Cost of track day consumables for brz vs corvettes vs cayman

[johnbrz]

Originally Posted by CSG Mike

Are you looking at purely consumables (gas, tires, brakes, etc.), or from a complete vehicular amortization schedule?

just consumables

[staples323]

Originally Posted by johnbrz

just consumables

Very user and track dependent but gas roughly $60 a day, maxxis rc-1 can go 20-25 heat cycles so about $150, brakes fronts can last about a season and rears 2 season so maybe ~$30. $240-$260 depending on if I run a brake heavy track, or one with a lot of wot time so more gas.

Contingency helps with tires as I can usually only have to buy 1 set and win tires for the rest of the season if I'm doing well.

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by johnbrz

just consumables

Depending on how I have the BRZ trimmed, my cost per km is around $1.50 to $20, with me driving.

To put it in perspective, a factory racecar is typically $30-60 per km.

C8's with a typical intermediate level driver are typically $9-25 per km in street trim.

Yes, non-freedom units, but km is just the standard for this, not miles. Purely operational cost.

-Mike

[johnbrz]

Originally Posted by CSG Mike

Depending on how I have the BRZ trimmed, my cost per km is around $1.50 to $20, with me driving.

To put it in perspective, a factory racecar is typically $30-60 per km.

C8's with a typical intermediate level driver are typically $9-25 per km in street trim.

Yes, non-freedom units, but km is just the standard for this, not miles. Purely operational cost.

-Mike

Thanks mike, so it doesn't sound like that much difference in consumables cost for brz vs c8. It's interesting to see the costs on a racecar. Does your brz have forced induction for those costs?

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by johnbrz

Thanks mike, so it doesn't sound like that much difference in consumables cost for brz vs c8. It's interesting to see the costs on a racecar. Does your brz have forced induction for those costs?

It really depends on how you trim the car, and the pace you want out of it.

Bottom end cost is on scrubs or cheap tires (SX2). Top end cost is on slicks (Michelin/Yoko).

Boost actually has very little bearing on these consumable costs, but yes, I am boosted. The majority of the cost is tire.


Your question, ultimately, is so open ended that there's no real meaning to it. You need to be more specific with the exact trim/prep you'd be comparing.

[eyeballs]

Not sure how a miata didn't end up mentioned in the OP. A simple n/a build (minus ac/ps/etc) on 8" wheels is laughably cheap to run and insanely reliable. I think I spent $200 a season on wheels/tires (shopped discount deals and sold the wheel/tire sets off each season with a little life left). Biggest initial expense is safety setup. Loose the hardtop. So much fun.

[Goingnowherefast]

Originally Posted by eyeballs

Not sure how a miata didn't end up mentioned in the OP. A simple n/a build (minus ac/ps/etc) on 8" wheels is laughably cheap to run and insanely reliable. I think I spent $200 a season on wheels/tires (shopped discount deals and sold the wheel/tire sets off each season with a little life left). Biggest initial expense is safety setup. Loose the hardtop. So much fun.

Yeah, if one is looking to spend the least amount on track consumables possible an NA/NB Miata (NC comes close) is the way. Some pads, rollbar, 15x9 w/ 225 or 15x8 w/205's and you're good to go basically forever.

If you want to go further, it's easy too. You can get motorsports grade suspension that normally costs $4000+ for this platform for $2,000 - hell, you can get SM Penskes for $1,100 lol. Bolt-ons and E85 + MS3 ECU netted me 150 whp on a Mustang dyno which getting dangerously close to the same power/weight as a bolt on E85 BRZ/FRS.

[WolfpackS2k]

Its important to keep in mind different tracks can have drastically different consumable consumption rates. A fast track like VIR is actually pretty easy on your tires. Lots of braking from high speed, but the long straights are spread out so the brakes get a "break" haha. A shorter track like CMP is known for being brutal on brakes, despite not being super fast, because there are continual medium length straights with lots of braking. RRR is a high speed track with a lot of (relatively speaking) constant radius turns and no banking, so it chews up tires. CMP used to also be known for chewing up tires, but they got new pavement. Though come to mention it, RRR was just repaved so they might be better too.

People like to brag about lap times, but I'll gladly pay half as much for RS4 tires and be 1-2 seconds slower. For my AMG a set of RS4s cost around $880 and after 4 days at VIR (and 3000 street miles) I would say they're half worn. Front pads last around 3 days on track and cost $400 (Carbotech XP10). The rear pads (same compound) are wearing very slowly. Car gets 5 mpg on track so around $100/day in fuel (though prob more with how insane prices for fuel are now). Rear rotors are fine but the fronts will probably have to be replaced every 3-4 weekends (before I got cooling under control they were toast after one weekend). Thankfully FCP Euro lifetime warranties brakes, but they only carry German parts (so rotors are a cry once situation). Oil change is around $80 and is needed every 2 event. Brake fluid flush with Castrol SRF once or twice a year is $90ish. I don't plan to continue tracking this car because I know it will get very expensive at some point, but if I were to continue at the current rate I would probably flush the transmission fluid once a year, as well as the rear differential. It is very fast (surprisingly capable) car and at this point I'm mostly gaining time from learning/feeling how much grip the rear end has under power.

