have you done any track days at all yet? Do you know your driving style and ability? Do you revel in corners or is it all about the straight line kick? And finally, how old are you, because many sporty cars may be out of your reach from a road insurance point of view until you're 21 or even 25, especially when you modify them for track use.

[Cub911]

Not got a car in mind, something small and lightish. We're trying to decide between the 3 of us, which as you can imagine is proving 'interesting'

I haven't done any track days yet, and so will be enrolling onto a few track based training courses prior to heading out on my own. Wouldn't profess to being the best driver since sliced bread, but there is some level of competency. I'm 26 and have owned an audi TT 225bhp, R53 John Cooper Works and a 996 C4S (and the requisite metro's in my youth), so insurance shouldn't be an issue. The mix of these has given me a reasonable appreciation of fwd/awd behaviour at speed, so i'd say i'm a little light of rwd drive experience, which is a sad deficiency but one itch i will hopefully scratch before i'm done.

In regard to straight line speed or the corners, a healthy mix. We don't want a straight line monster that wallows through the corners, but equally don't want a go-kart that struggles up the straight.

I'm happy to divide the budget however people think it works best, so if its best to get a £4k base then do £1k tweaking, fine by me. What do people think the minimum work that should be done initially is? Lightening, lowering and strengthening?

Up to your suggestions and guidance really, given its all new territory for me.

[alanw89]

One thing i was wondering about was trackday insurance. I'm 20 and at the moment I'm planning on a 205 gti, i doubt i'd get any reasonable quotes if at all. so is insurance a neccesity, i was sure i read somewhere that most trackdays you sign to say you wont claim from any other driver in an accident, or something along those lines. I could be wrong though. I would probably take the risk myself but would hate to get into the situation of hitting someone else and not having insurance.

[Defcon5]

Mods wise - make it stop, make it handle, make it go.

Id get a 106GTI/VTS, strip it, brakes from a 306 (or something that fits), together with some 888s or similar, then replace the suspension. Pretty much good to go!

[ricky s]

alanw89 said:

One thing i was wondering about was trackday insurance. I'm 20 and at the moment I'm planning on a 205 gti, i doubt i'd get any reasonable quotes if at all. so is insurance a neccesity, i was sure i read somewhere that most trackdays you sign to say you wont claim from any other driver in an accident, or something along those lines. I could be wrong though. I would probably take the risk myself but would hate to get into the situation of hitting someone else and not having insurance.

I recentley did my first track day at goodwood with focussed events, very well organised. I took out track insurance, which covered my car only, IE: I hit someone, my car insured, someone hit me, my car insured! 2k access and up to 20K impact damage only. no third party cover, £100 for the day. £100 insurance, £300 for the day, 120 litres of fuel, and general wear, expensive day out, but it was worth it, a great great day out, and will be going again. I might add, of all the other guys and wives there that I spoke to, none had taken the insurance out, that included 3 ferraris and a couple of porsches. Given the way the event was run, I would,nt bother with insurance in the future myself, but then you only need a absolute idiot, as the one in the DB9 recently posted here, of the bedford event, hitting a porsche, it would have to make you consider it.

[alanw89]

ricky s said:

alanw89 said:

One thing i was wondering about was trackday insurance. I'm 20 and at the moment I'm planning on a 205 gti, i doubt i'd get any reasonable quotes if at all. so is insurance a neccesity, i was sure i read somewhere that most trackdays you sign to say you wont claim from any other driver in an accident, or something along those lines. I could be wrong though. I would probably take the risk myself but would hate to get into the situation of hitting someone else and not having insurance.

I recentley did my first track day at goodwood with focussed events, very well organised. I took out track insurance, which covered my car only, IE: I hit someone, my car insured, someone hit me, my car insured! 2k access and up to 20K impact damage only. no third party cover, £100 for the day. £100 insurance, £300 for the day, 120 litres of fuel, and general wear, expensive day out, but it was worth it, a great great day out, and will be going again. I might add, of all the other guys and wives there that I spoke to, none had taken the insurance out, that included 3 ferraris and a couple of porsches. Given the way the event was run, I would,nt bother with insurance in the future myself, but then you only need a absolute idiot, as the one in the DB9 recently posted here, of the bedford event, hitting a porsche, it would have to make you consider it.

Thats good news, I wasnt sure what the done thing was regarding insurance. My budget would be pretty tight so an extra £100 or so a time would make quite a difference.

[GTWayne]

Look on here through the small adds and anywhere else you can think of too and buy an already converted car, you will save a small fortune on buying and modifying a standard car

[Paul.B]

GTWayne said:

Look on here through the small adds and anywhere else you can think of too and buy an already converted car, you will save a small fortune on buying and modifying a standard car

I don't always agree with the big man! But this time he is right. So far I have spent ......

