Circuit de Catalunya track day questions
Discussion
Hi,
I've booked a few sessions to drive my own car at Circuit de Catalunya next month. I booked direct with the circuit, and it's for a few half hour sessions through the day. It's not a dedicated, open pit lane track day like you'd get if you booked through a regular TD organiser.
I guess it's a long shot, but hoping there's someone else from the UK that may have done this before and can answer a few questions...
Will there be any issue in using a UK registered car on track there?
Their website has some details about licence requirements (I think it says a Spanish driving licence, or FIA licence). I've got my UK licence, plus a MSUK National B race licence. I'd be surprised if they didn't accept at least one of these, but I can't find a definite answer.
Other than that, I'm assuming safety wise it's the same as UK days? i.e. helmet + long sleeves and jeans is fine?
I did contact the track with these questions but not had a reply in a couple of weeks.
Cheers
I've booked a few sessions to drive my own car at Circuit de Catalunya next month. I booked direct with the circuit, and it's for a few half hour sessions through the day. It's not a dedicated, open pit lane track day like you'd get if you booked through a regular TD organiser.
I guess it's a long shot, but hoping there's someone else from the UK that may have done this before and can answer a few questions...
Will there be any issue in using a UK registered car on track there?
Their website has some details about licence requirements (I think it says a Spanish driving licence, or FIA licence). I've got my UK licence, plus a MSUK National B race licence. I'd be surprised if they didn't accept at least one of these, but I can't find a definite answer.
Other than that, I'm assuming safety wise it's the same as UK days? i.e. helmet + long sleeves and jeans is fine?
I did contact the track with these questions but not had a reply in a couple of weeks.
Cheers
So I did this on the Saturday just gone so thought I'd update this.
That aside, I didn't actually get much track time, but that was my fault! I overslept and missed the morning session. I caught the last 10 minutes of the next session. The session after that I got half way through the session and... I ran out of petrol. (Low single digits MPG, half a tank doesn't stay half a tank for long!).
On the final session I overheated the brakes and had to ease off and do several cool down laps. No brake fade, but very hot and set an alarm off in the car.
The track time I did have was great though, albeit...brief. Such a good track and want to go back for a full track day next year.
As I said, no safety briefing, but driving standards were surprisingly good. You can overtake anywhere, left, right, corners, whatever, just do it safely. Everyone I saw had very good awareness and was moving out of the way very deliberately and making space. No egos, slower and faster drivers behaved themselves.
One of my other issues was I had GoPros but the first couple of sessions the footage was unusable (top tip: check where the camera is pointing...).
I got the last session on video, but it was only from the 1080p camera and its massively over exposed.
Anyway, it's on YouTube- it's also not going very fast! Driving at 7/10ths or so to just get used to the track.
First half of the session, with lots of traffic to get through:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSnMLZGMytc
Second half of the session with some cleaner (but still slow) laps:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A6zP_ZsoLE
mx5tom said:
Will there be any issue in using a UK registered car on track there?
No problems. They said it needed to have a valid MOT and be in perfect condition, and also mentioned basic scrutineering, but there were no checks of the car on the day. Not even a safety briefing! mx5tom said:
Their website has some details about licence requirements (I think it says a Spanish driving licence, or FIA licence). I've got my UK licence, plus a MSUK National B race licence. I'd be surprised if they didn't accept at least one of these, but I can't find a definite answer.
A UK driving licence is fine.mx5tom said:
Other than that, I'm assuming safety wise it's the same as UK days? i.e. helmet + long sleeves and jeans is fine?
There was no briefing or information, so I'm not sure what the rules actually were, but I wore a helmet, long sleeves and jeans as I would on a UK day an no issues. Other people seemed to be the same.That aside, I didn't actually get much track time, but that was my fault! I overslept and missed the morning session. I caught the last 10 minutes of the next session. The session after that I got half way through the session and... I ran out of petrol. (Low single digits MPG, half a tank doesn't stay half a tank for long!).
On the final session I overheated the brakes and had to ease off and do several cool down laps. No brake fade, but very hot and set an alarm off in the car.
The track time I did have was great though, albeit...brief. Such a good track and want to go back for a full track day next year.
As I said, no safety briefing, but driving standards were surprisingly good. You can overtake anywhere, left, right, corners, whatever, just do it safely. Everyone I saw had very good awareness and was moving out of the way very deliberately and making space. No egos, slower and faster drivers behaved themselves.
