I am trying to find if there is any interest in organising an airfield track day. Airfield track days, for the people who dont know, are track days on airfields ;). Heheheh. It has great advantages of having lots of run off so you wont be crashing into any barrieres and we race on the run way, and people who have been on a plane know there isnt a building, fence or wall any where near a run way.

 

So its safer than a proper track. The course is marked out by cones, which are smaller and softer as not to cause damage if hit by a car. Air fields almost always work on an open pitlane policy, where you are free to join the track when ever you want, or when their is room. Other major tracks you will only get 2 or 3 goes on the track and you are told when you do go on.

 

I have emailed a company who organises air field track days at Elvington, near York and Binbrook which is near Grimsby, so its quite ideal for north/south divide but it would be great if we make this a yearly event and alternate the location with everyone trying to attend where ever it is. I have asked the company if there are any discounts for group buys if we as "A CLUB" manage to get 10-15 people to go. The normal price is around the £100 mark (depending on time of year) for an air field day. Compare this to Outon and Donnington where you will pay £200+ to race and that will probably be a closed pit policy (Go out when you are told to). Also compare that to Sliverstone which will set you back £400+ and that is definatly closed pit.

 

The day lasts from 9:30am to 4:00pm when it starts to get dark. I think you have to attend in the morning as there are usually saftey talks.

 

As this may be a treck for some people I was thinking of trying to get a Travel Lodge to put us up and hope get a discount for a larger booking. All having a drink together in the evening would be a perfect way to end a great days racing.

 

If this does get the thumbs up, it will be more in the new year when it happens as I dont think there is enough time to organise it earlier and it will give people to organise themseleves.

 

Lets presume the first one will be at Elvingtion in the new year.

Post your ideas whether you would be interested or not. Also post if you would be interested in getting a Lodge for that evening?

Also post, if you are interested, whether you are from the North or South and it would be interesting to see if people are prepaired to travel. If this ends up a yearly event, I would deffo go the Southern one too. :D

 

I personally would get the room to make a good weekend of the whole experience.

 

Stuart

I'd say yes, provisionally... kinda need a car to do it in :( As it happens I'm lined up to do a day at Donnington and it cost 159 quid for all day open-pit... so this airfield business may not be as great value as you think.

 

Oh, and you gotta stop saying "race"... there's NO RACING... this is "driver improvement" ;)

 

I've been at a mag feature at Bruntingthorpe - that was pretty cool (paid for by the mag) but being an old airfield, the surface is really blinkin' crappy! Not exactly much of a challenging track either (to be fair, we were on the wide open bit they use for top speed challenges and there is another track around there somewhere).

 

Are you sure it wouldn't be better to get a bunch of people together for a track day? We're kinda running out of weather at the moment anyway.

I have recieved an email back and they do offer discounts for group bookings, of upto £15 per car for 15+ cars.

 

They also recomended using the Lotus test track in Norwich as it would be better for our type of car.

 

Would peoeple be more interested in doing it there?

 

I see votes but dont see peoples reactions.

 

Stuart

Yep, sounds good.

 

Needs to be central though.

 

Mike

Hi Stu,

Yep would be very interested in refreshing the old racing skills.

 

It's been a while and I'm used to 2 wheelers but I'll have a crack ;).

 

Just got to remember what the apex is again :D ;)

Stu,

 

Sounds like a great idea , it would be nice to see what the old girl can really do without the worry of slamming it to the nearest tree etc.:D

Originally posted by SRRAE

I have recieved an email back and they do offer discounts for group bookings

Who do? The guys that booked Donington ended up taking 21 places... it's supposed to be a Lancer Register day, but looks like there might be more E30 M3s. And one 300ZX. So what I'm saying is you don't have to do this all as a 300 event to try to bag a discout - if you get it together with another bunch of guys you can end up booking the whole track for a day, for cheap. And a good track at that.

The place I emailed was called Javlin Motorsport and they seemed very helpful with their reply and it was a very quick reply.

 

By the looks of it about 30 cars can go at once. I bet if we get a good responce the 300ZX could have the track for themsleves.

