If you want people to treat you with respect and listen to your opinion then you shouldn't start your postings by telling someone they are talking BULL$HIT.

:notworthy Fair play to all of ya.:notworthy

:luvlove: I LOVE 'EM & am nowhere near getting em out of my system. :nono:

For anyone that hasn't done one i would advise you try it at least once (when funds permit!)

On the 20th of Jan I'll be at Bedford using my car to vaguely near its potential & doing what its DESIGNED to do....GO FAST!

I'll polish, admire & talk to my friends about my car Sunday 21st. LOVE IT!

I'm tryin calm things down here but.... £500 for a trackday is bull$hit. It's a trackday not lemans endurance...

FWIW I love trackdays, not done one yet in the Scooby as it's only 3 weeks old but have done a few in my previous car (RX8) and love it. I will definatley be doing a trackday in the STI once I get a couple of thousand miles on it. Did the Isle of Man last year in the RX8 (Jurby track) and it was a top weekend, I liked driving the TT course more than the track, the mountain roads are fabulous, smooth as glass with no speed limits, long fast staights, fast corners, slow corners and even a hairpin. :thumb:

Each to their own.

As for the costs I don't think it's that expensive, I did 3 trackdays in the RX8 and still got 19k out of the tires and never replaced the brakes during the 2 and a bit years I owned it. At the end of the day you can still have a lot of fun in the car without killing it, afterall theses cars are designed to take a fair bit of abuse.

Chris.

PM me whenever ya fancy a brands or bedford bruv.:notworthy

might give Bedford a try, heard it's a good track with lots of run-off, don't mind travelling that far either, best tracks for my location are Donnington and Cadwell Park. Did Cadwell Park last year and it's a fine track. Gonna do a trip to the ring next year, Probably with some of the guy's off here.

Chris.

Ready, willing and semi able!:lol1:

I done a track day at Donington a few months ago and it was awesome fun to be able to drive the car fast. Nice to be able to explore the limits of handling in a safe environment and had good fun chasing a couple of Lotus Elises.

Conversely I'd point out that trackdays aren't competition. You're having a go at people for not tracking their cars but then you're only tracking yours during a wimpy, potter round the circuit track day (generalising for devils advocate).

Until you've competed against the clock you don't have a clue what you're missing. So forget trackdays and get yourself entered in a sprint or hillclimb. Sprints are on the same venues as many trackdays and so just as little to hit if you get it wrong. And you're out there on your own, not mixing it with bad boy, lax bowel, nova drivers with no talent. Just you and the clock, no warm up, no gradually building up to a good time, one chance and no excuses.

And with an average of only 4 or 5 runs a day you don't trash tyres, brakes or use gallons of petrol. The best of both worlds. OK you do need a licence and fireproof overalls but that's it, you already have a helmet if you're doing trackdays. Car mods are minimal and cheap..... when you start. But then costs you a fortune if the bug bites.

:thumb: ...Super.... I love Karting:luvlove: its great fun... I only wish some would organize it as a regional event sometime:idea:

My personal opinon on track days with MY car is that I wouldent do it even if someone paid the costs for me as a gift and reason being that thrashing the bollock$ out of MY car around a track would bring me no joy at all and thats the one and only reason... what someone else chooses to do with THEIRS does not concern me the least (each to their own)

For me having powerfull cars relates to what someone in USA said said about a gun... "Better to have one and not need it then to need one and not have it"

Happy new year to you all folks :notworthy

Very, very well said!!

Ben
:)

[QUOTE=agent003For me having powerfull cars relates to what someone in USA said said about a gun... "Better to have one and not need it then to need one and not have it" [/QUOTE]


:wonder: ?eh?:wonder:

troll troll troll!!
What is your 'real' username?? :thumb:

whats a troll?

You reckon the costs are £50 for petrol and £100 to use the track. Insurance, which you don't buy, costs about £80. That comes to £230. If your car doesn't have £270 worth of wear and tear on the tyres and brakes after a trackday then you are either:

a. driving like you have all the UK's traffic cops behind you as you pass through a high street; or
b. using a track with the smoothest track surface in the world; or
c. are a driving god with the smoothest and most mechanically sympathetic driving style ever seen.

Either way you are not representative of the average Scooby owner.

To be fair a track day will not destroy a set of brakes and tyres in one day. You'll change tyes and brakes anyway, with 1 or 2 track days a year, you'll change more often.

If you just used the car on track, you may get as much as 4 track days out of a set of pads and tyres. Use a set of race pads, and motor sport tyres and you might be looking at 7 track days.

However you then start getting in to knacker driveshafts, bearings...etc.

I'm also amazed at the amount people spend on there cars just to use them on a road, but it's just as surpising the amount of money spent on "track mods" when the car sees a track 1 or 2 times a year.

I once remember going out in someones car who said he had spent x and y on his car etc, and everytime he came to a hairpin he accelerated to early, got loads of understeer and went on to tell me how he needed uprated anti roll bars to cure the problem. I never bothered to tell him, how waiting and accelerating gently would get him around the same corner so much better.

Dave - beertime

and all chavs,poles and romanians insure their cars before driving on the public highway?

Imprezas ain't my idea of a decent track car.

They aren't robust enough, they cost far too much to modify to get them to handle and brake properly. And when the engine does throw its big-end its thousands to fix, not the hundreds it would cost to fix a say, CVH engined Westie.

