Getting in to track driving?

[infernouk 8]

Hey guys, 

I have had my 86 for 2 months now and love it, this is my first decent car and ive always wanted to get into track driving, my only experience is a palmer sport racing day which was a caterham, atom and M3 with instructors. but that was 5 years ago now. 

Im wondering the best entry route into tracking the 86? My main concern is no experience, cost if something goes wrong, and generally that im quite a cautious person so want to make sure that im not out of my depth on a track with cars blasting round me! 

Car is PCP so ill need insurance and to be honest, would like it for the peace of mind regardless, ive only recently started earning decent money so before hand wouldnt have been able to afford any large incidents! 

I live in hertfordshire so not far from bedford which i assume may be the best place to start? 

Cheers for any info on the best / safest way to get involved and start building experience 

[KevinA 695]

The TSS is a good starting point, there is lots of advice on hand and most importantly you get the track to yourself on each run. Having gained experience understand your car then trackdays is the next  step, this is of course just my take on things and sure many other valid opinions will come along.

[Lauren 2259]

Best thing to do is book a day with instruction and have at least three sessions. Some operators do novice days though most are open pit lane. The car is fine in stock form to track, so as long as you have some tread on your tyres and some pad life left in your brakes you'll be fine. Bedford is a novice track so could be a good place to start for you. Whilst the TSS is good as you have the track to yourself you won't have enough time in the car to learn and hone your technique, so a track day is far better. I have sprinted for years but if I want to work on my technique I book a track day. 

In all honesty there will always be faster cars out on track and there will be slower ones too. A fast car doesn't mean a fast driver of course and this works both ways. All you've got to do is be courteous and keep an eye on your mirrors. If another car gets close to you, indicate and pull over to the let them past. You can get insurance, though costs vary. Normally you insure for a value, say £15K with a 10% excess, so in the event of something happening you'd pay the first 10% being £1500, so it's not quite like normal insurance. Car to car contact cannot happen if the day is run well so I wouldn't worry about that, it's only really car to scenery contact that could be the issue. But simply drive within your limits and don't take chances you don't need to and you'll be fine. It's not a competition after all. 

I would say get an open face helmet, far cooler, more comfortable and easier to talk with than a full face helmet. Get some decent driving shoes or race boots if you want to take the plunge with that. Alpine Stars are the most comfortable, but not the cheapest. A helmet is around £200 for something reasonable. Puma Speedcats are good everyday driving shoes (don't ever make the mistake of driving in trainers) and available for around £35. Decent Alpine Stars boots are £100+. 

[Church 209]

No experience is moot. Everybody started somewhere, you'll still have loads of fun. Just that will be slower then many, even on comparable cars. Best way to shorten learning route - good HPDE instructions. If not professional one, then at very least some local more experienced driver as passenger or ask to be as passenger in other car for some laps. Instructor should be more skillful giving advises how/what to learn, what habbits/reflexes to correct/fix, what are specifics of this particular track (like where you can push it, where which line is best, where are braking points).

Cost risks. I'm not sure that i'll be one that gives right answer, which probably would be insurance or going in some 200-500e "folk-race" class beater car that you can afford to go at 10/10 and total .. but for track real insurance is too damn costly for me to afford :(. Good thing, that due tracks being controlled environment it decreases those going fast risks by a lot - no oncoming traffic, due repeated laps you learn track layout/specific better to know where/how much you can push, in many tracks at many points sliding off the track will be way less risky, as no high kerb to damage suspension on, no wall or trees, just sliding few metres with emergency pressed brakes over grass or gravel till stop. Safest from all tracks should be auto-X ones with cones. But imho also less fun from enjoyment perspective. So i'd choose some kart alike track on flat ground, where speeds are slower, where you can see several turns ahead, where said spinning out of track is safe due no walls, leaving "real tracks" with higher speeds, blind corners that need to be taken by memory, and sometimes with concrete walls or trees for later, when with more experience

Upgrades/building .. 1) for first (or first few) track day i'd go with 100% stock - a) our cars are rather capable even stock, b ) it should show you by feel what/if you may wish to improve, not just some posts on internet :), c) limited grip of stock primacies should let you learn how to get closer to grip limit and balance at that at still safer/slower speeds. For example i started to feel deficiencies of brakes, and wished to dial out some of stock understeer. (P.S. regarding brakes, just go off track to cool them whenever you start feeling loosing them (due overheat). On stock car with stock brakes and stock primacies imho it's about 10-15 minutes track sessions) 2) do minimum upgrades to brakes, like better brake pads and brake fluid of higher boiling temps, 3) do performance alignment (in general more camber overall to compensate more side-Gs/more tire-flex, to get more grip and more even tire contact/patch/wear, and much higher camber in front, to dial out stock-ish understeer (stock front camber 0, rear -1, better have front camer by some -0.5 degree even more then rear, eg. F -1.5,R -1), 4) when you wear down stock tire set completely you may consider tire upgrades of moving up a bit in grip, eg. some stock sized MPSS or AD08R.

