After having my appetite whetted by the brief track session at Prodrive Live earlier this year, I'm finally getting the urge to do my first 'proper' track day. I have a few dumb questions that I'm hoping one of the trackday regulars might be able to help with:

- My car has some perfectly good 17" wheels and tyres, which I'd rather not destroy. I do, however, have the original 16" wheels with a barely legal set of tyres piled up in my study, which I figure would be ideal. Do most venues have somewhere I can use to swap them over before the event and, more importantly, back again afterwards? How about somewhere (preferably secure) to keep the good set while I'm on track?

- My front brake pads have, apparently, about 3000 road miles left before they need replacing. Should I swap them before a track day, afterwards, or both?

- Where's a good venue for a rather nervous track novice to start? (I'm in Bucks, so Silverstone and Thruxton circuits are reasonably handy, but there must be plenty of others).

- I'm in the fortunate position of having the choice of two cars to take. One is obviously the Scooby, grippy and powerful but highly polished, expensive to run and still under warranty. The other is a Westfield, already a bit tatty (so I don't care about stone chips), cheaper to run and obviously a more focused driving experience, but more inclined to swap ends when I inevitably overdo it. Which would you choose?

- The fuel tank on the Westy lasts about 100 road miles. Would it last a track session? You CAN refuel at these events, yes?

All advice welcome, please - I've read all the FAQs about warming up, cooling down, inflating tyres and so on but just need a little more help and encouragement!

Cheers
Andy.

 

You'll need a trolley jack (30 quid from Halfords) and a bicycle chain to chain the other wheels together. At most places you'll be OK to leave stuff, but I like to chain the wheels up anyway

Before. You'll destroy them and then have to sit out the rest of the day. Make sure you get some that are up to track use (Mintex 1155, Pagid RS42, Ferodo DS2500 notEBCs)

Silverstone needs about 600bhp and RWD to make it fun (in a Scoob you can take virtually any line around a corner because you're invariably not going fast enough to be on the limit). Bedford Autodrome is excellent, although if one of the trackday companies organizes airfield days near you that's an excellent place to start. I recommend Bookatrack, but they've been forced by local councils to stop running at the places near me (Oakington and Bentwaters).

Westie. IMHO a Scoob is quite boring to drive around a track unless you've mastered 4WD 4 wheel drifts. With the Westie you can go sideways a lot and it costs a lot less on track (in terms of tyre wear, brake wear, etc.)

Probably not. In the Scoob I reckon on about 8mpg on track, but then again my dad has an MX-5 that doesn't seem to use much fuel on track

Bedford has refuelling facilities, but at most places you'll have to pop down to the nearest petrol station, remembering to change back to your road-legal tyres first

I think it's worthwhile to invest in (a) a decent tyre pressure gauge and (b) one of those little compressors you power from the *** lighter socket

 

carl,

Why not EBCs for track days?

 

Andy, can I suggest Goodwood - they keep the numbers very limited and limit on track to max 5 at a time - check out track days...10th August.

 

If your really nervous like me as I have seen some "***** on the track" they do airfield training days at North Weald in essex,
4 cars per day on different parts of the airfield with the instructor spending some time with each, plenty of room to spin the car & nothing to hit. A safe way to find the limit of you & the car before you venture onto a track.

Their web site is Sales@1stLotus.com

Stuart

 

I understand (although I don't have first-hand experience) that Green, Red and Yellow Stuff all disintegrate pretty quickly on a track when used on a Scoob. YMMV, etc.

 

Take the Wessie and a Jerry can of fuel.EBC redstuffmine lasted 30 minutes and lots of brake damage followed(broken caliper,loss of fluid,flames)

 

Westi. No question.

Where abouts are you? I'm in reading. Once you've got the taste though I recomend going sprinting try the wscc pages.

I went to bruntingthorpe for my first day (an airfield) cost about £90 and about £50 on fuel take a couple of jerry cans

 

Silverstone has a petrol station in side the circuit too- so no need to worry bout that.

 

Im doing Silverstone on Wednesday with Bookatrack, but there is also an event tomorrow with Easytrack.

IMHO do an airfield day 1st with the Westie, and take your Scoob to the odd SIDC Track days.

 

Thanks everyone - Westy plus a couple of Jerry cans it is

Andy.