Tow VS Drive
12-14-2012, 10:10 PM
#61
Rennlist Member
Join Date: May 2006
Location: San Francisco & parts north
Posts: 1,007
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Hell yes to all this, Jack. Good on ya. I've been driving to the track 10x events per year since 1997. You do the math. Never trailered, only had to call a tow truck once. Plenty of fond memories + a house down payment worth of cost savings.
Bottom line: W2W racing = trailer. Anything less = drive it. Run what ya brung and enjoy it on the weekends in between... It's a street car after all.
Bottom line: W2W racing = trailer. Anything less = drive it. Run what ya brung and enjoy it on the weekends in between... It's a street car after all.
I've been driving my car to the track for 13 years, now. The early morning drive to my local track will always be one of my favorite driving experiences. I've got a thermos of coffee along with 85 minutes of Springsteen and the Valentine One signal piped into my earplugs. There aren't many things more beautiful than watching the sun come up over the California desert. And I have to say I genuinely enjoy passing all of those well-stocked (but limited to 55 mph on CA highways) rigs on the way to the track, and then passing most of those pampered and no-longer-street-legal vehicles once we all get out on the road course iteslf. 
AAA Premiere has always gotten me home whenever something has gone wrong.
I think the danger of having a trailer is that the car just ends up sitting inside it in between events. I like driving my car around town (and through the canyons) as much as I like tracking it. I have a wing and a splitter that bolt on for track use and fit inside the car the rest of the time.
Driving up to Laguna Seca from Los Angeles:
The diner at the intersection where James Dean crashed and died.
Then, with the aero bolted on, leaping down through the corkscrew.
Then again -- I took the AC out of the car a few years back. I've been known to not feel the need for the cool shirt all day at the track, but still unpack it and set it up for the drive back home. The desert is a little less romantic when the mercury's crept up above the century mark.
If I had the room for a truck or a trailer it might be a different story, I'll admit. James Dean would have lived a longer life if he's been trailering his 550 Spyder that day. But there's a part of me that still holds onto the idea that it's possible to have one car to tear up Mulholland Drive and also the big track at Willow Springs -- whick is also the car you can hop in to go down to the 7-11. It might be that I'm wrong about that, ultimately -- but I'm enjoying being wrong every time I cross over from the 5 to the 14 and see the high desert spread out before the hood of my 911.
Mulholland Drive, the day after Thanksgiving this year:
And the old thing still runs a 1:27 at Willow Springs. On those exact same tires.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz_JZKpqmg4
AAA Premiere has always gotten me home whenever something has gone wrong.
I think the danger of having a trailer is that the car just ends up sitting inside it in between events. I like driving my car around town (and through the canyons) as much as I like tracking it. I have a wing and a splitter that bolt on for track use and fit inside the car the rest of the time.
Driving up to Laguna Seca from Los Angeles:
The diner at the intersection where James Dean crashed and died.
Then, with the aero bolted on, leaping down through the corkscrew.
Then again -- I took the AC out of the car a few years back. I've been known to not feel the need for the cool shirt all day at the track, but still unpack it and set it up for the drive back home. The desert is a little less romantic when the mercury's crept up above the century mark.
If I had the room for a truck or a trailer it might be a different story, I'll admit. James Dean would have lived a longer life if he's been trailering his 550 Spyder that day. But there's a part of me that still holds onto the idea that it's possible to have one car to tear up Mulholland Drive and also the big track at Willow Springs -- whick is also the car you can hop in to go down to the 7-11. It might be that I'm wrong about that, ultimately -- but I'm enjoying being wrong every time I cross over from the 5 to the 14 and see the high desert spread out before the hood of my 911.
Mulholland Drive, the day after Thanksgiving this year:
And the old thing still runs a 1:27 at Willow Springs. On those exact same tires.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz_JZKpqmg4
