carvalag

There are a few cars that I'd love to test drive for one session during DE events, but I'm not aware of anyone who offers this type of rental. Yes, I found companies which rent a track car for a full day, but it's expensive... I'd easily pay a couple hundred bucks for the privilege of driving a Cup Car, a Carrera GT or a Panamera for only 20 minutes on the track. Would you?

Greg Smith

Risk a several hundred thousand dollar 'investment'( ) for a few hundred bucks? No thanks. Hell, I could go through several hundred dollars of consumables in 20 minutes in 2 of those cars.

ltc

I don't consider driving a Panamera a priviledge...I would need to wear a brown paper bag over my helmet to cover the embarassment.

carvalag

Thanks, Greg. Yes, there's probably a reason why I can't find anyone who offers such a great deal, right? lol... Anyway, I'd take the deal if it was available, wouldn't you? Actually, for a 20 min ride in a Carrera GT I would be willing to pay more than just a couple hundred, maybe north of $500...

smlporsche

Our first event of the year is usually the Roebling Road event put on by Florida Citrus in Feb of each year.

A year or 2 ago they were raising money for charity and were offering hot laps driven by pro drivers in both a Rolex GT Cup car and a Carerra GT w/ Cup tires on it.

It was the best $100 I ever spent...The only thing I was really concerned about was that the GT was much faster than the Rolex Cup car and only had 3 point belts, but they held in threshold braking from 165MPH...

chrisp

Interesting idea though the carrera GT math is interesting

$200 per session.
4 sessions per day (typical DE format)
6 days per week
52 weeks per year
$249,600 revenue per year

30 miles per session (90 mph average)
4 sessions per day (typical DE format)
6 days per week
52 weeks per year
37,440 miles per year


After two years you've barely paid back the cost of the car and you've put almost 80k miles and on it rendered it worthless. You've probably spent $20K-$30K in consumables too. Gas alone at 8 mpg is 4,700 gal per year.

I'm not shooting down the idea, I just thought the numbers were pretty extreme.

bobt993

When we have charity events there is often an auction for a ride in a Cup car which runs a couple of hundred dollars. The driver is donating his time/money of course. I think the fuel consumption is higher than 8mpg. Another instructor/racer offered me his full race prepped GT2 for a 25min session last year and I easily ran up a 110 dollars in race fuel. I of course offered to pay, but it cost me a sincere "thank you" in the end. Your best bet is join a club and help out by volunteering at the track. This is one of those situations that is more of a gift or act of friendship than a business venture.

Leigh2

There's a charity drive at Race City in Calgary every year and all sorts of exotics show up and take the kids for rides. PLUS we pay a fee (donated to the charity) in order to do so and every year they have to limit the number of cars because so many people want to volunteer. I'm sure the same thing would happen at any track as it's just what we do as a community of drivers...

carvalag

Nor surprisingly, the poll so far indicates that our community is interested primarily in driving race cars. By the way, there is a funny post by Jeremy Clarkson about how race drivers view road cars: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/dri...cle2503695.ece. Outside of the Porsche and Bimmer world, I wonder whether people would like to test a Caterham, a Panoz, or a Lotus for one session on the track...

bobt993

I am sure many on this forum have already driven all three. We have such cars in our club, so I am sure it is the same elsewhere.

aj986s

I'm no expert, but I think the insurance implications of multiple people (...unfamiliar with the car) driving the car during a single weekend would make the operation infeasible. However, rides as passengers is IMHO far more doable. Of course, I would jump at the opportunity to drive a fast race car (as opposed to my 944 race car. ) or exotic car, but I just don't see it happening. But a nominal fee to get a ride in one of these would probably be worthwhile, especially with a very qualified driver. But once you factor in all the consumable costs (gas, tires, wear&tear, etc.) I'm not sure just how realistically nominal the cost would be for numerous rides all weekend.

SundayDriver

Rides are one thing. Allowing someone to rent a high powered, twitchy car for a session is something I cannot imagine any sane business person putting together. What is the skill level needed to decently drive a cup car or CGT and how do you ensure that only 'qualified' drivers can rent such a car? That doesn't even address the **** poor economics of doing this.

Professor Helmüt Tester

Paging GhettoRacer....

trumperZ06

Veloce Raptor

I think he is too busy with his new girlfriend Jill.






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