[Closed] Day driving fast on a track suggestions?

I think it'll largely come down to budget, tbh. You pay enough you can have what you want.

Caterham/Exige - easier to pick up than some supercar (ie, much easier to go quickly on most circuits with limited knowledge).

But prepare for big ££££££ if you want extended time in the driver's seat - I got three laps and it was over in a flash.
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Or the other option is to take your own car on an open day (for example Harewood Hill Climb do taught days where you have the whole morning driving, then classes, then an afternoon learning from your many mistakes). But I am not sure they will supply a car (although other locations may do so).

[b]NOT[/b] me - this is a picture I took at a race meeting...
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Don't want a supercar. I'd rather spend all afternoon in a Fiesta than have three paltry laps in a supercar. Is that likely to be super expensive? How much could I expect to pay?

I think all the "red letter day" things tend to be a few laps under controlled (i.e. boringly slow) conditions in whatever previous-generation supercar is to hand. For balls (or tits) out fun, reckon you'd be hard pressed to beat a day's go-karting. Helluva lot cheaper too.

I could be interested in that.

Price/package will be similar in an Exige as a supercar (maybe 10/20% cheaper).

But as said above - pay enough and get whatever you want.

I wouldn't suggest go-karting as it is a completely different experience to driving any car.

Hi again molegrips

As others have said it depends on your budget and if you want any training or not. But if you can afford it you wont go far wrong hiring a Caterham and doing a trackday with bookatrack.

http://bookatrack.com/

You will get lots of track time, they are prety easy to drive super fun but also very fast if you get it right. They will easily keep up with most supercars in the right hands.

If you want any more info let me know.

Bazzer

PS downside is its very addictive 🙂

Re: 'Red Letter Days' (other packages are available)

When I last looked at these, it was common for gift companies to simply resell a track's offerings at a premium. It might well be cheaper to contact a local track directly and see what they offer.

This'll give you a good buzz

http://www.haslamraceschool.com/

I'd rather spend all afternoon in a Fiesta than have three paltry laps in a supercar

Then why not do it in one of your cars?

Hmm.. motorbiking - could be also interesting...

Then why not do it in one of your cars?

Cos they'd both be worse than a Fiesta on a track 🙂

Prius would run out of battery after about 10 minutes of being flogged, then you end up with a 76bhp car, and the Passat rolls too much.

Maybe I should ask for Eibach springs for my birthday 🙂

What are Eibach springs....

They will easily keep up with most supercars in the right hands.

PP does backies on quiet roads 😉
HTH

Eibach is a company that makes aftermarket springs for cars. So you fit them (and possibly shocks too) and your car handles better - then you can take it on a track day 🙂

No.

Formula Ford day at castle combe was good..

got tuition before, then out on your own in a single seater! no engine rev limit - just 'advised' limit

great fun!
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not me... in the pic btw

With laps/£ in mind, and not using your own car, I don't think you can beat the Vauxhall VXR days.

I went to Anglesey a month or so ago and got 20+ laps for £99 driving the Corsa, Astra and Insignia VXRs for half a day. Was a real good hoot.

That sounds a good deal.

Pity you have to drive Vauxhalls though. How did you manage with the corners?

Ooh sounds good, £99.

Caterham experience days at Brands Hatch. I got 3 x 6 lap sessions for £150. All instructed, with factory rev limiter waaaaay up and not neccessary as they are V loud when you are right on it and up around 6000rpm.
To be fair tho , buy a 205 / 309 1.9 GTI . remove spare wheel and rear seats, make sure it starts and stops OK. Find some quality tyres that are worn to 2mm and get then fitted.
Book an Easytrack open pitlane trackday , have a 15min lesson, then rag it al day. Sell car.
A well driven 205 1.9 is a very capable circiut car.

I have done about 20 trackdays , beware.- Very addictive

The corners were fine. The Insignia is a bit too big and heavy, the Astra you could feel the front wheels spinning sometimes when accelerating out of corners but the Corsa was a real blast.

Just for pure track time/experience, it was great.

A few friends of mine regularly go to open pit-lane track days where you drive your own car. The first time they bought a couple of cavaliers from the free ads. They've since sold the cavs (one for more than the original price) and bought a prelude and a bmw. Driving a car you don't care about is a lot of fun. The Ferraris tend to get out of your way, too. If its a one off you should be able to get a decent motor with short MOT for next to no money. Lots of tracks do it including Silverstone

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Here's a link...they've all sold out this summer I believe but I'm sure you'll be able to sign up somewhere for when they release the next lot:

http://www.vxrpowerevents.co.uk/vxr-track-day.aspx

Oh, and it was £95.

