Cheap trackday car rental

[trackone]

I am thinking of buying an older model caterham, westfield or MX5 in racing trim together with a used Radical Clubsport or prosport (should be able to get both for well under 20K) to use as track day cars and for the occasional race.


I would wish to rent the cars out for limited use to offset my costs. I do not wish to profit from the exercise but merely to offset my costs to enable me to to use the cars as much as possible My thoughts are to charge about 500 for a day per car (excluding track hire) or 900 for both cars for a day The hire cost could be shared by either 2, 3 or 4 users depending on the policy of the track. I would take the cars to the track and provide some user comfort by having a small motorhome/van to rest and have refreshments. Ideally I would like to have a small number of users who would have say 5-6 daya per annum and who could then obtain a reduced daily rate.


I know there are several commercial operators providing similar but the choice of car seems to be limited or their rates are considerably more.


I would like to hear the the views of the forum as to what is the likely degree of interest and whether my charges are realistic and if anyone else out there is doing similar.

[steil]

£500 isn't exactly cheap for hiring an old 7 or MX5.

[bigbadbikercats]

In principal I'd be quite intrested in a service like this, particularly (being a bit of a "Billy No Mates" in terms of trackdays at the moment) if you could offer some sort of "matchmaking" service to help put groups of potential hirers together to share a car for a day. Rate wise, if you compare with, say, Track Club (www.track-club.com/track_club.htm) £500 per day for exclusive use "arrive & Drive" isn't especially cheap for the MX-5/Caterfield option (Track Club rates for non members are £495 for a Clio 182 or £595 for a Caterham Roadsport) but looks like a bit of a bargain for a decently sorted Radical :-)

You also haven't addressed the issues of insurance and/or liability for damage - taking Track Club as an example again (because that's the nearest thing I've found to what I'd be looking for in a scheme like this so far) you'd only be responsible for the first £1000 worth of damage on the Renault or Caterham (it goes up for the more exotic stuff).

By all means (as far as I'm concerned anyway) stick around and develop the idea - I'd love to have a proper track car available but can't justify the expense for the amount of use it would get (and haven't got anywhere to keep it anyway!) and if you can offer the right deal at the right price - say £150-£250 per day for shared use depending on the number of sessions, the car, and how nicely prepared) I'm a potential customer.

The only reason I haven't joined Track Club is that to make the numbers work out for me I have to find someone willing to effectively share the membership and use of the car on the day...

--
Jonathon

[trackone]

Thank you for your replies. As might be guessed my idea is in its infancy and at this time I am working on possible objections.


Pricing is an estimate only at this time I was unsure whether to offer one rate where a hirer has a drive of both cars or a higher rate for radical. My costing was based on 2 drivers sharing a car for the day which I think resolves the cost issue. Yhe resources need to bring the business to a track is a large transporter with some entertainment facilities, while presentable it does not need to be F1 standard and 2 employees, one being a mechanic/ gofer and the other to handle the clients and to ensure that all runs smoothly. In addition the capital cost of 30-40K for a transporter and 2 cars has to be taken into account For these reasons it would be difficult to reduce the costs much below 1K for 2 cars per day. Costs could however be reduced by introducing a 3rd or 4th car if there was the demand. Insurance excess would be payable as is the indutry norm. Ideally the service would be used 2 days per week and on occassional race weekends by about 10 discete groups

Ideally a group of 6-8 users with 3-4 different cars all shared over the day would probably give the best return and supply the highest customer satisfaction. A group this size can easily be formed with a group of friends and to ensure that they come back I would be offering a freqent user rate whereby the 6th day for the group would be free and if they recomemended other groups they would get a free day after 5 introductions

I intend to make it a personal experience where at the end of the day the customers each receive a DVD of their efforts. In addition I was looking to have a simulator availabe for the use of drivers between laps. These extra features would be relatively inexpensive but would greatly increase the experience. Each driver could purchase his driving suit with his name already monogrammed, the cost of which would be offset by a subsequent purchase


Any thoughts or criticisms geatly appreciated

[steil]

I hope this doesn't sound too negative as it's meant in a constructive sense:

I think you need to pitch it at a certain market - people really into track days will already have a track car, people after an experience tend to be attracted by the "ferrari fun day" type activity. Several people sharing a car results in little track time - hence the cost is still effectively fairly high once the hirers' total costs are taken into account - and this also depends on how the track day organiser charges for multiple drivers - an extra £10 is no big deal but an extra £100 or even double makes it unrealistic to share a car.

