Would you use your road car on the track?

[ste.holmes]

I have a tidy Subaru Impreza STi 2003 with a host of upgrades including a 310 BHP setup. It is great for road use and I do use it on a few rare track days at Goodwood & Silverstone.

I am now looking to do a fair bit more on the track this year, maybe 7-10 in total and am having second thoughts about using my own car. I do have insurance but this only covers 50% of the value.

I do love my motor and it handles superbly well, on and off the track, but am not sure whether to buy a cheap track car?

Does anyone else have a similar dilema???

[kickstart]

I am luck enough to have a 2003 BMW M3 which I have used for 2 track days. However I have now decided not to use it again on the track following a few incidents at Donninton and Oulton last year. Saw another M3 with the engine gone in a big way (may be very difficult to get this under warranty as the dealer can print out the performance data from the computer/ecu) and also saw several cars with serious damage following some dropped oil at Oulton.
The question you must ask yourself is could you afford to write off the vehicle, without it being a major dilemma. In my case the answer is no, which makes me feel very uneasy when pushing the car around a track.
That is why I have dusted off my overalls and am going racing in F4/monoposto this season. If you buy a single seater (from say £3,500 for a Vauxhall Junior) you can do all the test days you want, with no overtaking rules in a car that is a lot more fun to drive fast and a lot cheaper to repair if you damage it.
Have fun and drive safe

[ste.holmes]

Cheers for the advice,

F4/monoposto...sounds great. What's the deal?

[Hobson]

Yes, buying a track-specific car is a good idea. If you overcook it during the day, at least you can get home.

A couple of hundred pounds will get you a geat saloon (Astra, Escort etc), and there are many companies doing tune-up bits fot them to go faster, stop better etc. for about £1000, you can have more fun on track than your Impreza had on the road.

BTW, if the thread goes off towards the Monoposto route, I'll move it to the Racers secton of Ten Tenths, as many racers have details of test days etc.

[kickstart]

ste.holmes, have sent you PM - kickstart

[topwelshman]

Yeah,

I'd agree - I spent over 3k sorting out the engine on my my new A4 1.8T Quattro Sport and on the first lap of my first trackday I NARROWLY escaped with my car in 1 piece when 2 cars in front of me had a massive shunt and one ended up on its roof sliding for about 50m! The one car was an Escort Cosworth and the other was a Porsche. I wonder what they told their insurance?!

That was my last trackday that I used my private car and cos I still want to go fast on a track I've invested in a BMW 325 and will be entering the Kumho BMW Championship.

Merged - Hobson

[SALEEN S7R]

I too woudnt use my car at a track day. Ive considered it, but then now Ive got my MK3 Supra kicking out 350bhp itd be too much of a risk, ive spent a lot on mods for this car and whilst id like to really push it to its limit if it came off the track the repair bill would be huge.

[Werewolf]

Cant see the point of having road car with a million bhp and never use it to its potential.if its pose factor think youd be better off reading one of those go faster boys mags.personally id spend the money on race car/track day car and have much more fun.(oops already have)

[M Coupe]

Been doing trackdays for a number of years in my road car (although I do have another road car as well now).

Last year I did approx 15 trackdays between the Elise and the Exige I replaced it with. No incidents, only a couple of spins and I was going quickly, pick the right trackday company and you can enjoy the day in relative safety. Avoid the turn up on the day type events like Castle Coombe Action days, these bring out the nutters, most trackdays have people who are enthusiasts and who care for their cars.

I certainly can't afford to write the car off, hence why I have track insurance, only costs £25 an event on top of my normal annual policy, excess is £2k though!


I'm off to Spa tomorrow so that should be fun!!!!

[JimW]

No, I'm too scared of the idiot behind the wheel.

Jim

[fast95pony]

I've taken both my cars to the track,although we call them lapping days,and they are probably run a little different.The events only allow overtaking on the straights.If a faster car catches a slower car , the slower lets the faster one past when SAFE TO DO SO. Safety comes first.No hot-dogging allowed. It's still a lot of fun ,but there's no real racing.The last time I went , my poor SVT Focus was lapped numberous times by a Viper.But he had to leave the track twice , and drive into town to get petrol..

[M Coupe]

Originally posted by fast95pony
I've taken both my cars to the track,although we call them lapping days,and they are probably run a little different.The events only allow overtaking on the straights.If a faster car catches a slower car , the slower lets the faster one past when SAFE TO DO SO. Safety comes first.

That's the way they run over here too (by decent organisers) i.e. FAEO & ATDO members.

If someone overtakes you in a corner you can complain and it can mean a trip home for the offender.