The Performance School looks good value for money too and £195.

So.. if I bought the car, then ragged it, had a great time.. would I be able to sell the car again...? Technically yes - but would I..? 😈

Get yourself over to the Nurburgring, anything else is just weak by comparison...

There and back in a day

My father in law is thinking about selling his Westfield (same design as a Caterham/Lotus 7) with a 180bhp Puma engine and geared/tuned/prepared for hillclimbs (ie, 0-60 in around 3.5 seconds).

I am so tempted.

No.

I don't see the attraction of the Nurburgring - much too long to learn all the corners in a day. I would rather have more laps on a much shorter circuit personally.

[url= http://www.msvdrivinggifts.com/driving-experiences.aspx ]Oulton Park[/url] used to do a good deal, I worked there for a short while and from memory, you'd get a couple of laps with an instructor in an XR3i, it was a while ago, to show you the lines and teach you how to drive. You'd then get sent out driving with the instuctor to see if you'd learnt anything then released in a single seater. Emphasis heavily on racing lines and driving properly in timed laps, hooligans and wannabe racers were flagged or pulled in for driving to fast, I was the timekeeper 😆 .

I've done a few "race school / experience" type things and most are rubbish - pointless, nannying, way too little time on track and seem solely designed for middle aged men to brag about later on down the pub. Anything that involves a single seater means they dictate exactly how fast you'll go so you can't get anywhere near the limits in the wet, let alone the dry.

The one exception was Palmersport. Pricey (at about £600 for the day when I went) but absolutely excellent. The instructors are great - mostly current racing drivers, one of mine was a British GT champion. They try to push you as far as they can in the time they have - if you're not going fast enough their brake override allows them to take the brakes off as well as on! Everything is timed with prizes at the end, the cars are driven very hard, but all maintained very well indeed. I worked up through Clio Cup racecars, 911, Caterhams, Jaguar XKRs, bit of a break for karts, then the Palmer JP1 (lemans-style racecars) which felt ballistic in comparison before being allowed out in the single-seater Formula Jaguars, which are so far removed from any road car you'll ever drive it's hard to explain. After that, a bit of Caterham head-to-head slalom racing and off-roading.

It was my 30th birthday present to myself and worth every penny - I'd go every year if I could afford it. Maybe next year. They do evenings and half days now so you can get into the JP1 / FJ cars plus a couple of others for a few hundred quid.

Else Bookatrack as mentioned with their Caterham hire are very good. More so if you go for a quieter track or weekday when they do open pitlane rather than sessions - they're happy for you and a friend to share a car which brings the costs down a lot.

Mol - one minute you're banging on about emissions and slow cars being safer then you want to do a track day - madness!

Personally,and this may just be me, I always prefer driving something with less than perfect handling and braking at the edge of it's limits and within mine, than something stupidly fast with great handling and braking nowhere near it's limits and beyond my reflexes. I find it a lot more challenging and a lot more fun. you may not.

I reckon it's a good way to go till you get used to driving fast.Most people's reflexes and ability to drive consistently fast and sideways being nowhere near as good as they actually think they are. For a first few track days, you want to enjoy it and learn something rather than simply scare the shit out of yourself.:)

Everyman racing let you drive the car to it's and your limit at Prestwold Hall. I had a belter of a day there, I 'won' most of the day for ' Employee of the month' 😳 or something daft like that a few years ago and topped it up myself to £500.

As someone says above, the instructor will push you to go faster and in my case he was saying overtake a classic supercar experience that was happening at the same time, any crash would have cost them a fortune!

I got in a gallardo, 550, exige, viper (mental) and 911 Turbo.

Was one of the best days ever :-).

Palmer Motor Sport.

The comments regarding Palmer are very fair, but it is a fair old whack, but will not disappoint.

mastiles_fanylion - Member
My father in law is thinking about selling his Westfield (same design as a Caterham/Lotus 7) with a 180bhp Puma engine and geared/tuned/prepared for hillclimbs (ie, 0-60 in around 3.5 seconds).

I am so tempted.

Or you could buy my turbo charged Hayabusa Westfield 🙂

300bhp under 500kg full T45 cage carbon seats full data logging blah blah blah 🙂

Its fairly quick around a circuit 🙂 Was built to be a reliable car at Spa so more than able to deal with UK circuits.

