2021 Track Expenses

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by uncle ben

Anyone have any ideas on how to lower track days costs?

Run 300tw tires?
Square tire setup? Rotate often?
DIY oil and other fluid changes?

Really not sure what would help. I’m really just guessing. I’m hoping that adding camber plates to my car will help me save some money from excessive should wear. Also tossing around the idea of a square setup.

Camber plates and square wheel/tire setup are at the top of the list.
Running a tire like the RS4 would also be helpful

[Suds]

Yeah, camber plates, square tire set ups to rotate front to rear.
After that is to stop chasing lap times.

Years ago I learned that the last 10% of hard driving did 90% of the tire wear.

Truth, this isn’t cheap.

Originally Posted by uncle ben

Anyone have any ideas on how to lower track days costs?

Run 300tw tires?
Square tire setup? Rotate often?
DIY oil and other fluid changes?

Really not sure what would help. I’m really just guessing. I’m hoping that adding camber plates to my car will help me save some money from excessive should wear. Also tossing around the idea of a square setup.

[jmg]

Originally Posted by uncle ben

Anyone have any ideas on how to lower track days costs?

Run 300tw tires?
Square tire setup? Rotate often?
DIY oil and other fluid changes?

Really not sure what would help. I’m really just guessing. I’m hoping that adding camber plates to my car will help me save some money from excessive should wear. Also tossing around the idea of a square setup.

Camber plates for sure! You can swap L to R if you are showing uneven wear, especially if the tracks you frequent are particularly brutal to one side over the other.

I'm trying to control my budget by sticking to the "arrive and drive" model. No towing, no dedicated track car, no slicks. Keeps the mods street legal too. I won't get the fastest lap times, but it's not really a race unless I'm doing time attacks or autocrosses, but even then I'm doing pretty good. The F8X is big enough to fix 4 wheels if you want to have a dedicated set of track wheels to bring along.

I mentioned earlier, I do some graphic design work for one of the organizers in exchange for a decent discount. I like to do that stuff anyway, so I basically combined two hobbies into one.

I also sometimes check for last second track days where some organizers are offering discounts a few days before the track day to fill up spots. If you find yourself with a free day with no plans, go to motorsportsreg and see what's coming up. You might find some good discounts with the smaller clubs. Weekday track days are excellent because tracks are generally cheaper to rent on weekdays and less people are free. The low car count is an added bonus.

Be sure to check local tracks themselves and some parking lot "races", which are similar to autocrosses. They are timed, but aren't sanctioned by the SCCA, don't take the whole day, and are usually with curbing instead of just cones. These offer a quick fix with less wear and tear, cheaper fees, and only take up a few hours as opposed to the whole day. Our local one was puretrack.net. Maybe there's one in your area.

Someone also mentioned writing this off as a business expense. If you have a corporation or business, check with your accountant which expenses you can write off. You might have to find a way to legitimize those expenses as relevant to what your business does. This can be quite a good amount saved in reducing your taxable income.

[FrankMstein]

motorsportsreg is where it's at!

[NYG]

I refuse to even know.

[phefner]

Did the same analysis on my Porsche GT4 after a year of tracking, 8 days. All consumables plus insurance came to about $2000 for each track day. That's having the dealer doing all the maintenance. Much of it accelerated (oil/brake fluid/etc..).

More DIY maintenance seemed to be the best way to reduce costs. No surprise right.

I sorted an F30 for track work earlier this year, and it was trending to be about $620/day.

Recently acquired an F80 M3 which goes in on Wednesday to get sorted. Will update.

[uncle ben]

I really thought a 200tw tire would last longer than a 100tw tire.

I am currently running 200tw tires, and without camber plates, stock suspension, my front tires were shot after 2 track days. The outer shoulders were completely worn.

After sorting out some camber plates and adjusting my camber, I still am only getting about 4 track days on a set of front tires (200 tread wear). The inside tread is fine, but the outer third of the tire is completely worn.

I spoke to someone who was running nitto nt-01 tires, which have a treadwear rating of 100. But apparently these tires seem to last much longer. People seem to be able to get many more than 4 track days on a front set of tires.

I wonder how much tire selection impacts the cost of tracking your car. Any standout value tires, vs high performance, high cost selections.

[bkd705]

Originally Posted by uncle ben

I really thought a 200tw tire would last longer than a 100tw tire.

I am currently running 200tw tires, and without camber plates, stock suspension, my front tires were shot after 2 track days. The outer shoulders were completely worn.

After sorting out some camber plates and adjusting my camber, I still am only getting about 4 track days on a set of front tires (200 tread wear). The inside tread is fine, but the outer third of the tire is completely worn.

I spoke to someone who was running nitto nt-01 tires, which have a treadwear rating of 100. But apparently these tires seem to last much longer. People seem to be able to get many more than 4 track days on a front set of tires.

I wonder how much tire selection impacts the cost of tracking your car. Any standout value tires, vs high performance, high cost selections.

RS4s are a great balance of performance, cost, tread life and ability to learn. You'll get great tread life out of them since they're an endurance tire, honestly last so long. They're great for learning the car since they have a lower limit than something like an NT-01, A052, RE71R, etc but are only like 1-1.5 seconds off pace with those tires overall.

Also buy camber plates, that'll save you lots of money in tire costs.