So, I used to be into sporty cars. I still like them, but haven't had one in about ten years. The primary factor in my deciding not to pursue one, despite my fondness, is the fact that they're difficult to enjoy to their fuller potential on public roads. That said, I tell myself that if I ever get another sporty car, I'd attend track days at the nearest venue. That venue, for me, is Road Atlanta.

A recent brief drive in my brother's old Nissan Z has me contending with more-serious-than-usual consideration of another manual transmission RWD vehicle. Nowadays, I can't afford (nor do I really desire) another project car. I don't want to spend money and time working on an older car, nor do I want to invest in modding/upgrading anything. I am considering something factory, used, and under the ~15K price point. ***When I first wrote this OP, my price ceiling was lower. There were so few options in the lower price range, that it seemed impossible. Discussions with my good friend have honed my expectations a bit. A S197 Mustang seems to be a very good choice. I am also keen on Infiniti G35 cars, but those bring a bit more money.***

Anyway, all that aside, I am realizing there are more than a few "clubs" or organizations that one can join, to enable access to track days. What potentially makes one preferred over another, for my intent? As far as I can tell, so long as your vehicle is solid and you've got a helmet, you're good-to-go, regardless of the club you join (to a point, I presume. I am sure some clubs are more prestigious).

I am hoping some folks here have a little insight. I know this forum has a few resident motorsports fans. I know I can dig around on more specific motorsport online forums, and I will. I just opted to ask here first.

***Budget question added 9/24/24***

This message has been edited. Last edited by: KSGM,

SCCA?

NASA is big. But I don’t belong to any of them as it’s not necessary. I find the best deal I can on my local tracks and COTA but they tend to be the same crews/clubs and at this point, after a few decades of track days, I only do 1-2 per year on my bikes, and 1-2 per year in the car. Just find the best deal you can. Unless you are going to go a lot, it’s not worth joining any particular club IMO.

quote:

Originally posted by 83v45magna:
SCCA?

Yep. Maybe look at some older cars too, the Zs, Miatas, Supras, etc.

I have an old Datsun 510 that will one day, be up and running and doing SCCA, perhaps Pikes Peak, maybe some Rally stuff, who knows?

Good luck on your search!

Our 911 is gone now, but PCA, Rocky Mountain Region

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
Our 911 is gone now, but PCA, Rocky Mountain Region

TMats; thread drift; my father was one of the founding members of PCA.

My brother took his 911 to both Road Atlanta and Barber.
Alas, I am not in the Porsche league

One of the bigger mistakes I ever made, and my wife will cop to her role in it, is trading in our 911 on a new Macan. There were circumstances surrounding the poor decision, but Porsche though it may be, a Macan is sorry substitute for a 4S 911. We were able to buy our 997 outright because our portfolio took off early in the Trump Presidency. My wife kept saying “We don’t drive it enough,” and she was right, but I succumbed in a weak moment and now it’s gone. The Macan is gone too for a larger SUV to accommodate grandkids’ car seats; I don’t miss it.

I am vaguely familiar with NASA and SCCA. The Road Atlanta website makes it seem as though they require that you're affiliated with a club. As in they host track days for clubs/organizations, but not the general public.

I don't know your level of expertise in working on a car like that but in that budget range you're not going to get much that is reliable, safe and doesn't require a lot of additional work.
There are a lot of costs and issues beyond just buying a car that add up quickly.
I'm not in this end of the business (actually mostly retired nowadays) but a related one for customers for the last 34 years so I've had enough experience to understand what's needed to put a car on the track and all that's involved.

When people mention to me that they have an expensive hobby, I roll my eyes and try to bite my tongue.

If you just want to scratch an itch every once and a while maybe look at something like a school at Atlanta Motorsports Park (they may have something similar at Road Atlanta) where you will simply arrive and drive, run their car with no prep work or all the other issues like transporting and maintaining a car, helpers/crew, consumables,entry fees, etc. Probably some basic instruction too. I don't know if they provide any driving gear so ask that question too.
Some of these schools have lapping days after you have done a school or two.

That way you are only concerned with the actual driving part and arrive and leave at the end of the day. You also get to drive a spec race car that is a much more fun and exciting experience.

Just another option.

https://www.atlantamotorsports...rimal-racing-school/

I did disprove my earlier statement. You do not need to be member of a club, to do a weekend at Road Atlanta. But holy cow! It's spendier than I thought. This is one of the outfits that hosts track days there:

https://justtrackit.net/2024-e...d-atlanta-sept-2024/

I'd be in it for $750. That's more than I thought, and likely more than I can afford.

I'll look into the suggestion above.

***I checked it out*** Gah! If I knew that'd scratch the itch once and for all, it'd be worth it. But that'd likely be nothing more than spending 1k to make the itch worse. Man, I might be too poor to drive quickly.