Aand - for me this seems wise point of first stop to upgrades and just keep going to track with this setup paying not for upgrades, but for fun/tracking itself & wearables like fuel/tires/pads. Oh, forgot to say - at some point i bought also own helmet (oh, agree to Lauren, get openface one - it subjectively felt less sweaty/less limiting eye view and so on), balaklava, gloves to not keep borrowing them from collegue or lease on track. Otherwise spendings so far should be rather reasonable, camberbolts and powerflex bushing front, rear LCA, performance alignment, better pads, brake fluid, tires .. and fuel of course

Further you have upgrade options like getting good coilovers to work well even with stickier more track oriented tires, longer track sessions enabling (and sometimes cheaper on pads/rotors wearables) Big Brake Kits, clutch type LSD diff, maybe different ratio final drive, stiffer bushings or replacing many of them with pillowball ones, oil catch can, aftermarket air filter, ecu tune, catless headers, forced induction (i'm disliking later option, but that's subjective), lightening car in various ways, getting aftermarket seats and safety harnesses, aftermarket steering wheel, installing aero elements like splitter, rear wing & splitter, cage and so on and on .. but these all need money/budget .. which i found better spent on actually driving on track

P.S. From skills i advise to learn first proper seating pose, hand position on wheel and such, then generic track information, like rules (flags/passing and such), most effective way to take corners (outside-inside/appex-outside). Then heal & toe downshifting. Otherwise you'll put lot of load on clutch/synchros and often may throw car off balance when downshifting. Then learn mass transfer with brakes to lessen understeer/get extra rotation. Would be nice if with left foot, but not mandatory. Worth also at beginning to intentionally sometimes push too much and almost intentionally spin out to learn limits one should balance not overcoming and how to recover. If you are going without electronic nannies, know how/what to do with brake/accel/steering to correct/fix. Also remember, that at some point overconfidence may appear, be beware of it :).

[Mikey P 32]

I would book a track day at Bedford, great circuit with lots of run off. A days track cover there is about £95 with Morris insurance, and you can get a full day for about £120 to £150. Will no doubt need a couple of tanks for fuel too. You can hire a helmet for £10 or use a motor bike one if you don't want buy straight away. Car will need plenty of brake pad wear left but doesn't really need any modifications for starting out. I wouldnt say you need an instructor but some do like this.

[VAD17 479]

Not that I have much experience (yet), but when I started few month ago:

1) Get some training!
I had couple days with CATD (first with my work buddy who does more frequent track days and another with this car club). Over couple days Colin gave me enough confidence to go on track and actually understand (well, at least a bit) what is happening with the car.
I intend to get more once I do couple more track days (trail braking, left foot braking - lot more to learn and practice in my case).

2) Start with an easy track
Guys here have a lot more experience and can provide better comments, but I found Bedford very good and easy to start with (may be a bit boring once you get more track time) and Silverstone also quite good with decent run off and long enough to be interesting (although it felt somewhat crowded at times).
Definitely get some tuition. If you can afford get a whole day - i found splitting instructor day with someone very useful and reasonably cost effective. (Although next time I will get 3 sessions with instructor instead).

3) Insurance is a good idea
My first was fairly expensive, but after couple track days I could get 5 days insurance for about £80 per day.
I found that premium difference between 15k and 20k insurance was relatively small but then jumped quite a bit steeper (go figure), so consider partial cover a good idea.

4) Go stock for starters
(To be fair I only followed this advice for 6mth ).
First time on a new track I personally found difficult to concentrate for more than 15mins, and learning race line took me a while so it was not the car but the driver (me) which was the limiting factor.

5) If you end up planning more track days get your own helmet and boots.
I bought my helmet aftet couple track days and trying couple different ones. I thought Sparco were fairly reasonably priced. But definitely try few before deciding- even same size feel differently (particularly if one has oddly shaped head or ears).
I also bought boots on sale (could not resist 1/2 price offer for my size, even though they are blue). The pedal feel is so much different to trainers.

I was pretty much the slowest on track, but it doesnt matter much as long as you enjoy yourself and initial learning curve and progess you make you love the car even more!

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[infernouk 8]

Thanks for the detailed responses guys, in terms of tuition the CATD guys seem to be very pricey? I saw something like a Day was £800 a while back? Is this better than an instructor on a track day? I’m happy to spend where it’s best placed but don’t want to pay more than I need to / get less than I need so that’s my main concern. 

