Track day advice

Yucca

Yucca

Yucca

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Joined
20 Nov 2004
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Nock/Leicester
Hey guys

I have a 2014 Cayman which I love! Would love to take it on a track day and give it a good thrash and really see how it feels on ‘full tilt’.

I asked about this in a previous thread and based on advice it will cost a fortune in insurance, tyre wear, break wear etc.

So my next question is…. What’s the best track day one can go on where they really let you take full advantage of the car they give you? I mean, let you really take it out for a good thrashing, not just pot around.

Won’t be the same experiance as using my own loved car but I’m sure much cheaper! And no stress about destroying my own car !
 
By the time you’ve paid for a palmersport day you’ve easily covered your consumable costs on your own car for a track day. Unless you write it off, but that’s what insurance is for.

A 981 cayman is absolutely perfect for the track and you should take your own car and get half a day’s instruction to better get to know your car.
 
A Palmersport day is by far the best way to drive someone else’s car(s) hard. You’ll have an instructor sat next to you constantly encouraging you to go faster.

It does however come at a price, which will be more than a track day in your Cayman. But you will definitely drive the cars harder than you would in your own.

But where’s the fun in driving someone else’s car! Get out in your own car and explore what it can do, start to learn a circuit, drive around with other cars on track and chase them around at a decent pace :)
 
I'd just go for your Cayman, as mentioned something like a Palmersport day is vastly more expensive than a trackday. There's also other options like hiring a car from the trackday firm such as: https://opentrack.co.uk/car-hire I've not used them for car hire but done a trackday through them, so I'm assuming you can really push the car. Even then it's £999 vs ~£150-200 ish depending on track.

The issue with brake/tyres really is heat, for a first time on track if you take it fairly steadily and keep the sessions short it won't really be a problem, just make sure you have plenty of tread/brake material at the start of the day so you don't go too far and it'll be fine. The increased wear probably won't exceed the extra you'll pay for hiring a car/doing a palmersport day.

If you start doing multiple trackdays then you can get more track oriented pads that can handle the heat better and track focussed tyres that last longer and then you can just go for it with no real worries :D

I don't personally bother with insurance, but then I'm not driving a Cayman (MX5 here), I did get a quote and it wasn't *that* bad, like ~£110 or something for the day.
 
Take your own car, it's a car you are familiar with and should have a pretty good idea of how it drives already.

Bedford Autodrome is a great track for your first. Large, wide track, lots of run off. Relatively cheap to book too.
Most of the track day event organisers offer tuition for not a lot of cash, sometimes included for free (Opentrack).

Be warned though, it's seriously addictive.
 
I kind of knew you would all say the same thing lol.

Thing is, as much as I love my car and like the idea of driving it around a track, I also am very conscious that it could cost me a fortune.

Eg
£110 insurance for the day

Breaks/pads are £1200 a pair. Presuming 20% wear over 4 pads that’s circa £480.

Then tyres are £450 a pair. Presuming 25% wear that’s another £225.

Presume I’d ‘burn’ through some oil. £50 top up?

Plus the usual, hire of the track, instructor hire….

Am I working this out right?! Circa £1000 for a day around a track. In a car I already own!?

And that’s presuming I don’t break something in the car… which I guess would not be covered by the extended warranty.
 
The reality is if this is your first track day you won’t be stressing your car that hard. You won’t do a set of tyres or take that much life out of your brakes. Everyone talks about track days like they are on a test day in their race car.

You’ve a great car for track work. Insure it, check your levels, ensure you keep a regular watch on your tyre pressures and go enjoy.
 
Housey said:
The reality is if this is your first track day you won’t be stressing your car that hard. You won’t do a set of tyres or take that much life out of your brakes. Everyone talks about track days like they are on a test day in their race car.

You’ve a great car for track work. Insure it, check your levels, ensure you keep a regular watch on your tyre pressures and go enjoy.
Click to expand...
I have to check my own tyre pressure!? How do I do that?
 
The other option is rent a car for a track day. Lots of companies can help with this and you can from something small and slow to a GT3 race car.
 
Yucca said:
I kind of knew you would all say the same thing lol.

Thing is, as much as I love my car and like the idea of driving it around a track, I also am very conscious that it could cost me a fortune.

