What's your investment in a Track Day?

[paul-collins]

How much do you typically spend on track days?

I'm interested not in the track fees, but in other costs you bear just to get through the day. I'm really aiming this at those who don't have a car that's dedicated to track days.

- do you have to replace your brake pads before and/or after the day?

- how much fuel do you use, and do you buy it at the track?

- do you invest in special tires (and wheels?) just for track days? If not, how much would you guess it shortens the life of your tires?

- what other tweaks of your car do you do just for track days?

[Adam43]

It's not quite what you are looking for because it is a racer anyway (albeit based on a road car). However I dod have some experience of road car track day action.

Brake pads: You want good pads, if you think they are marginal replace them. Track days do normal show up any inadequacies in braking (last time out we had awful judder - new discs!).

Fuel: Lots & lots. You won't be getting 30mpg here! For a comparison our car does approx 25mpg on the road (mainly motorway stuff). It is between 4-8mpg on the track. When you think about it how often on the road do you use full throttle almost constantly?

Also it is worth putting quite a bit of fuel in at all times. In a road car fuel surge on hard cornering may be a problem. Out car is pretty good for this, although we still need over a gallon or two (at a guess) to stop it being starved on hard cornering. It is worse when there is hard cornering and gradient at the same time.

Special Tyres: Not really. We run road tyres when racing. Wear is not too bad, but after a good session the top surface can be pretty horrible. Normally from rubbish the hot tyres pick up on the way in.

Tweaks: Not really. The most important stuff is the simple stuff. Don't have anything loose in the car. Check all fluids. Pump up the tyre pressures (? chck out whatthe manufacturer suggests?).

That's all I can think of at the moment.