One of my other issues was I had GoPros but the first couple of sessions the footage was unusable (top tip: check where the camera is pointing...).
I got the last session on video, but it was only from the 1080p camera and its massively over exposed.
Anyway, it's on YouTube- it's also not going very fast! Driving at 7/10ths or so to just get used to the track.
First half of the session, with lots of traffic to get through:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSnMLZGMytc
Second half of the session with some cleaner (but still slow) laps:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A6zP_ZsoLE
Edited by mx5tom on Monday 2nd December 17:15
magooagain said:
It's a track I would love to drive.
Could the fact that you overslept be that you may have missed the briefing?
Ha I guess that's a possibility! But I don't think so- as the days are sold in 30 minute sessions, I could have legitimately not bought one in the morning and just done a single session in the afternoon.Could the fact that you overslept be that you may have missed the briefing?
I'm going to try and go back this Sunday and get some more track time, so will see if it's any different.
MAVROS said:
Did they do any noise testing?
No noise testing. None of the cars I saw on the day were that loud though, so maybe (like a lot of UK days) they just test if they think you're going to fail.They also had bikes on the same day (different sessions) which were much louder, but unsure if they were testing those.
It all seemed pretty laid back compared to UK days.
Went back yesterday for another couple of sessions.
I got there when they opened and can confirm there is no safely briefing or anything like that. Just rock up, pay on the day (if you haven't pre-booked) and off you go.
This day was a lot busier (same number of cars on track I think, but a lot of cool stuff in the car park waiting for other sessions), and first time I've ever seen crowds spectating on a track day! And like before, driving standards were really high. Some very slow cars, some fast cars, and everything in between and from what I saw everyone had really good awareness, moved out of the way, and although I saw a few people have the odd little off there didn't seem to be any issues.
Had some fun with a Corvette Z06. Very messy, scrappy laps but was fun having a little chase with him:
https://youtu.be/dXPnuoT8fDI
Have some decent footage of other sessions but currently uploading/processing. That's going to be it for this year as heading back to the UK, but if you ever have the chance to drive this track definitely do it, it's incredible! I'll be coming back next year for certain.
The half hour session thing would be great but for me, 15 mins and the car starts complaining, so by the time I spend 5-10 minutes cooling down it's nearly time to come back in. I'd love to do a regular open pit lane day here where I feel less pressured on allocated time, but either way it's a great way to try a track.
I got there when they opened and can confirm there is no safely briefing or anything like that. Just rock up, pay on the day (if you haven't pre-booked) and off you go.
This day was a lot busier (same number of cars on track I think, but a lot of cool stuff in the car park waiting for other sessions), and first time I've ever seen crowds spectating on a track day! And like before, driving standards were really high. Some very slow cars, some fast cars, and everything in between and from what I saw everyone had really good awareness, moved out of the way, and although I saw a few people have the odd little off there didn't seem to be any issues.
Had some fun with a Corvette Z06. Very messy, scrappy laps but was fun having a little chase with him:
https://youtu.be/dXPnuoT8fDI
Have some decent footage of other sessions but currently uploading/processing. That's going to be it for this year as heading back to the UK, but if you ever have the chance to drive this track definitely do it, it's incredible! I'll be coming back next year for certain.
The half hour session thing would be great but for me, 15 mins and the car starts complaining, so by the time I spend 5-10 minutes cooling down it's nearly time to come back in. I'd love to do a regular open pit lane day here where I feel less pressured on allocated time, but either way it's a great way to try a track.
Edited by mx5tom on Monday 9th December 10:40
Tyres are Michelin Pilot Sport 4S. They're great road tyres but they were overheating a lot on track and grip dropped off quickly.
I dropped the pressures a lot but same issue. To be expected of road tyres really, plus I was overdriving the car and also purposefully sliding the rear a lot which isn't going to help with grip!
Thought about going for track tyres but this is 99.9% a road car and they're great on the road, don't want to go too grippy and ruin the fun.
I dropped the pressures a lot but same issue. To be expected of road tyres really, plus I was overdriving the car and also purposefully sliding the rear a lot which isn't going to help with grip!
Thought about going for track tyres but this is 99.9% a road car and they're great on the road, don't want to go too grippy and ruin the fun.
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