Yeah if your rich kid who knows nothing about how cars should handle and can throw money at them willy nilly, sure go for it....goof for you :thumb: But for anyone who wants a car to go round a track properly, stay together and not the cost the earth, it won't be an Impreza Turbo :)

'moff now, see you next year :razz:

you`ll never convince someone whos ghey to take their impreza on the track

Another contender for Most Stupid Post of the Year 2006

Yes, you are absolutely right, I am a complete pauper....:cry:

Perhaps some of us have no interest in trackdays whatsoever, if I want a fun drive I would rather dodge sheep at the Hardknott Pass :)

Spot on. SM :)
They are quite an expensive car to track for exactly the reasons you have given. I have never tracked mine. But wouldn´t think twice of getting a 205 on a track or whatever because parts-consumerables costs are no big deal.
On a budget I would always go for a 205 or a MK2 golf MX5 ect ect. The track is also the place to have some RWD fun. There arent that many situations where you can SAFELY overstear on the road (good old empty wide wet roundabouts excepted ;)
The scooby is one of the ulitmate AtoB road cars. It is not one of the ulitmate track cars. (Granted people do track scoobies and have alot of fun)
Thats that Question Answered ;)

Totally agree mate would love to take mine on a track but its expensive enough keeping em on the road,not only that i`d be gutted if i binned it big time-being on a track i think theres always the temptation to find your cars/your limit, an like u say could end up being a costly experience in more ways than one that personally i just cant afford if the worst happened.

Trackdays are great fun but not cheap (not as expensive as some are making out though!!). So long as you don't crash, hit something, or get hit by someone anyway (that's rare at a well organised track event.)

Petrol - you'll use loads
Tyres - I got 15k miles out of my last set of rears on an s2000 including 3 track days, so you won't do too much damage in one day
Brakes - same as tyres really, you won't do too much damage
General wear and tear - sure it's a bit harder on the car, but one track day is hardly going to kill it !!!!!!

Loads of fun, but there are better cars on the track than a (standard) scooby.

Must admit I've only read the last page of this.
Freedom of choice is good to have and if a track-day (in anything) works for you that's great, but i am with Chelspeed (#40).

To get the real deal without car carnage (remember it's the driver that creates the problems, not the car) then Sprinting will stretch you so much further.
When you are on your own, against the clock, and you have one maybe 2 chances to WIN or loose against other very determined people in like cars (capacity.tyre type etc) then you will find out just how good you and the car are.

I have hillclimbed and sprinted for 14 years now and have driven Donnington once.
Annual costs are:

10 x meetings @ £90 each
Clothing/license etc £250 (license is £60)
Car club membership: £40
Car prep £15 (yes 15)(competative car prep: no limit...)
Fuel/burgers/pint at the end for the year: £150

In 14 years I have hit a tree in my old 911, a new clutch blew in the 911 and nothing has happened (yet) in my Impreza in the last 4 years.

Question is:

Compete to the limit of your ability or have a thrash around risking a lot lot more?

A typical hillclimb and sprint:
DropShots Day
DropShots Day

The EVO always beats me! :norty:

Graham

Nice :cool:

make sure your exhaust is well within the publisised limits for the track.

none of us can legally use our car's potential on the road - the track is the only place.

I have tracked mine

Its first track day was when it was 3 weeks old - cost £100 plus 3 tanks of petrol. No damage.
Second track excursion was the nurburgring, 13 laps of the ring and not a problem. Then a sprint on a kart circuit and another track day at Cadwell.

Cadwell was the hardest on the car due to the heavy braking zones but still no problems.

After that Snetterton and again no problems apart from some brake judder.

Wear and Tear on my car after:
.. Snetterton (about 210 track miles)
.. Nurburgring (about 170 very hard track miles)
.. MLR sprint
.. Honnington (about 30 track miles)
.. Cadwell (about 130 track miles)
.. Snetterton (about 60 track miles)
.. plus 15000 normal road miles

- 1 set of tyres RE070 (love them and the seemingly limitless grip and still have this set for future track days with about 3 mm tread left)
- pads worn about 25% (Ferodo DS2500 - changed from standard pre ring trip along with braided lines and RBF600 brake fluid)
- a couple of extra rattles
- a few stone chips on the front
- a couple of extra oil changes and topping up of brake fluid (but then most of the show and shine brigade here would do that anyway)

Sure there is some wear and tear but how much of this would be there anyway and the amount of LEGAL fun has been superb.

Ours are performance cars - we should use them as such.

Sorry to hijack the thread - but just have some thoughts and questions following the posts on this page, esp Graham's post (911).

Last year and this year I will be tracking the Subaru - that is why I spent money on suspension, roll cage, seat and harness. Just got back from a day at Donington on Friday (slippery as hell and full of rwd folks putting it in the gravel:( ). This is still my day car, but I do have a 205 road rally car in the garage if the scoob fails to get me to work.

I always try to take tuition at new tracks - and one of the points of starting with trackdays for me is to understand how to drive the car - on the basis that at my age knowledge is easier to aquire than talent:norty:

However, the plan is to start sprinting this year. So any advice on how to start Graham and venues near me (in N Yorks). I do have an MSA race B licence (for the road rallies).

Dave