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Trackday Companies - AutoExpress Review


michael
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Hopefully 2004 will allow me lots more fun on the track, I'm sure a fair few people on here will also be aching to play with their cars in a safer environment too so I was hoping this would be of interest.

 

This weeks AutoExpress has an interesting review on trackday companies - basically they took their long-term VX220 and EVO along to 7 events and reviewed each one based on their experiences - this is how they worked it out:

 

"As value for money is the key factor in this test, we worked out how many miles you could complete in the amount of time the track was open. We drove a 30-minute session at each circuit before stopping for half-an-hour to allow the car - and ourselves - a chance to cool down, then repeated the process for as long as possible.

 

The more flexible events featured open pitlanes, allowing virtually unlimited track sessions, and no lunch breaks, while at the restricted format days you could be left queuing to take your turn on the circuit. Prices quoted are an average cost for each company, as they can vary significantly from event to event, depending on the circuit. We also took account of factors such as ease of booking, pre-event information, track day events scheduled for 2004 and the all important driver safety briefings"

 

Here is the list of companies and tracks involved with prices and ratings out of 5 using *s (link to scanned article below): -

 

Gold Track

http://www.goldtrack.co.uk

Goodwood

£250

***

 

Easy Track

http://www.easytrack.co.uk

Goodwood

£180

****

 

RMA

http://www.rma-limited.com

Bedford Autodrome

****

 

BookaTrack

http://www.bookatrack.com

Donnington

£150

***

 

Palmer Sport

http://www.palmersport.com

Bedford Autodrome

£180

*****

 

Track-Action

http://www.track-action.co.uk

Oulton Park

£150

***

 

Motorsport Events

http://www.motorsport-events.com

Keevil Airfield

£99

***

 

 

Summary (the bit I snipped in the scanning process):

 

"Did we enjoy ourselves? You bet! Even at the less well organised events we had a ball because there is nothing to compare with pushing yourself and your car to the limit.

 

So which of the seven impressed us the most? Palmer Sport's event really shone as a good value, high entertainment day and was easily our Best Buy choice. If you are a notice driver the Easy Track event is a great introduction, offering value and a really friendly atmosphere.

 

Finally only the high price prevented the slick and stylish RMA event from finishing no better than third"

 

1st Place - Palmer Sport

2nd Place - Easy Track

3rd Place - RMA

 

I've scanned the full article in so you can see how they reached their decisions - personally I've only ever been to BookaTrack events and found them to be great but I suspect I might try a few other companies now I've read this - to be fair on BookaTrack I suspect the event they went to wasn't really a good indicator of them as a whole but all the same some interesting points are raised.

 

Has anyone here been with the companies mentioned? If so which one would you recommend? Any others they didn't try out?

 

http://www.megaboost.co.uk/articles

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Originally posted by NWS25

I doubt the SIDC would say anything good about Palmer motorsport :flame Dev (thats probably me banned now aswell)

 

I've never done a track day, but i'm definately up for one next year.

 

 

LOL - guess I should go and read some Impreza archives before going for Palmer then :)

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I've used EasyTrack and they were very good, and cheaper than most (especially GoldTrack who seem to charge a fortune). I think there's more to it than just the time you get on track though, like whether there are instructors available if you want and how much they cost, how good the marshalling is etc.

 

I've not been on an open pit lane one, but I think I prefer the session based ones. At least you know there are only a certain number of cars on track at once, and most places group cars and drivers of roughly the same speed together to try and reduce traffic problems. Plus you are forced to come in and let your car cool down every so often. I'd be tempted to bomb round all day and break something otherwise ... :p

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I've used Motorsport events a couple of times and have been pretty impressed. They are a "no thrills" trackday, based around ex-airfields, which gives plenty of run-off. Because of that the tracks are not the most exciting/best around, but with the choice of that or a more exciting track with barriers, I know which I would prefer...

 

The organisers are pretty on the ball and the other people attending always seem to be a good crowd.

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