The Cayman, surprisingly, wasn't easier on tires than the AMG. However not really a direct comparison as the Cayman visited more tracks, including one really hot weekend (over 100° both days) and different tires (though still 200TW). Brakes I had on the Cayman were Pagid Yellows ($650ish) and after 10 track days they were still around 50% thickness (so call it 1/3 life left as pads wear quicker as they get thinner). Rotors had little to no wear. One tank of fuel would last all day no problem. About $60/day in fuel consumption. The biggest expense for the Cayman was...when the engine died from oil starvation.

One thing that nobody has mentioned is track insurance. That's a significant component of my track weekend cost. Their cost varies greatly (most are agreed value policies) and for $35k of coverage you're talking about roughly $250. The OP has mentioned Corvette C8s. If you're going to take out a policy on a car that's worth $60-100k expect it to cost $500-600+.

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by eyeballs

Not sure how a miata didn't end up mentioned in the OP. A simple n/a build (minus ac/ps/etc) on 8" wheels is laughably cheap to run and insanely reliable. I think I spent $200 a season on wheels/tires (shopped discount deals and sold the wheel/tire sets off each season with a little life left). Biggest initial expense is safety setup. Loose the hardtop. So much fun.

Part of the challenge with an old Miata, is the "old car problems". Parts are getting scarce, and I don't think OP wants to deal with any sort of unreliability.

[Kelse92]

The track insurance thing is pretty simple I think, don’t drive a car you don’t feel like you can’t afford to write-off. Which is another win-column point for a platform like this. My track day cost of $250 + $250 for track insurance makes a pretty expensive day and I haven’t even used any gas/brakes/tires yet. Only a handful of places like COTA/Barber etc where they have high track cleanup fees is it worth getting track insurance I think.

[WolfpackS2k]

Originally Posted by Kelse92

The track insurance thing is pretty simple I think, don’t drive a car you don’t feel like you can’t afford to write-off. Which is another win-column point for a platform like this. My track day cost of $250 + $250 for track insurance makes a pretty expensive day and I haven’t even used any gas/brakes/tires yet. Only a handful of places like COTA/Barber etc where they have high track cleanup fees is it worth getting track insurance I think.

Keep in mind that if someone else on track runs into you, they're not legally bound to pay for fixing your car. Your track insurance is liability for your property. Also if you plan to track a lot you can bundle a policy for multiple events, which I think is a savings. Also, if you look at my sig you can also see that I totalled a car at VIR (lol) and had track insurance on it. Worth it every time IMO.

[Bobrad20]

If I had to consider how much it costs to track my GR86, I probably wouldn't go near a track. I just consider it one of life's expenses like food and shelter, but a lot more fun than eating gruel. I simply pay each expense as it comes in and assiduously avoid aggregating them, afraid it might terrify me. Avoid fast women and slow horses and you'll have enough money for the fun things.

[RT-BRZ]

Originally Posted by Bobrad20

If I had to consider how much it costs to track my GR86, I probably wouldn't go near a track. I just consider it one of life's expenses like food and shelter, but a lot more fun than eating gruel. I simply pay each expense as it comes in and assiduously avoid aggregating them, afraid it might terrify me. Avoid fast women and slow horses and you'll have enough money for the fun things.

Some people do lottery tickets, casinos and strip clubs. Fun that costs money can be found in all sorts of places.

[RedReplicant]

Originally Posted by WolfpackS2k

Keep in mind that if someone else on track runs into you, they're not legally bound to pay for fixing your car. Your track insurance is liability for your property. Also if you plan to track a lot you can bundle a policy for multiple events, which I think is a savings. Also, if you look at my sig you can also see that I totalled a car at VIR (lol) and had track insurance on it. Worth it every time IMO.

There is also track insurance that covers track damages or damage to other cars only. I had to buy a $1MM policy to run at Apex Motor Club in Arizona, it was about $100 for a day.

I've had the experience of wadding a car I was prepared to walk away from without track insurance. Ended up costing me a lot more than I expected between track damage (fence), car damage, and throwing away a regional championship. I ended up doing all of the work myself other than paint but it was still two quarter panels, a door, Singular Motorsports wing, painting half a car, and a couple of bent suspension arms.

Highly not recommended.