That’s why I mentioned looking out for deals. I have 1 NASA scheduled track day in the car this year, and that’s it. Yeah, prices have gone up, because insurance has gone up. Memberships make sense if you are going to go enough and get a discount for each track day to make it worth it. I don’t like scheduling them too far in advance on my motorcycles because you never know what it’s going to do. For a car, I don’t care, let it rain, let it snow, don’t care. But usually what I’ll do is just wait and see how the slots fill up. You can catch deals if it’s not full here. The closer it gets to the date, if they aren’t full, they will deal some times, more so on bikes vs. cars. That’s because your money is free money to them. They can either make you a deal, or lose out altogether.

ECR is the closest track to me (Cresson a little farther out). It’s a one hour drive (or towing one of my bikes). And they are so strict on check in at most tracks. They want you checking in at 7am sharp and some are ruthless about it. You run late, say 7:15am, you might as well go home. With that kind of check in time, I have to be up at 5am so I can eat, get coffee, deuce, etc. I don’t even get up that early for work. It’s gotten old. I have a friend that is a full on member at Cresson and they do owner days and he gets to invite a guest. Those are the best. I can show up virtually when I want, and cars will be on the track and bikes so I can pick. I’m bored with both local tracks and COTA is usually $550 with either a car or bike. I remember when I could book a track day for $150-200, open day, all day. Everything has gone up in price

Find your local SCCA chapter & get in on some Autocross.
Back when I was at it with some regularity, it was 40-50 for the day, depending on if you were a SCCA member or not.

Once I get the Midget running well, I plan on getting it down for a run with the Houston chapter.

A buddy of mine is big into SCCA time trial events. He also regularly goes to non SCCA events that are spopnsored by the local chapter of his car club (audiclubcarolinas) or by the charity group Racing for ALS, which does several events during the year, (one of which is at Road Atlanta).

I've been with him to the track (VIR) several times and it looks like so much fun, but the cost is staggering. Fees, track insurance, tires, brakes, safety equipment, etc, etc. He gets help from sponsors and he also offers services (coaching, tire/wheel rental, data analysis) to offset his costs, but its still too rich for my blood.

I'm happy just taking the old Cayman for a spin on the back roads every now and then. I have had it on track for parade laps a few times and was able to get a small taste of what its like. I know that if I dip my toe into the HPDE world, the addiction to the feeling of speed would be financially devastating.

I used to autocross my BMW 320i at both BWWCCA and SCCA events.
Loved it, going to revive the experience soon.

quote:

Originally posted by Prefontaine:
COTA is usually $550 with either a car or bike.

I'd love to do COTA, but that's well out of reasonable for me. Maybe one of the 'exotic rentals' days, but I'm sure they have their limitations on it too.
I really wish I'd made it to COTA when they had the Formula Americas there. It was something like $500 & you got 2x 45min sessions in a F4 car [with an Audi R8 pace car].

quote:

Originally posted by KDR:
A buddy of mine is big into SCCA time trial events.

I'll have to look into the TT events with SCCA & see if they do any in the Houston area.
Are these road rally TT, or track TT?

Edit: Just looked & there aren't any Houston Autocross events scheduled, at least via the main SCCA website.
Everything seems to be San Marcos & Dallas areas, with 1 road race at MSR Houston [which nothing I have would likely come close to qualifying for]

SCCA autocross looks like the way to go. Much more affordable than full-blown track days.

A car is another matter though. Browsing things like autotrader, craigslist, and FB marketplace yield slim pickings, even with a 10k ceiling. Mustangs are what I had years ago, and it looks like a V6 Mustang would be the way to go now, as much as it pains me to consider.

Autocross = Miata
Should be relatively cheap to obtain, massive aftermarket, and they're great for the lower speeds in autocross.
Were it me, I'd be looking at a NA or NB model. 1992-2004, I'd avoid the really early 90-91 models, I don't recall which had the 'small nose' crankshaft problems.

BRZ/FRS/GT86 could be an alternative, but pricier.

35 year track junkie with the Porsche Club (PCA), instructing for the past 30. Back in the day, many Porsche Club regions required membership to participate in Driver Education events (DE's). With the rising cost of weekend track rentals (multiple tens of thousands of dollars, or the case of COTA, in six figures), the clubs became more open-minded about taking almost any vehicle that would pass safety tech, regardless of club affiliation, simply to be able to rent facilities.

DE's are not competitive (the insurance does not allow it), so if you are looking for competition events, DE perhaps is not your first choice. For competition, look to join SCCA or NASA. Besides PCA, the BMWCCA also does track events.

There are also many for-profit companies putting on similar driving events. To see what may be available, look at the following websites, who host the majority of registrations for track events around the U.S.:

ClubRegistration.net

MotorsportReg.com

Autocross is a much more economical way of getting into motorsports. Usually one-day events, you will have to pass a tech inspection. You will be put in a class of similar cars for competitive purposes. When you arrive, you will likely see a sea of orange cones, defining the course. Get there early so you can walk the course to be determine "the line". More often than not, you will be assigned to work a station resetting cones that have been knocked down.

