I’ve only been able to do half a dozen days a year and always figure it will be nearly $1k/day in total when considering total expenses over the year. I usually spend much less on the day of the event but then between events I might “need” the right set of low treadwear tires, refreshed brakes, a mechanical fix, a new upgrade for track duty, early fluid changes, etc., so when all things are considered, events need to typically have a direct cost of just the fee plus gas-and-go (which alone is $300-500) for the overall cost to be any kind of modest figure. If you do work yourself and count the labor cost as free that can help bring the costs down. But if you do six track days and don’t instruct, you’ll spend spend $2-3k on fuel and event fees, and if all the track related extra things you do to the car that year are only $3k, you’re kissing $1k per day. If you do track insurance and travel to events, it all adds up pretty quickly.

And, being completely honest, if you were not tracking at all, would you buy a different street car? Maybe, maybe not. It could be a significant indirect cost of tracking the car for some of us.

With the 986 SPB project (still on street tires) instead of a late model 911 or similar car my consumable costs for events are down noticeably but my overall spending is up anyway. Whatever money is earmarked for events and goes unspent just ends up going into the build. Any unforeseen expenses just get paid for, so there’s no over/under to average the costs out. And while I could certainly address that with a tiny shred of discipline, where’s the fun in that? If I really needed to spend less I’d have bought a cheaper project. At some cost level we can just gloss over the details. For a toy and an activity that amounts to play, that’s a good level to be at.