I actually like the idea of the Lotus test track and I feel it will have longer corners and not so much of just a long straight and then a few coned out corners.

 

51x:

I know what you are saying and I think we got ideas mixed up. I wasnt saying just have the track with 300ZXs on. I was saying that if we book 15+ or so places at once as the 300ZX Club, we will get a discount of £15 per car and then we will have 15 or so places of a track day with other cars. If we can get 30 or so, we would probably have the whole track to ourselves as the full Quota would have been taken just by us.

 

There is no set track we have to use, I suggested an air field as it is usually about 33% cheaper, and is ideal for beginners. I know that Donnington is only £159 at the moment but it changes a lot during the year. Try it in the middle of the summer and its over £200.

 

Another reason I suggested where I did was to keep the costs down. £159-£200 is a lot of money to try and do something that you may not like. I was thinking of keeping the costs down so people can get an idea of whether they like it or not. An airfield day at the moment is around £90 and with £15 discount will be £75 which I think is great value. Lesser known tracks are slightly dearer than air field days but is a proper track.

 

In the future I hope that people will get the confidence and willing to pay more and go on major tracks such as Donnington, Brandshatch, Oulton, but I think the is jumping into the deep end in terms of cost and experience, as some people are a little nervous about taking their car on a track.

 

Take small steps and get peoples interest first I think.

 

Stuart

Yeah, OK. Good point Stuart... if there's a bunch of people that haven't done it before then it'd probably be better to have a go on an airfield. I was a guest at the Bruntingthorpe thing (not driving) but even I got a thirst for doing a proper track day after that. Donny's my first driving (was supposed to be doing a Brands evening first, but seem to have run out of time) - I'm no friggin' expert, but luckily will be getting guidance from people that really know how to drive. They even offered an instructor for 150 quid (for the day) which, split between (say) 10 people is pretty good value.

 

Don't suppose there's any magazines that'd want to do a 300ZX feature at an airfield, is there?

Count me in:D :)

Now would people prefer to go an airfield day or somewhere like Norwich Lotus test track which is meant to be better for ZX cars. Its a test track so again plenty of run off as there are no close barriers. Tracks have close barriers so spectators can get close. Test tracks dont have people standing round.

 

Stuart

I'm really interested in an airfield day - anyone know where I can find a cheap Piper Cherokee? I can't quite afford a LearJet at the moment :cry:

Me and AndrewG were talking about this at Trax...

 

I can already go fast(ish) around corners from plenty of road experience, but what I don't have is confidence in:

 

a) Where the limits are

b) getting the arse back in once it's out

 

and it's much easier to practice both of those on an airfield IMHO. Rain, in fact, would be a bonus. I've had an eye on Elvington for a while but never got around to investigating it properly - so I'm DEFINITELY up for this.

 

Does the company you've been talking to offer a quick 20 minute tuition on racing line and over/understeer? That's what I really really want, and then just go out and find the limits for the rest of the day. I think they do that at Elvington...

If there's enough interest, then I'll be happy to organise such an event.

I'm all ears on this one:D

Still grinnin from silverstone ;)

 

harve

Right.

 

If there are more people from the south of the country coming, there is a possibiltiy of holding it at Binbrook which is near Grimsby.

 

Elvington is 210 miles from London and 70 miles from Manchester. The treck from South particual isn't huge one but is a still some distance. Binbrook is 50 miles further south so its 170 miles from London and 120 miles from Manchester.

 

Would people prefer it to be at Binbrook rather than Elvington?

 

Air view Binbrook Air Field track

 

I have seen a video of a lap at Elvington and Binbrook looks more interesting.

 

 

Please post your views.

 

Stuart

I dont mind either of them,but the" Doughnuts"look interesting:D :)

Binbrook track looks interesting! And you get to warm your tyres on the M180 first. :D

 

Either venue good for me...

Looks good, have you got the nearest post code?

 

harve

Binbrook is the name of the village so if you look on http://www.rac.co.uk and go to the route finder it will find it. Same with Autoroute.

 

There is a thread called Track Day Part 3, where people can vote to where they would prefer the day to be. Have people been voting?

 

 

Stuart