First track day

[Burg Boxster]

Damn your PCA events are cheap!

Don't forget requisite brewski budget while sharing stories in pits of who's faster than who AFTER track goes cold

[husker boxster]

Agree with Randle about costs.

My local track raised their price this yr to $300 for a 2 day event. I spent $550 for a 2 day DE at Laguna Seca last yr. I just spent $775 for a 3 day DE at COTA. It depends on the popularity of the track and what the mkt will bear when it comes to cost.

Insurance: it depends on your particular company. I have State Farm and supposedly they will fix your car if you wreck it at a DE but will then cancel you. Other companies won't fix your car at all. There's a company named Locton that does DE ins and I add that to the cost of my DE weekends. You can buy ins per event and the premium is based on the value of your car and the deductible you choose. I value my CSS at $38K and choose a 10% deductible, so my premium is generally around $250. One thing to know about the deductible: they take the full deductible off the top before they start paying. So to keep things simple, if my car is worth $40K and I choose the 10% deductible and I incur $5K of damage, I will pay $4K of it and Locton the other $1K. It's NOT me paying $500 (10% of the damage) and Locton pays the other $4500. You pay first.

Do you need track ins? As Dirty Harry says, "do you feel lucky, punk?" You can be tooling along minding your own business when someone dumps oil all over the track, which you subsequently spin in. I'm starting my 4th season of DEing and I've seen 3 cars wrecked, one very badly. And the value of your car comes into play too. Maybe you can afford to write off your $12K Boxster so you don't "need" ins. You roll the dice and takes your chances.

Tech inspections: It can be a crap shoot. I've been thru some who took your tech sheet and didn't bother to spend a minute looking at your car. I've had others that looked at brake pads, rotors, brake lights, etc. NASA runs a pretty tight tech inspection, which I think is good. I never understand ppl who show up to a multi-day DE, get thru tech and after the 1st run their tires are chorded or their pads are shot (and not from driving hard in that 1st session). They didn't come prepared. So now they're scrambling to get repairs done before they lose valuable time on the track or they're packing up to leave. Why? Have your car properly prepped and you won't have any problems getting thru tech. Maybe techs are lax because they figure you should come prepared and if you don't, it's at your expense. IDK

And for those of you who have never done a DE before, you don't have to drive like a bat outa hell. I generally drive about 8/10s and I get plenty of enjoyment from that pace. I keep an eye on my mirrors and let the track rats by as quickly as I can. I hate catching someone and then they feel the obligatory need to 'race' you before they let you by. I'm sure the track rats hate that too, so I'm not going to hold them up. But I run 8/10s because at the end of the day I have to drive my car home and to work the next day. But that's OK. You're not driving for a trophy or prize money. It's for enjoyment. And lots of it.

[Jager]

Originally Posted by husker boxster

Agree with Randle about costs.

My local track raised their price this yr to $300 for a 2 day event. I spent $550 for a 2 day DE at Laguna Seca last yr. I just spent $775 for a 3 day DE at COTA. It depends on the popularity of the track and what the mkt will bear when it comes to cost.

Insurance: it depends on your particular company. I have State Farm and supposedly they will fix your car if you wreck it at a DE but will then cancel you. Other companies won't fix your car at all. There's a company named Locton that does DE ins and I add that to the cost of my DE weekends. You can buy ins per event and the premium is based on the value of your car and the deductible you choose. I value my CSS at $38K and choose a 10% deductible, so my premium is generally around $250. One thing to know about the deductible: they take the full deductible off the top before they start paying. So to keep things simple, if my car is worth $40K and I choose the 10% deductible and I incur $5K of damage, I will pay $4K of it and Locton the other $1K. It's NOT me paying $500 (10% of the damage) and Locton pays the other $4500. You pay first.

Do you need track ins? As Dirty Harry says, "do you feel lucky, punk?" You can be tooling along minding your own business when someone dumps oil all over the track, which you subsequently spin in. I'm starting my 4th season of DEing and I've seen 3 cars wrecked, one very badly. And the value of your car comes into play too. Maybe you can afford to write off your $12K Boxster so you don't "need" ins. You roll the dice and takes your chances.

Tech inspections: It can be a crap shoot. I've been thru some who took your tech sheet and didn't bother to spend a minute looking at your car. I've had others that looked at brake pads, rotors, brake lights, etc. NASA runs a pretty tight tech inspection, which I think is good. I never understand ppl who show up to a multi-day DE, get thru tech and after the 1st run their tires are chorded or their pads are shot (and not from driving hard in that 1st session). They didn't come prepared. So now they're scrambling to get repairs done before they lose valuable time on the track or they're packing up to leave. Why? Have your car properly prepped and you won't have any problems getting thru tech. Maybe techs are lax because they figure you should come prepared and if you don't, it's at your expense. IDK

And for those of you who have never done a DE before, you don't have to drive like a bat outa hell. I generally drive about 8/10s and I get plenty of enjoyment from that pace. I keep an eye on my mirrors and let the track rats by as quickly as I can. I hate catching someone and then they feel the obligatory need to 'race' you before they let you by. I'm sure the track rats hate that too, so I'm not going to hold them up. But I run 8/10s because at the end of the day I have to drive my car home and to work the next day. But that's OK. You're not driving for a trophy or prize money. It's for enjoyment. And lots of it.

Hey, NASA is one of my customers, you must have a hot Cayman if they are inspecting it.

[husker boxster]

Originally Posted by Jager

Hey, NASA is one of my customers, you must have a hot Cayman if they are inspecting it.

I wondered why they were in moon suits.

Tires and brakes are consumables if you get into DEs. There's a good chance as a rookie you'll wear more off your tire shoulders because you take the wrong line thru a corner and the car chatters for traction on the exit. Your car will tell you when you find the proper line.

[thstone]

Mark_T and RedTele, thanks for the comments - glad to help anytime.

All of the other advice is pretty much spot on!

The only thing that I'd add is to say if you've never done a track day, you really should. The experience, even if only once, will be worth 10x the price of admission. You will finally really understand why they say, "Porsche. There is no substitute"!

[Mark_T]

Originally Posted by thstone

The only thing that I'd add is to say if you've never done a track day, you really should. The experience, even if only once, will be worth 10x the price of admission. You will finally really understand why they say, "Porsche. There is no substitute"!

Couldn't possibly agree more with that. It was a real eye-opener.

[Timco]

Did the 918 eventually catch fire??

[Mark_T]

I DID drive like a bat out of hell. 100% all the time when it was safe to do so. This was a strictly controlled event with passing only allowed in certain straight sections, and then only with the permission of the leading car. Permission was given by putting on your left indicator and hugging the right side of the track, slowing enough to let the faster car by. The idea was to give up position to a faster car and not try to race him or prevent the pass. As this was a PCA event, everyone behaved like gentlemen and we all had a good day without incident.

One of the frustrating aspects of the event was catching up to the 911's in the twisty parts of the track, only to have them pull away hard down the main straight. Then I would gradually catch up to them again until I was right on their tail just before they hit the main straight again and opened up the distance. One of the 996's let me pass him because I was crowding his tail for most of the track and he couldn't get enough distance in the straight to stay ahead of me. That felt really good!

[Van914]

I just signed up for a DE on the Indy Road course. Can't wait to cross this off the Bucket List.

[NewArt]

Lucky you! I couldn't make the Tremblant DE this past weekend but i'm signed up for June 15 & 16. A birthday present to me! Hope to see you there!