I wouldn't get an open wheeled single seater unless I was sprinting/racing it as finding opportunities to run them on track can be a bit awkward compared to a closed wheeled car that you can run on any trackday.
If I had a bigger budget for track toys than I have now I'd certainly be looking at something along the lines of the JP-LM though.
Crinkleshoes said:
Ah... but to get a proper Radical, you're looking at about £50k!!!
Whereas you can pick up ok-condition single seaters for £6-10k, generally not quite as fast as the one we were in at the palmersport day... but not all that far off...
I saw a turbo/supercharged hayabusa engined jedi mk4 chassis on pistonheads for about £14k kicking out ~350bhp... I was very very tempted... that would have been bonkers!
Crinkleshoes is right. A radical is not only very expensive to buy, but expensive to run. The single seaters you can get for £3k - 10k are extremely simple machines, with ford, vw or vauxhall engines that are close to standard with the exception of a dry sump. Most of the engines come straight out of Sierras, escorts etc and use all the same standard parts.
It's true that there are more track days than there are test days for single seaters, however there are still plenty. Any week of the year there will be at least a few circuits running a suitable test day for single seaters.
The test days are perhaps a little more expensive on the whole, but the quality of the track time is significantly better. No waiting for other cars to indicate you past, if you are faster than someone you simply use your judgement to pass them. You get a better standard of driving since all of the drivers will have passed an ARDS test at minimum and most will be very experienced racers.
Once you have gone to the expense of dedicated track car, getting it to the track etc, then quality of track time is probably going to be more important than saving a few £ anyway.
The reason I asked the question about whether driving the JP-LM or Palmer Jaguar had changed your feelings on whether you'd go for a track road car or a single seater is that over the last few years, there seems to have been a shift towards people doing track days and spending a lot of money building cars for track days rather than going racing.
Unless you're looking at either occasionally tracking your everyday roadcar (which in itself throws up issues) or building something super cheap on a tiny budget (ie £100s rather than £1000s) it's something that has never made a lot of sense to me.
I suspect its because the top levels of motorsport have made themselves seem so inaccessable to the rest of us, with armies of mechanics running just one car even in the lower formulae.
The reality is though that there is still a very healthy club racing scene that is easy suprisingly easy to get into.
At club level the cars are a lot cheaper and easier to run than most people would imagine and has numerous benefits over running a tweaked road car on the track.
I can't help but feel like people are really missing out.
Whether it's getting a 2 stroke kart for a few £100 or an old race car for a few £1000 to have a play in there's a whole load of fun to be had for a not a lot of money. Ultimately a lot more fun per £ than the track day scene IMO.
Inevitably for many the competetive element comes into play and the beauty of taking the race car/kart route is that you can then move straight into racing against people with the same machinery.
It's really interesting to hear the direction you guys might take after experiencing all the different kind of cars. You're all no doubt exactly the kind of adrenline junkies who won't be able to help themselves when it comes to getting some kind of track toy in the future so you can get the palmer experience on a regular basis!
haha