In terms of upgrades I probably won’t do any, I have an aero car if that makes literally any performance difference, other than that I plan to change cars in 3 years and would rather spend the cash on track days and consumables, though I suppose that could change as I get in to it. I will be sure to pick up helmet and gloves after a few times.

for insurance do you mean it decreases the more experience you have? Or you buy a package of cover? 

Min quite happy to go to Bedford to start as it’s local and I’ve been there before, so it’s  just a case of what form/format do I persue to learn what to do effectively that I’m trying to pin down 

[VAD17 479]

Thanks for the detailed responses guys, in terms of tuition the CATD guys seem to be very pricey? I saw something like a Day was £800 a while back? Is this better than an instructor on a track day? I’m happy to spend where it’s best placed but don’t want to pay more than I need to / get less than I need so that’s my main concern. 
In terms of upgrades I probably won’t do any, I have an aero car if that makes literally any performance difference, other than that I plan to change cars in 3 years and would rather spend the cash on track days and consumables, though I suppose that could change as I get in to it. I will be sure to pick up helmet and gloves after a few times.
for insurance do you mean it decreases the more experience you have? Or you buy a package of cover? 
Min quite happy to go to Bedford to start as it’s local and I’ve been there before, so it’s  just a case of what form/format do I persue to learn what to do effectively that I’m trying to pin down 

Re CATD: I think its worth it regardless of your experience. Club days were much cheaper than that and there were 6 of us and 2 instructors. I also thought 1:1 is expensive, but 2:1 or 3:1 was a good combination of theory, practice and and also looking what more experienced drivers tend to focus on. Its quite different to track day tuition with a lot more focus on car control, what happens to it depending on drivers input, etc.
I have not tried Carlimits (yet), but few people also recommended them.

Re insurance: I think its both. My first 2 days come to smth like £300ish, then single day quote was around £100-115 per day, but booking 5 was more like £80 per day. I arranged it through Morris. The policy valid for a year and for £15 I can change future trackdays.
Greenline does policies with additional track day cover on pay as you go basis for £45 (if I recall correctly), but they couldn't insure me at all.

I am going to Bedford again on Feb 10th, would be nice to see another GT86

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[infernouk 8]

24 minutes ago, VAD17 said:

Re CATD: I think its worth it regardless of your experience. Club days were much cheaper than that and there were 6 of us and 2 instructors. I also thought 1:1 is expensive, but 2:1 or 3:1 was a good combination of theory, practice and and also looking what more experienced drivers tend to focus on. Its quite different to track day tuition with a lot more focus on car control, what happens to it depending on drivers input, etc.
I have not tried Carlimits (yet), but few people also recommended them.

Re insurance: I think its both. My first 2 days come to smth like £300ish, then single day quote was around £100-115 per day, but booking 5 was more like £80 per day. I arranged it through Morris. The policy valid for a year and for £15 I can change future trackdays.
Greenline does policies with additional track day cover on pay as you go basis for £45 (if I recall correctly), but they couldn't insure me at all.

I am going to Bedford again on Feb 10th, would be nice to see another GT86

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Cheers, how frequent are catd club days? Doubt I’ll make feb though as moving house then and all my finances are required! 

[VAD17 479]

I think once a year, but there are several courses.

Check out this thread
http://gt86.org.uk/forums/applications/tapatalk/index.php?/topic/4509-CAT-Driver-Training-Courses-2017

I'd be quite interested doing another one next year

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[Stutopia 158]

On 31/12/2017 at 8:40 PM, VAD17 said:

I think once a year, but there are several courses.

Check out this thread
http://gt86.org.uk/forums/applications/tapatalk/index.php?/topic/4509-CAT-Driver-Training-Courses-2017

I'd be quite interested doing another one next year

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+ a million

Best money I’ve ever spent on going faster, and, you even get to keep it if you sell up!

[Guest 86guns]

Good luck with the venture. Just a curved ball - do you suffer from motion sickness at all, for instance on a theme park ride? I equipped myself for track days in a previous car and found that they made me really ill. Can’t do more than 3 laps at a time now and don’t really enjoy them if I’m honest. Strange but true. 

[Church 209]

Hmm, i guess then it's worth for 'worst case scenario' to get few laps as passenger. Not exactly right test, as IIRC feelings of passenger are often magnified, due him not being in control and many acceleration/braking/steering maneuvers coming unanticipated/catching nonprepared, thus throwing all around, unlike driver, who knows 'i'll brake hard in 0.5s, i'll brace myself or strengthen neck muscles and such', but still may tell, if individual motion sickness specifics may strike out this hobby from enjoyable.

[DAN@ADRIAN FLUX 12]

Hi,

If you ever need any help with track day insurance then please feel free to drop me a line.

https://www.adrianflux.co.uk/trackday/

Thanks,

Dan.