Track car transport options?

[Burny16v]

Afternoon all,

I'm starting to dip my toe into going motor racing, and am due to convert my trusty track day Clio into a prepped race car including cage, harnesses, belts, extinguishers blah blah. Naturally, this is going to make it not very pleasant to drive to track days, and for actual race events, you really don't want to be relying on driving it home! Plus the MOT is proving tricky to navigate with all the extensive changes, so I've been wondering how to get it about. I know buying a trailer and tow car is most likely the common answer, however for various reasons it's impractical to do so at the moment. Partly financial, but also I have nowhere to physically store a trailer! Keeping the car tucked away in the garage is fine, but a trailer won't go! Also, as I'm only getting started and testing the waters this year with the occasional event and track day I won't be necessarily committing to a full calendar of anything, and so it won't be every weekend.

With that in mind, does anyone know of any (or run their own!) car transport businesses who I could talk to? Googling stuff is all well and good but these sorts of things tend to be word of mouth, and I wonder if I'd be getting the best value service, or best service generally, from a random bloke off Google. If it helps, I'm based in Gloucestershire.

Thanks in advance!

[E-bmw]

You could always try that new fangled google thing with something like "trailer hire" and see if that brings anything up near you.

[iguana]

Hi, I run a car transport company so have done a fair bit of this, more for euro tracks, but have done a few UK over the years, however unless you find someone really local who charges very very little, it's not going to be cheap, feel free to drop me a line I'm happy to quote, but with no tow car a far far cheaper option would be be to rent a 3.5t car transporter beavertail for the days you need it.

Lizardlogistics.com

[Dynion Araf Uchaf]

if you have a Clio, and a garage that it can fit in (i.e small single, normally about 6ft wide) then you can just about squeeze a Clio onto a Brian James Minno, and then that can be stored in the garage with car sat on top.

https://cliosport.net/threads/trailer-size-that-is...

[meatballs]

You can get a folding car trailer...

But I would look at trailer rental

[Burny16v]

E-bmw said:

You could always try that new fangled google thing with something like "trailer hire" and see if that brings anything up near you.

Thanks, I'll take that on board. Ideally I wasn't looking for something to drive myself, but it's looking the most viable solution for now. Also thanks for suggesting Google, up til now I've been flinging pigeons into the air with notes taped to their leg, onto which I've scrawled my query in crayon.

iguana said:

Hi, I run a car transport company so have done a fair bit of this, more for euro tracks, but have done a few UK over the years, however unless you find someone really local who charges very very little, it's not going to be cheap, feel free to drop me a line I'm happy to quote, but with no tow car a far far cheaper option would be be to rent a 3.5t car transporter beavertail for the days you need it.

Lizardlogistics.com

Cheers, renting something does seem the most cost effective unless I can find someone round my way then. I will drop you a line at some point though, just for comparison sake if nothing else.

fesuvious said:

and....

what license entitlement have you got?

That's first concern. Can you tow?
If so, getting a towbar fitted and then renting a trailer is far sand away best option

License entitlement is a good point, I passed in 2007 and having no further training it'll be the 'standard' entitlement. Unfortunately, as mentioned, I don't have a car capable of towing - I've got two exhaust tips where you'd normally put a tow bar! As I'm merely dipping my toe into the water this year, I wanted to avoid having to change my car etc. just yet. But moving forward I think that's the best option.

Dynion Araf Uchaf said:

if you have a Clio, and a garage that it can fit in (i.e small single, normally about 6ft wide) then you can just about squeeze a Clio onto a Brian James Minno, and then that can be stored in the garage with car sat on top.

https://cliosport.net/threads/trailer-size-that-is...

A good option I think for next season, when I will be perhaps doing a full series and will look to change my car for a towing capable one. The 197 (mk3) is a bit bigger than the Clio 182 (mk2) those guys have, but I'll look into the dimensions more!

Cheers all for the suggestions and help.

[4.7]

You can still rent vans with a tow bar if you dig a little. I rent both van and trailer for race weekends and testing as i have bugger all space to park things.