Yearly Track Costs (or how to spend $20K/yr on a $10K Porsche)
 

I get a lot of questions that start out with something like, "So, what does it cost for a year of tracking your Boxster?". Here is the general answer. I am sure that you could do the same number of days and spend less and I am definitely sure that you could spend more. Of course, your mileage may vary.

It's a good thing that my wife doesn't belong to the 986Forum. :D

2012 Number of Track Days: 28

Tracks: Streets of Willow, Willow Springs Big Track, AutoClub Speedway, Pomona Road Course, Mazda Laguna Seca, Buttonwillow Raceway.

• Registration Fees: $5,200 (Ave = $185 per day)
• Tires: 5 sets x $800 per set = $4,000 (5th set is brand new and will be used into early 2013)
• Fuel: 1 fill-up per track day: $50 x 28 = $1,400
• Brakes: 2 sets F/R pads + 2 sets of F/R rotors = $1,100 (DIY)
• Oil/Oil Filter: 5 changes x $100 each = $500 (DIY)
• Air Filter: 5 x $20 each = $100 (DIY)
• Major Service: $380 (DIY)
• Travel (hotels, meals, etc): $1,000 (most tracks are within driving distance of my house and I drive home on Sat night for most weekend events)
• At Track Support: $450 (HRG Team support)
• Repairs:
• 1. $240 Shift cables adjustment + trans fluid service
• 2. $600 P0410/P4111 CEL’s

Total = $14,970


Optional:

• Professional Driving Instruction: $900 (best $900 ever spent!)
• PSS9/996 sways/etc full suspension upgrade: $4,200
• HANS device: $700
• Plasti-Dip Track and Street Wheels: $72
• Under drive pulley/new belt: $240 (DIY)
• GoPro HD Camera/Mount: Free (Thanks Little “t”)

Total: $6,112

If all goes according to plan (hah!), in 2013 I'd like to buy a full Spec Boxster (BSR) and start wheel-to-wheel racing.

You are definitely hitting the track pipe hard. Good for you. When you get the spec Boxster, name it 8 Ball.

What is your cost/per mile of actual racing?

Cost per hour is a lot easier to calculate than cost per mile;

28 days x minimum 4 sessions/day x 0.5 hours/session = 56 hours of track time (minimum)
$14,970/56 = $267 per track hour

Ouch! I own and operate a small aircraft 80hrs a year for about 60% of that and that includes hangar rental.

My airplane only gets 17mpg...@~180mph.

Thanks thstone, I will come back here and read this every time I start to feel bad about the various money pits in my life!:p:cheers:

Reason I asked about cost/mile is that is typically how I calculate out my rally costs. It can be $1500-2000 per weekend, lots of travelling, but we'll have 130+ miles of WOT through the woods. So for me $15-20 per stage mile is typically a "good deal" for me...

jeeez did you have to spell it out!! now I have no excuse for "not knowing"

If anyone EVER lets my wife see this thread I'll never get back to the track for a DE.

Seriously!

The old adage never fails...you have to pay to play. I love my Box dearly, but I will stick with bikes for my track addiction, fast speed and cheaper to play. It's guys like you with the dedication to the tracking the cars that makes it fun to watch.

So another factor to add into your budget, value of friends watching you have fun....priceless!

With a Spec Boxster, your fuel costs will triple, right??? Figure $9.00/gallon minimum for 100 octane.

I'm with @JayKay….I wish I did not know! The bikes are a heck of a lot cheaper…until you watch your wife go down. Could not do it without her!

…and IF she ever sees this thread - the DREAM is DEAD!

Thanks for the info, but as she says, "Keep it to yourself, keep it to yourself"

How do you make a rich man into a poor man? Start racing! Good luck with that. Keep the GoPro going so we can live it without the repair bills! BTW your season was pretty cheap. We raced a 3 state area and spent $20k ON BIKES!!! And the RACE gas adds up - but love the smell of that stuff. It is like crack for racers!

I'm with shadrach, after reading what Stoney posted it made my Searay Sundancer days and the related fees feel nearly FREE!!

Yeah, not supposed to do that. I try not to add up multiple events at a time, or ever look at the sum of a whole season!

Boxster Spec has basically the same operating costs for fuel, tires, brakes, and other associated racing expenses. No race gas allowed and it also has a spec 100TW tire.