Compare your scheme to ones that others do & see where you can provide greater benefit (at added value to yourself) e.g. full arrive-and-drive all-inclusive package, or driver training days with Walshy or Don Palmer etc where people don't want to use their 911.

[gtdc]

Don't forget to price in the the £10mill worth of public liability cover you'll need. You'll also need a full risk assessment and a properly documented maintenance/parts lifing schedule...

Melindi
www.goldtrack.co.uk

[jleroux]

that's an inordinate amount of work for someone who has no desire to make money. surely there are better, less stressful and less risky ways to subsidise your hobby?

we have been doing this for a number of years now - it is not easy to hit break even, let alone draw a profit. i can't imagine why you'd want to do it and only "cover your costs".

this is who you're up against :-

http://bookatrack.com/-pb?54

www.track-club.com/track_club.htm

www.caterham.co.uk/assets/html/experience/circuit.html

good luck.

Jonny
BaT

[kickstart]

Like Jonny's comments I think you would be far better off renting cars yourself when you want to go and race/track day rather than renting them out yourself.
I just cannot see how you would cover costs unless you are doing it in quite a big way - eg Book a track's Caterhams.

Good luck

[trackone]

Once again thank you for your thoughts.


Rather than have 2 different cars it may be better to run 2 radicals while the upkeep would be greater it probably would be easier to manage.


To ensure maximum value for each participant it would seem that a car chould be shared by no more than 2 drivers and as most tracks seem to charge a reduced amount for the second driver this ensures the max value for each participant, particularly as I would be supplying refreshments and the use of the simulator while not driving.


The other alternaticve would be for a group of friends who could purchase a car for their use only and I would manage it for them on an arrive and drive basis in addition to hiring my own veghicle, thereby reducing one of the major costs of storage amd transport to a circuit A radical owned by 4 and used over 15-20 days would certainly reduce the inordinate cost of running a radical albeit with greater maintenance costs, though not being used for racing it should be possible to reduce the cost of parts and possibly to run the motor in a slightly lower level of tune to maximise its life


As suggested by Stell I would be aiming for a niche market and would not be competing with the major track day companies. Perhaps having 2 radicals would mean that I would be dealing with more experienced track day participamts who could not justify spending upwards of 10K per year which would be the real cost (allowing financing cost and depreciation of car) for any radical owner who does 5 or more track days pa.

[gridgway]

the problem is that novices break Rads very very quickly indeed. In all honesty it's a mad idea, I'd suggest finding something easier to do!

In terms of data points:

if you go to a track day with Rads being used as corporate cars or rented, they are always going into the wall

I went with a friend to Goodwood with my Rad. He was a resonably experienced track day driver and I took him out for sighting laps. On his first solo lap, parked in the tyre wall.

I went to a Rad factory run donny day experience, they were super-cautious with the customer drivers and still cars were breaking all day.

Jonny has quite a bit of experience in this stuff, he has wise words!

Graham

[rallycross]

I'd be interested in hiring a radical for a day if its low priced, the problem for you is that its not easy to balance risk v's cost as most people wont pay much to hire a track car.

E.G. A friend of mine has set up a budget track car hire business, he is using Pug 205's hence he can charge people a low daily rate as the cars are fairly low value durable and cheep to fix so his risk is relatively lwo (and you can let a beginner out in one easy to drive)

www.trackdayuk.com/