Eg
£110 insurance for the day

Breaks/pads are £1200 a pair. Presuming 20% wear over 4 pads that’s circa £480.

Then tyres are £450 a pair. Presuming 25% wear that’s another £225.

Presume I’d ‘burn’ through some oil. £50 top up?

Plus the usual, hire of the track, instructor hire….

Am I working this out right?! Circa £1000 for a day around a track. In a car I already own!?

And that’s presuming I don’t break something in the car… which I guess would not be covered by the extended warranty.
Click to expand...

Yup! It's not a cheap hobby but there are ways to reduce the costs if you do get in to going regularly. I do 10-12 a year but my running costs now are significantly lower than what they were in previous cars.

What brake pads you running for £1200 a pair?! I thought the RS/RSL29 I used to run at £500 a pair were expensive! Not sure on the brake bias on a Cayman but on my M3 my rears last forever so it's really only the fronts you will wear.

Being your first track day I highly doubt you will be ruining the brake pads and tyres. I drove like miss daisy on my first day compared to how I drive on track now :D
 
If you brake early on the straights I doubt wear will be too bad. As said above Bedford is a good choice for someone starting out due to big run off areas and not much to hit. I also found Brands Hatch Indy good for brake & tyre wear due to the straights not being particularly long.
 
Yucca said:
Hey guys

I have a 2014 Cayman which I love! Would love to take it on a track day and give it a good thrash and really see how it feels on ‘full tilt’.

I asked about this in a previous thread and based on advice it will cost a fortune in insurance, tyre wear, break wear etc.

So my next question is…. What’s the best track day one can go on where they really let you take full advantage of the car they give you? I mean, let you really take it out for a good thrashing, not just pot around.

Won’t be the same experiance as using my own loved car but I’m sure much cheaper! And no stress about destroying my own car !
Click to expand...

I'd recommend starting somewhere that has minimal risk when you have an "off" and using your own car....

Brake pads aren't expensive for a Cayman (an OEM front pair from Autodoc is £150....), and if you can afford to buy/run one you can afford a new set of tyres. It's only the rears you'll use a chunk of life from, but if you leave PSM on it'll be fine.

Bedford autodrome track days are well organised and fairly cheap. The track is flat but interesting and crucially there's plenty of concrete and grass run off. They're run by MSV and a Novice open pit lane day is £189...

car.msvtrackdays.com

Car Track Days | MSVT

MSV Trackdays offers car track day events to suit all levels of experience and ability across the MSV circuits, owned and run by us: Brands Hatch, Donington Park, Snetterton, Oulton Park, Cadwell Park and Bedford Autodrome.
car.msvtrackdays.com car.msvtrackdays.com

Buy a tyre pressure gauge from Amazon


and limit yourself to 1 warm up, 3 flying laps and 1 cool down for each stint. Try and be mechanically "kind" to your vehicle and the overall cost of the day isn't going to be massive

Biggest expense will be a couple of tanks of fuel

All in, less than £400 including fuel for a trackday at Bedford in your Cayman
 
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Take your car! There's no point in having such a capable car and not taking it on track to fully explore what it and you can do. It won't be cheap but then it's not a cheap car nor is it a cheap hobby.
 
The one thing I wish I'd done sooner rather than later is get proper tuition.
I used Maxx (Malcolm Edeson) http://www.driver-coaching.com/track_instruction.html when I was doing a trackday a month and he'll knock any bad habits on the head straight away.
One thing he will teach is mechanical sympathy, which is something I had none of, and went through a couple of engines and more gearbox's than I care to remember.
As others have said, do a sessioned novice day, as going out on track with experienced drivers may dishearten you a bit, and not wishing to sound rude, but you may get in the way a bit.
 
JonRGV250 said:
The one thing I wish I'd done sooner rather than later is get proper tuition.
I used Maxx (Malcolm Edeson) http://www.driver-coaching.com/track_instruction.html when I was doing a trackday a month and he'll knock any bad habits on the head straight away.
One thing he will teach is mechanical sympathy, which is something I had none of, and went through a couple of engines and more gearbox's than I care to remember.
As others have said, do a sessioned novice day, as going out on track with experienced drivers may dishearten you a bit, and not wishing to sound rude, but you may get in the way a bit.
Click to expand...
Malc is on here I think
 
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