Yeah, I kept ALL my costs the first 2 years of Formula Ford racing, then decided I didn't want to know! Though after the initial investment, I did manage a $5k cap for those years.

Nope. Normal gas only. However, regarding "triple", I'd like to know where you find $3 gas! :D Out here in CA we've been in the $4 range this year, and the pumps at the tracks are more like $5.

Standard 91 octane pump gas runs $7/gal at most tracks.

Average speed approx 80mph= $3.34/mile :cheers:

You are an animal Tom. Nice breakdown of a years worth of quality track time. I don't spend quite as much with a shared trackside motor home for lodging and always running off-site 91 gas that we bring with us. It is sobering to see where the money goes though. It compares pretty well with airplane ownership or being a member of a private golf country club.

The big difference is... golf is a 1 ball sport. Racing a Boxster requires 2 balls. :cheers:

It was just a WAG. I took Thstone's $50 tank price and devided by 16 gallons, and got about $3.

Quote of the week! LOL!! :)

It was an approximation. I estimated $50 a tank by starting with a 1/4 tank already in the car: 12 gal x $4.xx/gal = ~$50. Some tracks use more fuel, some less. You get the idea.

You just wait Helfrich...
 

You just wait Helfrich, soon you'll be burning threw a set of tires in a weekend, then you'll be spending $14,970 on rubber alone!

I used to be able to get 20 heat cycles out of a set, then 16 heat cycles, and now 10 heat cycles are about the max before the car starts pushing... Last time I was at Willow with 12 heat cycle tires, the car was pushing so badly threw the omega, I had to rotate the steering wheel over 180 degrees in order to make the apex at four!

But hey, as Marty told me, you could always go slower! :eek:

Little "t" - I'm going to have to do more than burn through a lot more rubber if I am going to keep up with you. I'm going to have to use my secret weapon in 2013. Stand by....

WWMMD! Or as I like to say, WMD!

Just for information sake.i ran 5 race weekends in the PCA club race circuit in SpecBox in 2012 and my total spend was over $25K including hotels and fuel to and from the track. About 6K was on repairs maintenance and upgrades. All the rest were normal racing expenses including tires, brakes, entry fees, fuel, etc. . I'm budgeting 20k for 5 races in 2013 and keeping 5K available for unexpected contingencies. 2012 was effectively my rookie year and a lot of the 6k was just getting things sorted.

2013 I'm going to learn how to make tires last longer. I was running an average of 1 new set of tires every weekend (5 grand right there) and people faster than I were asking tires to last twice as long. I've also bought an RV which will reduce my 3K hotel bill.

Happy new year everybody.a

Forgot in my previous post that I also did 3 DE weekends so in fact my total spend is spread over ~15 days of racing (5x3day weekends) and 6 days of DE (3x2day). Total of 21 days.

I really can't see how you spent $3800 per race weekend. At this point, in my 4th year of racing, I spend about $1500 per weekend and that includes all consumables,(on race car and tow vehicle!), entry fees, hotel bills, etc... Even includes garage rental at the track... You must stay at some really nice hotels.....:D

Well the break down is;
TOTAL $25,997.27

Accommodation $2,837.48 (avg approx $100 per night)
Fuel (travel and at track) $3,894.63 (avg distance to event = 600+miles)
Brakes and tires $5994.41 (6 sets tires & 4 sets brake pads)
Other parts, updates and accessories $6473.66 (as mentioned largely 1 time exp)
Safety equiptment $1312.61 (new helmet and suit)
Service and repairs $816.75 (paint repairs and alignments)
Entrance and Licence fees $4667.73

Obviously, some of this is non-repeating (IE I only need a new helmet every 5 years), I choose to travel a long way to events and that costs me and, as I stated, I probably spent more on tires than I needed to. Because of this I have budgeted $20,000 for 6 events for next year which will still be over $3,000 per event. That, of course, will go to hell if I crash, drop a gearbox or blow a motor (all of which are always possible in a race car). I would be delighted if I could drop that number to $1500 (and so would my wife) but I can't see it in the near future. Any advice happily accepted.

Also of note is that my numbers have a lot of similarity to the original post. If you added my onetime charges and travel costs to his total you would end up in a very similar place.