Autocross is a lot of fun, for not a lot of money and I did it for a number of years. The amount of time you actually drive over the day (most courses I have run are about a minute long, with some exceptions where they had lots of pavement), isn't really that long however. If you get six runs, that would be about six minutes of actual driving. Those six minutes however will be adrenaline laced!

I'm based in the W.PA/Ohio area, so the groups (Porsche Club) whose DE's where I usually instruct normally have five run groups, based on experience. Each run group will have probably five sessions per day, each somewhere around 25 to 30 minutes long. Over the weekend, you could see about five hours of actual driving time. Other parts of the country may run their events differently.

Be aware DE registration fees can be expensive (particularly for the big-time professional tracks -- i.e. Mid-Ohio, Watkins Glen, Pocono, Road America, etc. Even the smaller. less well-known facilities such as Nelson Ledges, Gratten or Putnam Park are no longer inexpensive.

Add to that the cost of consumables. You will need to have a brake fluid replacement annually -- with ultra high temp fluid. Depending on your driving style and type of car, brake pads could have a very short life although rotors are usually pretty long lasting. If you want to do DE's regularly, you may want to look at brake pads that are rated for track use. Note however that they are very noisy on the street. Tires are always an issue, depending how sticky they are. The old adage is that the amount of grip is inverse to the life of the tire.

For your first DE, I usually recommend to novice students that absent fresh brake fluid, and making sure the car is safe, just go and drive it and have fun. If you find that you like it and want to continue, then start to make look at making changes to the car. Also be aware that almost all of the groups that I have run with have rules for convertibles for DE's -- they have to have roll bars that pass the "broomstick test", meaning that your helmet must be below a broom stick that is placed on the windshield header and the top of the roll bar. Speaking of helmets, few organizations can supply loaners (nor would I want to wear one -ick!), so you will need to obtain one. Many groups are now requiring a Snell SA rated helmet (versus a motorcycle helmet). SA or special application is for auto racing. All helmet manufacturers products fit differently, so your head shape may not work with just anyone's helmet. Try on a few different types to see which fits you best.

I have to warn you, track driving can become addictive, so you may find yourself falling down the rabbit hole like I did all those decades ago!

quote:

Originally posted by KSGM:
SCCA autocross looks like the way to go. Much more affordable than full-blown track days.

A car is another matter though. Browsing things like autotrader, craigslist, and FB marketplace yield slim pickings, even with a 10k ceiling. Mustangs are what I had years ago, and it looks like a V6 Mustang would be the way to go now, as much as it pains me to consider.

It is way less expensive but you’ll get very little driving time and it’s cones in a parking lot. To me it’s boring AF. I’ve done them many times but usually it’s part of a school day, where say the morning is road circuit/track day/HPDE, then the afternoon is cones. I’m bored with cones in an hour.

What I’ve done for a few decades now is go to the track, to learn. Learn your vehicle, bike or car, learn your braking markers, apexes, etc, and regularly test your panic braking. I cannot count how many times I’ve been behind someone I’m faster than, and their ego is writing checks their skills cannot cash, and off into the litter they go. Or it’s someone I see as a real problem, I downshift, slow, let them go, only to find their bike/car wadded up later in the day. Either way, get the experience you need via instruction. Again whether it’s bikes or cars, people like tartan, will instruct you throughout the day. On the bikes we have control riders that ride for the school that are well seasoned. They’ll find you, get right in front of you, tap the tail, to indicate to you to follow. You tuck in behind and learn their lines. Immensely helpful. Car instructors the same, and the ride alongs are priceless. You’ll sit bitch in a school’s car, their car, and watch. Then they’ll jump into the passenger seat while you drive and correct you. Do a few of these, then find your local twisty roads, wherever they may be. Track I’ll push 8 or 9/10ths. Twisties I’ll slow down to 6/10ths or 7/10ths, run radar, and I have more fun out there in my rural twisties than I do on the track because I’m not on a schedule. But you need a little bit of track time to learn how to do this very safely. On the bikes we call it riding at the PACE. Slow in fast out. It’s a blast and my main hobby in life.

The Miata rec above is excellent. That or a Gen 1 86/FRS or BRZ.

The FR-S seems the likely candidate. Unfortunately, it'll have to be an auto, because my wife wants to be able to drive it. Ain't none of this happening without her cooperation anyway, so it's paddles for me.

A good friend does autocross, as well as proper track days about six times a year. He's given me some guidance, and some encouraging info about pricing; it ma not be as bad as I thought.

This is something he does, which looks like a nice in-between; better than cones, but more accessible (and affordable) than proper track. This is a venue that is about an hour from me. Maybe this is what y'all mean by cones, but it looks pretty large/immersive to me.