Cost of car £4,500 (BMW E34 540 with Vortec Supercharger! Bought of Wayne himself)
Coil overs £850
Front Disks & Pads £650 (AP 330mm with 4-pots)
Rear Disk & Pads £250 (Std BMW)
Powerflex Bushes £270
x4 R888 Tyres £650
Seats £300
6 - point Belts £250
Roll cage £200 on tube - not fitted yet
Radiator £100
Other bits & bob's £300 (brake fluid, suspension bits, steering arms etc)

So I've spent nearly as much on improvements as I paid for the car. Still needed .....

Roll cage fitted £3 - 400
Spare wheels £300
x4 Wet tyres £600 (Goodyear F1's or equivelent)

I have also bought a trailer £1,250

Now you are looking at a £10-11k hobby before any track days, fuel, tow car fuel, replacement disks/pads/tyres or unforseen costs!!! Holly fluck, keep the missus away from this thread.

Try and find a converted car, it can work out so much cheaper than doing it from scratch. I must say though, I love working on the car. I know it inside out and look forward to my first day since the important mods have been done. Oulton Park this coming Friday then the BMW car club day at Donnington early next month.


Good luck

Paul.B

[DiscoColin]

Depending upon how much power you want vs how much you want to spend, I would say that you are looking for an MX5 or an E36 328 Beamer.

[T89 Callan]

I've built a MK3 Golf GTi track car for £1k and a slightly better specced E30 Beemer 325i Track car for £1.5k

it can be done very cheap if you're willing to get your hands dirty and spend a little extra time searching for bargain parts.

Here's the build thread for the E30

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

For £5k you have a lot more options but I would recomend going as cheap as possible on the first attempt and spending the remainder on the actual track days or keep some asided for future purchases.

Personally if I had a £5K budget I would do another cheapish E30 and then keep some money aside to do a 3.5 conversion from a 535i over the winter to make a real monster.

[t11ner]

Some good suggestions on there, especially the 106GTi and E30, both very affordable cars and straightforward to mod. If you do get a car that is already prepped, be ready to do a lot of alterations anyway, unless you land very lucky the jobs are never done to the standard that you would want .

One other obvious thought is to get a se7en of some kind. £5k would probably get you a Westfield or you may get one of the other brands for less (Caterham being a bit out of budget). Even if you spend more on the car here you will get the money back each time you take it out as it will cost you a lot less in brakes, tyres and fuel - I get about 17mpg on track in my Duratec Westie (a lot of cars are in single figures on track), part worn slicks last a season at £20 each and the brakes still look like they did at the start of the year!

HTH

Steve H

[mattdaniels]

Get something small and light - it will be cheaper to run as you won't chew the consumables so much.

Does it have to be road legal? Do you have a tow car? For 5K you could probably pick up a BJ trailer and a Pug 205. That would be one way around the insurance issue give your age and situation. As others have said, on a trackday your road policy almost certainly won't cover you anyway (check the wording), and trackday insurance is strictly for damage to your own car (so if someone bumps into you, you cough up for the damage to your own car even if it's not your fault, and vice versa).

If it has to be road legal then TBH pretty much anything in budget that's small and light will do.

[alanw89]

GTWayne said:

Look on here through the small adds and anywhere else you can think of too and buy an already converted car, you will save a small fortune on buying and modifying a standard car

I dont know about the OP but for me half the reason I want a track car is to get my hands dirty getting it ready, no doubt the more expensive option in the long run though.

[T89 Callan]

alanw89 said:

GTWayne said:

Look on here through the small adds and anywhere else you can think of too and buy an already converted car, you will save a small fortune on buying and modifying a standard car

I dont know about the OP but for me half the reason I want a track car is to get my hands dirty getting it ready, no doubt the more expensive option in the long run though.

I loved doing my second track car, half the fun is the build.

Also when you build it yourself you have the piece of mind that it has all been done properly and not bodged.

Finally when you build yourself you can do it cheaper just by taking the time to look for cheaper/discout/used parts, I have got some great deals on my E30 build like a steering rack for a Tenner (cheers to Sniff Diesel) seats frames and mounts for £65 (ebay) and a 325i engine for £150 (ebay again) etc etc etc, so you can save quite a bit of money doing it yourself.

[E36]

My friend and I built a track car for £190...

£100 for the car.
£60 for lowering springs.
£30 for an induction kit.
£0 to strip out the rear.

Okay so it's not the most capable or quick car on the planet but this just proves that you can spend whatever you want on a track car.

Would you consider a beginner/intermediate track car to need a roll cage/coilovers/huge brakes or would you think it okay with a basic suspension kit, some uprated brake pads and the rear seats stripped out?

Stick it up in Readers' Cars once you've got one.