jason_w_carter

I am about to purchase my first weekend/track only car. I am not looking to be competitive, just to run as many track days as I can. I have decided that I will be getting a turbo 99+ Miata or a 97-99 C5. I've been wanting a C5 for years now.

The part that actually makes this a tough decision is that my track budget will be a maximum of $1200 per year with a C5 and $2300 with a turbo Miata, including track fees, parts, and everything else. The difference is because I can get a turbo Miata for $3000-$5000 less than a stock C5.

In order for me to make a good decision for my tiny budget, I need to know how many track days I can get out of a set of Summer tires (at first) and R compounds (later on). Can any of you answer that question for me, from experience? I would be driving on stock C5 wheels. It looks like I may not be able to make the jump to R-compounds until my track budget grows. The R-compounds will probably require me to use better brake pads and maybe rotors.

I just searched for track expenses after writing most of this post. It doesn't look so good, damnit. It looks like I might be able to afford only 1-2 days per year! That's still more than I have had for the past 35 years.

drivinhard

in the long run, I think you'll find the C5 more reliable than a turbo miata, and the C5 is the easiest car on tires I've ever had on a race track (seriously).

AU N EGL

$1200 per year?

No offense friend that is one weekend when you look at all the associated costs.


Forget the turbo Miata. Just a regular Miata with a roll bar. and you can do quite a bit and have lots and lots of fun. Set of Toyo 888s will last all year.

or the C5. a set of Toyo 888s or Nittos ( about $ 1300)

Event budget can be cut down some what, however events run $400 to $600 entry fee for two days no matter what car you run.

that does not count car prep at all. Fuel to, from and during the event plus food, lodging. plus misc.

jason_w_carter

I have thought about that too. With a turbo car you have a lot more fittings and fasteners to check. Plus, a stock LS1 is not stressed very much. A 1.8 liter is working HARD to make 350 at the crank. It is also a big problem to keep those cars from overheating on tracks. My wife is voting for the Corvette too. Money talks though.

jason_w_carter

No offense taken... It is better to hear this stuff now and get prepared for it. I guess I would have to cut into my normal "money to blow" part of my budget. I blow a crap load of money by eating out almost every day of the week. Then I would have $2400 a year. That might be enough for me to have a little fun on the track. I thought track fees were close to $300 per day. I was way off on that one.

froggy47

You are so far off as to an annual track day budget, I really don't know where to start.

Let's forget the cost of the car for now (of course I would go with the Vette).

PER EVENT YOU HAVE (based on my experience),

Fees 225. ONE DAY EVENT

Gas to/from (varies on distance to track) 100 to 200 round trip.

Hotel 2 nights 100 to 200

Gas on track 2 days 150

meals 2 days 50

pads per event 100 (say 1 set of pads goes 2 events)

rotors per event 50 (say 1 set of rotors goes 4 events)

fluids (oil tranny diff p/s brake fluid/bleeds 50

wheel bearings 1400 annual

tires maybe 4 events on streets so 1 tire per event average 300.

Could you just gas it up & do ONE event for $350 or $450 if the track was close & no hotel well, yes maybe if nothing broke.

But unless you drive every lap at parade speed you ARE going to consume all the above & more.

BTW all the above ASSUMES you are doing ALL your own service work. ADD additional shop rates for your area if you are not.

Hope this helps & not to discourage you, but track days are not cheap & then there is always wrecking your car.

Maybe try autox for a year or two? Much safer & less consuming of most of the above.

My annual budget for about 24 autox events & 2 DE is about (WAG) 5 to 6K doing all services myself and local tracks & autox only (no hotel)

AU N EGL

No you are right. $200 to $300 per day, some are less, some are more. entry fees only.

Foggy has a good break down on OTHER costs that are necessary.



Being in Alabama, travel is the big one. Unless you do all your events at Barber Motorsports park

Short-Throw

They are.

Tom is suggesting that $400-600 is for 2 days which is usually the length term of most track events.

Also, you say you don't care about being competitive, but think about this: With seat will come more skill and while overall you will learn to preserve your equipment better, your overall increasing skill will put more wear and tear on your components as you become a more adept driver.


Mike

AU N EGL

Mike mentioned

Best modifications to ANY CAR that is tracked are Contact patches, no matter what car you get.

tires
Brake Pads, brake fluid and cooling ducts
Seats and harness.

