Track Days

Anonymous · June 11, 2004, 16:29

Can anyone recommend a good track day in the south somewhere – something where I don't have to use my own car and will get instructions from a pro (or someone who tells me he's a pro)?

Something like an Elise and a introduction to race driving.

Peter Wright · June 11, 2004, 17:00

Quote from: "odub"Can anyone recommend a good track day in the south somewhere – something where I don't have to use my own car and will get instructions from a pro (or someone who tells me he's a pro)?

Something like an Elise and a introduction to race driving.

Cars are available for hire at most track days with instructors
See here

E-mail: e http://www.bookatrack.com m
Events

Tyres

Products

Bit pricey but does include insurance

Pete

Anonymous · June 11, 2004, 17:04

i was rather hoping to have some instruction before racing. Although i know things like "don't break in corners" etc. I've never actually put them into practice.

Strapping myself into a caterham with a load or racers would not be good for my health!

£500 is way beyond by budget also,

mph · June 13, 2004, 08:42

Quote from: "odub"i was rather hoping to have some instruction before racing. Although i know things like "don't break in corners" etc. I've never actually put them into practice.

Strapping myself into a caterham with a load or racers would not be good for my health!

£500 is way beyond by budget also,

Track days are not racing. "Racing" and "timing" are simply words that get used. Don't worry about being a novice - Bookatrack.com have the highest level of safety and awaresness of any of the UK companies.

For somewhere down South, motorsportevents.co.uk do a few circuits. I've used them once and they're ok. Keevil for £99 is as cheap as it gets.

juansolo · June 13, 2004, 09:36

Quote from: "Peter Wright"Bit pricey but does include insurance

The best way to do it os to go halves with someone else. It's actually pretty reasonable that way. TD's are not cheap at the best of times and when you take into account that you're not paying for tyres, brakes, wear, fuel and maintenance it actually works out as very good value. Not to mention you don't have to store/trailer/spanner a complete nail in between events. Just don't get over confident and stuff it or buzz the engine as there is about 1k of excess specifically there to try and stop people doing that.

Oh and a bit of a warning: The first time you drive a Caterfield you will want one. The first time you drive one around a track that want quickly becomes *need*. FWIW within a month of hooning a Caterham Graduate (<100hp, live axle, 5spd, no lsd) around a circuit I'd sold my MX-5, bought a Citroen tow car and was lining up a Westfield to buy.

An addictive and very, very expensive hobby...

I bloody love it.

juansolo · June 13, 2004, 09:50

Quote from: "odub"i was rather hoping to have some instruction before racing. Although i know things like "don't break in corners" etc. I've never actually put them into practice.

Strapping myself into a caterham with a load or racers would not be good for my health!

You can drive as slow as you like and you'll be ok as long as you keep an eye on what's in your mirrors and let anyone by who's going faster than you.

Personally I'd recommend doing a few airfield days first to really get a handle on car control. Throw it around and get it wrong. You'll soon sort out what to do and what not. This helps massively when you get to a circuit and fluff something. You don't have a lot of time or space to sort yourself out on a track and it's better if you get all the gooning out of your system on an airfield.

Gooning can be good. It really teaches you how to feel what's going on with your car and react instinctively. Then you want to move onto a track as it'll be a lot less intimidating. For a start you'll be much more confident with the car and by this time your awareness as to what's going on around you will be much higher. Leaving you to concentrate on learning trackcraft (braking, lines, balancing the throttle, etc). Much more rewarding and much safer this way as you'll already know how much space is required to gather a car up when you get it wrong and therefore it should stop you from getting over enthusiastic and ending up making a very expensive mistake.

My last piece of advice is: It's not a race. There is nothing to be gained by being faster than anyone else on a trackday. If this is what you want you should be going racing. Trackdays are all about relaxed fun and improvement. If you go in with this attitude it's safer than driving on the roads as the only person who's going to crash your car is you. Drive within your limits on a track and you will not damage your car. It's as simple as that.

Anonymous · June 14, 2004, 08:58

Thanks guys,

Some good advice, my girlfriends gonna kill me, we're meant to be saving for a mortgage.

Going to have to give it a go.

must not but a r500, must not buy a r500

juansolo · June 15, 2004, 10:42

Wise, an R500 is not a car to be bought lightly. The engine is £12k to replace and requires a rebuild costing £2k every 3000 track miles (if it lasts that long) or about 10,000 road only miles. Not to mention that to actually make it work right on a circuit there are thing that need to be done to it meaning that the weight of 460 'Caterkilos' is actually 499 kgs in the real world. Also that when it was released and acutally producing enough power to get the famed 500bhp/ton it was reving to near as damnit 10,000 rpm and going pop on a regular basis hence the dropping of the red line and subsequent drop in power to 230bhp. All up meaning you're actually driving around in an R460 that in reality costs around £35k and runs a fragile pure race engine. There was a reason that Caterham ran an R400 at LeMans, not a R500...

May as well buy a Radical for that cash if out and out speed is your goal.

The other Caterhams are ok if you can stomach running a k-series (the only engine I truely despise). Alternatively you could buy the chassis and fit a Duratec or get really creative and fit a K20A Honda.

Or for a third of the price you could fit the awesome F20C Honda into a Westfield chassis and have R500 crushing performance in an engine built as standard to produce that kind of power and do over 100,000 miles...

Or for less money still you could stick a cheap as chips Zetec into a Sylva Striker chassis (the best 7 style chassis there is), spec it up to the hilt as a bullet proof race car.

Lots of options when it comes to 7-esque kits and the fastest is not neccessarily the best (or the fastest for that matter...). Certainly when it comes to trackdays that put a greater strain on the car than most forms of racing.

Whoa, don't know what brought that lot on! s:oops: :oops: s:oops:

heathstimpson · June 16, 2004, 07:00

If you're interested in Radicals a mate of mine runs a SR4. They are pretty rapid.

Anonymous · June 17, 2004, 11:35

Well it's not exactly a track day, but I've booked a 'driving experience' at Silverstone, driving an Elise (cos it was the closest thing to a '2 I could find).

2 hours, about 25-30 minutes of actual driving, bit of instruction. Hot Dog, £100 Jobsa.

juansolo · June 18, 2004, 09:59

Quote from: "heathstimpson"If you're interested in Radicals a mate of mine runs a SR4. They are pretty rapid.

Not really my thang as I'm not really into wings (I prefer things a little more lo-tech). Mind bogglingly quick and pretty things though.

Anonymous · June 22, 2004, 18:52

You could try m http://www.x-factor-uk.com m they are a new company started up, got a couple of Noble M12's and a modded up Focus RS and me there sometimes in my Supra giving passenger rides! Have a butchers on there website for more info.

Cheers