Bazzer

Yeeeessss - that does sound fast. How do you keep it on the ground????

Its funny you should say that as Westfields can suffer from front end lift at high speeds 🙂

Its an awesome car but still very easy to drive I would post some pictures but my web server is down at the moment.

Bazzer

I've done a few tracks days. I've driven a ferrari 360 and a formula ford. In my younger days I did a bike day which was cheap and way fun, even on the VF250's we were on. Pegs down!

But the best day was the forumla ford by far.

lol at the keeping up with the supercars comments. At 3 sisters they let you drive round in a mini cooper to rate your capabilities, I was stuck up the arse of a vanquish for my 3 laps and in the formula fords we were zipping past them like they were stood still.

Ditto samuri. I did one of those experience days at Knockhill and the single seater was superb. Not sure it was technically formula ford (had a 1000cc bike engine in). And as a track Knockhill has some entertaining topography!

Bazzer - your car sounds utterly insane. 600bhp per tonne - yikes!

Yep and its got all the bits to make it go round corners too.

Custom Cages T45 roll cage
6 speed sequential gearbox
Nitron Shocks
Carbon seats, nosecone and dash.
digital dash with data logging and lap timer.
Westfild anti roll bars.
Massive engine spec including JE forged pistons, carrilo H beam rods etc.
LSD
plus lots of other goodies.

I reckon its one of the fastest ways around a track unless you want to put wings and an aero package on a car.

road registered and MOT'd but much more fun on a track.

Its for sale at the moment too if anyone is interested. It was on pistonheads for £16999 which is a lot lot lot less than it cost to build. But I would be open to offers if anyone was interested.

If I am going to spend a weekend away at a track these days it tends to be a DH track and I tack my Sunday instead 🙂

Bazzer

PS I reckon it would be a perfect comuter car for you molegrips 😉

I used to own and race a Caterham, Ive also done lots of karting and track days - but by far the best value for money, maximum amount of excitment, minimum expence fun Ive had is riding my motorcycles off road.

Ive got a selection of off road motorcycles and one hour on them is worth one year of racing the Caterham. Im yet to break them, tyres last forever and cost about as much as a good mountain bike tyre, you can have a hoot without paying to hire a track. Dont use much fuel, cost about £ 30 tax for a year, insurance is a couple of hundred quid for all of them and they dont depreciate once they are a few years old.

When the front wheel is in the air and the rear is spinning - even for a few seconds, thats worth all the track days in the world in a car. When you fall off, your not worried about the cost of fixing them. When I was racing the Caterham I was always worried about getting hit or stuffing it myself. Even though I was sponsored for two years, it still cost me more money than I earned.

Go to Hertz, hire premium car, drive to Run What You Brung day at track, don't crash under any circumstances.

Trimix were you racing Caterhams in the graduates series or somthing else ?

molgrips - if you do take your own car to a track day remove your number plates as insurance companies are quite hot on checking out the photos that appear online.

I did a day an afternoon at Mallory Park.

4 laps driven in a Focus ST, 4 laps driving the Focus, 4 laps driving a single seater, 4 laps driving a Caterham. £150

Focus was awful, probably as quick as the single seater but afterall just a road car and fwd at that so just showed how soft and awful it was.

The single seater was fantastic fun, very direct, could feel everything, what a sports car experience should be, but just lacked a bit of punch,

Caterham was slightly softer than the single seater but therefore easier to drive quicker straight away. Plus the tutor with me was fantastic he would gesture when to speed up and slow down etc, which started with the first lap telling me to go quicker when I thought he would say I was going to quick, by the fourth lap I was actually drifiting the car out some of the tighter corners and I certainly wasn't limited on revs or braking.

At the same time there was one of the fast Nissan Skylines things going round the track and not one person was driving it quick, apart from the occasional person who would put their foot down on the main straight. When I asked one of the instructors about it they said no one drives the exotic cars quick because they know its an exoensive car and dont want to risk damaging it.

Only other advise would be if its your first track day, choose a simple circuit without too many bends. You will have that much to take in that if you go to a twisty circuit you will NEVER remember the best lines through the bends, go to a simple circuit and learn to drive it well rather than going to a long circuit and driving it badly.

I have to be honest - £150 for 12 (driving) laps around Mallory sounds a complete rip off. Just back from 1/2 a day on the VXR experience at Croft. £95 for as many laps as you can do in 3 hours, why would you want anything else? Just keep checking the VXR site for details of next year's events cos they sell out quick.