AlwaysInBoost

have you considered autocrossing? you don't get the same amount of seat time as doing an HPDE, but it is much less of a hit to the wallet.

longdaddy

honestly, i would not bother buying a "track-only" car, just take your daily driver to a lapping day couple of times a year on this kind of budget.

froggy's post is pretty dead on, individual expenses may vary (i.e. you may be able to get 6-7 days out of a set of tires, but your sign-up fees on the track of your choice could be up to $300), but overall math is very close to reality.

i try to budget close to 2k on 1 out of state weekend track trip. a day at the local track ends up costing about $700, this is tires, brakes, fees, lunch, gas - not including any repairs/maintinance on the car that i may need to do afterwards.

turbo miata will be a lot cheaper on tires and brakes (probably a third to a half of corvette's consumables budget), but you may have more mechanical maintainance costs in the long run, as you are running heavily modified car.

sothpaw2

This is good advice. Your only shot on this budget is to get a daily/semi-daily driver and run it on street tires and street pads. You can get a C5 and run stock C5Z pads that will last a while in green group as will your rotors. Street tires will last waaaaaay longer than your budget...$300 for a 2-day is the cheapest event fee I've seen (that includes getting the car checked out by a local mechanic--a necessary fee). I'd say if you find those types at close by tracks (no hotel) you might do 2 or 3 events per year. I put 12 days on my OE type F1 SuperCar tires and the fronts still are not corded yet on the corner; they have plenty of tread for wet weather in the center. I replaced them (ie--street only) after this due to age (rears have little wear)--you will too.

By doing it this way you can avoid adding the tires into your track budget--street tires need to go every 3 years or so anyway if you want them to really grip.

The Panther

This is exactly what I am doing right now. I have only run once at Road Atlanta, but I have signed up for 4 more events over the next two months at other tracks. PM me if you are interested and I can share with you what this is costing me.

95jersey

Did you ever think of Auto-x? HPDE is VERY expensive hobby, you need SEVERAL thousand per year with even a budget set up on a 10 year old car. I would get into auto-x and progress from there. The entry fee is very cheap and the events are closer than typical road courses and you probably wouldn't need hotels and large travel expenses.

Bill Dearborn

If you run a completely stock C5 and do 4 two day events per year you will be looking at getting more than a season out of a set of R compound tires.

Using the stock C5 brake pads (not C5 Z06 stock pads) and flipping the fronts from side to side at the end of every day you will go through a set of front pads every 3 track days and a set of rears every 6 to 7 days. Using the OEM pads the rotors will last about 3 seasons. You will not be quite as fast as some of the other C5s because the brakes are not as effective but you will be faster than a Miata. I purchased a new 97 and ran it for 3 seasons using OEM pads so have experience with how many days the pads and the rotors will last. I was not a newbie when doing that though. I already had 5 seasons of track experience when I got the car so was able to adapt to the braking while still keeping a good speed.

A set of OEM type tires will last for probably two seasons. I am running the GY Supercar EMTs on my C6Z at this time and am having trouble wearing them out. I bought them mounted on wheels with 8K miles on them. The rears were worn on the outside and had a minimum 3/32 tread depth. After 8 track days and 3 autocrosses the rears are down to less than 2/32 on the outside but still allow me to turn in good times. The autocrosses were harder on the rears than the track days as I was spinning the rears during the autocrosses. I am running my last event of the season this week and fully expect that I will be running these rear tires for a couple of days next year. The fronts probably will go another half season at a minimum.

If you go with the Miata the reason you should have chosen the Vette will become evident on the track. The speed difference is huge. I can't imagine sitting in a Miata at WOT and max speed watching cars in the mirror coming up from behind at speeds 30 to 50 mph faster. Hills make the problem worse as the Miata's slow down on the hills while high powered torque monsters like Vettes accelerate up the hills.

Bill

jason_w_carter

My daily driver is NOT an option to take to a track! It is a commuter car only. I sold my 2005 Subaru Legacy GT so that I could get a dedicated track car. Before getting a track car though, I had to get a cheap commuter car to get back and forth to work. So, I bought an 2008 Hyundai in September of 2008. :o Yeah... it's bad ***. It even has an automatic transmission. So, tracking that car would just be a bad joke and so slow that it would be a safety hazard.

I have done autocrosses in my old 2003 WRX and in my old 2004 GTO. They are fun, but I have had a lot more fun driving faster than I should have been driving on curvy country roads. It is just more smooth. Autocrosses have a lot of almost violent turns.

sothpaw2

Dump the Hyundai and get a 2000-2002 Neon for $2-3k. Then use the vette for daily driving w/the Neon as 1/2 time daily driver. Neon costs nothing to insure or maintain or in depreciation.

Bill Dearborn

Neon's make great low cost track cars. With the correct Mopar options they can even go fairly fast.

Bill

Aardwolf

You said, 1 to 2 track days per year. At that rate tires would last you YEARS. A decent track/street type tire that you can drive to the track on and use in the rain would last something like approx 8 full weekends. You can also buy used and not spend much so tire budget can be very low for just having fun.

Same for pads as you can get used pads, they will last you a very long time as well at that rate.

joemoia

My experience was that when I first started doing track events, a set of street tires (GY SC/Kumho MX) w/stock alignment lasted about 1 yr./10-12 trackdays.

When I swiched to R compound (Nitto R2/NT01) with a track alignment a set of tires lasted 4-5 trackdays.