[Carse]

I currently own a BMW m3 csl and yes, i have used it on a few occasions at oulton park on a track day, it's magnificent!

I used to own a noble m12 gto3r and again used that at oulton and around rockingham and that was fabulous! i recomend you use your own car on a track day as you get a sense that you have extracted the best from the car you use everyday. Also it means you know its limits for when you drive it hard on the road!

[bolide]

Not an easy question and one we'll all face in some way if we do track days. I think you've got 3 options if you can't afford to write the Subaru off:

1 - look at different insurance to get better cover

2 - sell the Subaru and buy a dedicated track car

3 - buy a track day hack and drive it to events or tow it behind the Subaru

For the cost of a set of new discs for the Subaru you could have a track day hack...

I'm tempted to suggest buying a car you can use for track days and for racing, but racing is many time more expensive than doing track days

Let us know what you decide!


Nick Froome
www.bolide.co.uk

[Webber45]

AT one stage I sprinted the everyday car and I did rallys before that in the previous everyday car. A time came though when all the 5 cars were off the road...

[git]

I've used just about every car I've owned since 1985 as a dual duty machine.
I'm currently using a seven clone and it has full insurance coverage. However, If it gets pranged on track I will not make an insurance claim.
m.

[dubby99]

It's to bad you need to hold a drivers licence to get to and on the track.
Can't wait to get my licence back next year, i will be heading as fast as i can to eastern creek to enjoy a good track day without the cops bugging anybody.

[sjw75]

Would I use my road car on a track day......?

Pug 205 TrackDay crash (Rally SuperCar Day @ Castle Coombe)


.....No !!

Cheers

Simon.

[sjw75]

Sorry, Castle Combe fat fingers !!!!

Simon.

[stuartcmorrison]

Hi, I did my first car track day on Sunday in my 4 week old & one & only road car. It's only a Civic Type R but it's the fastest car that I've owned & it's been a fun packed 4 weeks on the road. However, driving it at Donington was mind blowing & allowed me to push the car further than any road driving both from a legal & safety aspect.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that there is such a varied collection of vehicles in attendance but track days were originally born out of a desire by enthusiasts to experience track driving in their road going cars. If we all only used cars that we could afford to lose, the places would be full of 10-15 year old Fiestas & E30 BM’s & the majority of the day would be red-flagged in order to clear up the carnage & anyway, there’s already a class for that at Hednesford Hills Raceway.

I would estimate that there were 60-70 cars in attendance on Sunday & yes there were several incidents, mostly harmless spins due to the torrential rain in the morning. However there were a couple of note-worthy performances.

1. A Rover coupe, brought out the red flag in one session & the yellows in another, one car, 2 disruptions, I was gonna ask him for a refund!
2. White 325, yellow flags in one session for spinning at inside of coppice (how do you do that?). Next session, down the inside of me on Craner curves, down the inside of aforementioned Rover at Starkeys Bridge (both strict no-no’s at morning briefing) & when we get to Goddard’s the red flags are out again cos he spun into the barrier, all in one lap, plenty of ****** signs & more track time lost.

My advice is take your Imprezas, Supras & M3’s on the track cos it’s the only place where you can fully enjoy (read exploit) them, spot the problem cars early on (you can’t miss ‘em) & stay out of there way.

[dochersd]

Don't bother buying a track specific car, keep your own and join track-club, part of track-sense. You pay an annual subscription of about £1500 and you can use their cars on track - Exige, Radical, Evo, Elise, Golf Gti, Spyder and even a the new Turner LMP.

Get's launched at the Autosport show in Jan.

[MikeHoyer]

I wouldn't take my car onto the track, I couldn't put up with all the laughing...

Buying an old, cheap car sounds like a good idea, so long as people don't use the fact that the car is expendable to get stupid with it. It's more if the engine lets go, or something like that.

Of course not everybody can afford top of the range cars, but would still like to try a drive on a track, I know I would.

[Aysedasi]

Would I use my road car on the track......?

That really is very funny.............







(ATM I own a Daewoo.......... )

[Hobson]

I'm looking at buying a Daewoo Nexia at the moment.... basically an Astra Mk2, so a whole load of track potenial.

[Aysedasi]

I had one of those Garry, before my current Daewoo. Very dull indeed. I've had three now over the last 9 years and, whatever I might say about them (they're all very dull), I have had 9 years of completely trouble-free driving from A to B. But I'll be looking for something different at last in the new year.


Edit - actually, it wasn't a Nexia - it was a Nubira. The Nexia is one of the original (nee Astra model, as you say) Daewoos - came out at the same time as the much nicer Espero - my first Daewoo.