They're such a great day out - really good instructors in the passenger seats and good cars for driving around the track (especially impressed with the Insignia VXR). I think it's vital to have someone experienced in the car with you, there's no way that I would have been flat in 4th (in the Corsa VXR) through Esses and Barcroft without someone encouraging me. As it was it took a deep breath every time. You also get the chance to go out for passenger laps with current BTCC drivers. Tom Onslow-Cole took me, and it highlighted the talent gap between us! We'll be booking again next year.

Bazzer - I was racing them in 1987-89, it was just called class 1,2 or 3 back then. No graduate scheme. It was my only vehicle, so I drove it to work Mon - Fri, then raced it on the weekend. Crashed it loads though.

As mentioned before, Palmer Sport is possibly the most fun you can have with your clothes on. It's even better when somebody else is paying - I've done it twice thanks to suppliers 😀

The instructors really push you and the grip from the some of the cars like the Jaguar Palmer JP1 is mind blowing. I spun the 911 three times the first time I went there but the instructor was still egging me on 8)

Bazzer - I was racing them in 1987-89, it was just called class 1,2 or 3 back then. No graduate scheme. It was my only vehicle, so I drove it to work Mon - Fri, then raced it on the weekend. Crashed it loads though

It did seem that the people with the budget to cover the cost of crashing had an advantage. When I stopped following it, it had already gone stupid with people having big motorsport prep companies running cars and them turning up in the back of a huge transporter. Not realy the spirit of club motorsport.

Bazzer

Just buy a midget, the handling is so characterfull it doesnt matter that they barely register 100bhp/ton and the upper 'wishbone' is just a leverarm of the damper, or that they didnt even fit a panard rod so the axel is constantly trying to overtake the gearbox.

And if you get the bug theres plenty to fiddle with, from telescopic damper and lowering kits, big brakes, through re-engining it with soemthing like a k-series or zetec/duratec and a t9 or supra gearbox, right upto people building the rover V8 and xr4x4 drivetrain into them!

Mol - one minute you're banging on about emissions and slow cars being safer then you want to do a track day - madness!

Come off it - one afternoon racing hardly compares to ten thousand miles a year, does it?

I hope your thinking isn't this ropey when you do PR for people 😉

bazzer.

Nice to meet a fellow Westfield owner on here. Yours sounds nice, can't believe you are selling, I just couldn't do it.

Mines a 205 block rally spec Pinto 175bhp @ the flywheel built in 2006 and I love it, although it's too loud for any trackdays at the moment.....

Bazzer - shame there's no tracks near us (Cornwall) - I've considered Westies a few times but I'd get shot if I bought one.

One day! Yours does sound truly epic. Any photos?

Mol - eh (last sentence)?!

I was musing the other day about cars that feel "right" - they don't need to be expensive; in fact often quite the opposite. Just cars with the sort of chassis/handling and steering you really trust.

Oddly my R32 Golf was lovely in many ways but I just didn't feel it was happy when pushed hard - steering a bit vague, slightly weird understeer as the Haldex 4WD sorted itself out. Tonnes of grip and quick but just not quite all there.

Whereas my Saxo VTR (with only 90bhp!) felt REALLY sorted - most chuckable car I've had. However it's still beaten as a FWD car by the Ford Puma and Focus ST170 (which handles way better than the mk2 ST).

Bimmer hides it's weight very well with a very sorted chassis and "proper" firm steering (no electrical assistance on the 335i and 335d, just hydraulic - all other models have it) and decent brakes. No track car but certainly fun and you just use the torque to fling it out of bends.

Inlaws had a mk3 MR2 - now that was a very very sorted little car that could have handled a bit more power to make it an Elise basher - reliable, comfy but utterly sublime handling.

"Shock" good cars have been the current Nissan Micra (honestly!), any modern (less than 5 years old) Fiesta and any Focus from a base spec 1.4 to a speedy model. Old shape handles the best.

Rambling? Me?

Mol - eh (last sentence)?!

Your comment sounded like a slur attempt based on a specious connection.. in the style of a tabloid newspaper... hence the PR quip 🙂

Ive got a selection of off road motorcycles and one hour on them is worth one year of racing the Caterham. Im yet to break them, tyres last forever.

Something tells me you're not trying very hard...

Its funny you should say that as Westfields can suffer from front end lift at high speeds

guy in our club has this nice V8 Westie

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subtle aero fins on the nose cone

flaming exhausts included..

also another chap as this 1400 BDA powered westie:
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more obvious aero stuff!