Getting Started in Track Days

Season usually starts later April.  Feel free to give me a shout, I'll pm you my info.  

I'm going to slightly dissent here and ask which you want to do more of, autocross or HPDE? Those are two different flavors of motorsport, car setup and choice is probably going to be different and they come with wildly differing costs and safety aspects.

Autocross you can run anything with little prep and expense. Stock class for beginners. It will teach you car control and weight transfer skills you can later use on an actual track. Becoming successful at autocross isn't easy.

HPDE is taking a car onto a track with other cars at speeds where a mistake can be costly. You'll hear "Don't take a car on a race track you aren't afraid to walk away from". Bad things can happen quickly--dumped fluid in a turn, unskilled driver who goes off and tries to come back on without having control, etc.  At the speeds most modern cars are capable of I don't want to be on a race track with anything less than a race seat, harness and roll bar. Much higher expenses in tires, brakes and fuel. But once you do one you'll probably lose interest in autocross...BTDT.

Miata is the cheapest and best supported choice for either path. I also like E30 or E36 BMWs for a car that handles well, has great aftermarket support and is far more reliable than you'd expect. The E46s enter the period of 'issues' that you need to be well educated on before you buy one. Not a fan of cheap Porsches as the servicing and parts are still often at Porsche Privilege pricing. Since you want a FFR you could also look at Mustangs but Fox chassis cars can be frustrating to drive because of crappy suspension. I'd spring for a S197 as they aren't too expensive now. Still, higher running costs with heavier car and more HP.

FWD cars are fine for autocross if set up properly but RWD is more fun and better for track work IMO. AWD cars are something else entirely and I don't recommend them for beginners.

In reply to ddavidv :

This. Particularly the safety gear on the track...Stuff hits the fan at high speed.

I'll second, or third, much of what ddavidv said.  Autox and HPDE are quite different.  You can use the car control skills from autox in HPDE (and wheel to wheel if you do that too), but otherwise they are very different.

If you have absolutely zero experience in any form of motorsports, I'd suggest starting with autox.  As others said, run your Lincoln.  It'll be fine.  It won't be "fast", but who cares?  You're there to learn and have fun.  From there, you can decide what you want to do.  No need to go out and spend a ton of money on a car yet.  If you do wind up trying HPDE, you can probably still use the Lincoln at first.  I agree that stuff happens fast there because speeds are much higher, however if you get into a novice run group and drive with your head you should be OK.  Make sure the brakes are up to snuff, that would be the most important thing.  Put brake fluid in that won't boil after turn 1.  Once you've done autox and HPDE events, then you can decide if you really want to buy a separate car for these things.  If you do, lots of good budget choices.

As someone with significant autox and HPDE experience in a FFR Cobra, let me suggest that if you intend to drive one beyond 7/10ths at HPDE you wait until you have a lot of experience under your belt.  Also, take out track insurance and make sure your safety stuff is top notch.  The Cobra is a ton of fun on a race track, but it will bite you...and hard.  I spun mine in autox plenty of times.  No harm, no foul there...speeds are relatively low and the environment is safe.  I never had the nerve to push it beyond 7/10th on a road course track.  Even at that speed, you could feel it was twitchy.  Besides, 7/10th in a car that weighs 2200lbs and has 350+ hp is still PLENTY fast.  My Cobra buddies at the time tracked theirs, but they had a lot of experience...I was still a relative newbie at the time.  I rode as a passenger in a friends' FFR around Wakins Glen.  Holy E36 M3 on a donut, it was fast and scary!!!!  Not something I would have done then, not even sure about now.

BrewCity20 said:

So I'm currently trying to dip my toe in track days (HPDE/Autocross) this upcoming summer but have absolutely no experience. So the first question is - what car to buy to get started.

As others have already pointed out, your first question really shouldn't be about the car. It should be about how to get experience. If your plan is to do wheel-to-wheel racing soon, I would go right to high-performance driver education (HPDE) events. Autocross is fun and you can learn a lot of basics, but I would prioritize on-track experience.

I'm not familiar with the Midwestern region, but in the places I've lived over the last 20 years (Montreal, Boston, and NYC) the best HPDE events were run by the BMW Car Club of America (BMW CCA). They don't care what kind of car you drive; doesn't have to be a BMW. The events are very, very well run and safe. I've instructed with pretty much every other organization that hosts these types of events and I haven't found any of them that are better, especially at the novice-intermediate levels.

For a little background my ultimate goal is to build a Factory Five Cobra in the next few years so my current car would be more of a trainer until that gets built. As such, budget is key.

With respect to the car, I would follow everyone's advice and just run your daily driver for the first 1-2 weekends. Then take stock. If you're going to buy a car just for HPDE use with a specific plan to eventually race a FFR Cobra, I think there are two approaches that make sense to me:

1. Miata. Cheap to buy. Light, well-balanced, and easy on tires/brakes. Also, it's a roadster (might as well get used to that). It's not going to feel like a Cobra since you'll be full-throttle pretty much everywhere on track. But you'll figure out all the basics of high-speed driving, including conserving momentum on corner entry and picking out efficient lines. The lack of power means you'll feel it every time you're off the mark. Should be easy to sell to another racer or HPDE guy down the road.
2. Mustang. The engine and suspension will be closer to the Cobra you eventually plan to race. Makes sense to start adapting to its quirks right away. It'll be a lot more costly to run and probably harder to recover your money when the time comes to sell. However, SN95 and especially early S197 models are pretty much at the bottom of their depreciation curves, so who cares?

Then again, it really doesn't matter all that much. You can learn in anything.

I'm currently looking at the following and trying to keep costs as low as possible, any suggestions?

- Boxster S

- 944 NA

- BMW 3 series

All of those choices are going to cost a lot more money than you first expect. By now, you can assume that any 944, E30, or Boxster you come across will need tons of basic maintenance before you can ever turn a wheel on track. You'll find loose wheel bearings, stuck caliper pistons, torn engine/trans/subframe mounts, low engine compression, worn gearboxes, and whining differentials ... not to mention corrosion, frozen bolts, and a million other headaches.

I agree with the "take the MKZ out for a weekend" suggestions, and I also agree with LanEvo above that while Boxsters, 944s, and E30/E36 BMWs are all excellent track cars, they're also all 20-30 year old sports cars that are going to need a lot of maintenance attention to even get started.  Sometime during or after your first weekend when you start to build speed, you're going to stress test whatever car you're in and find all of it's weak points.  After entry fees, gas, food, lodging, and surprise expenses, you're spending a lot of money just to be at the track, and the worst thing to find out your first session there is that some 30 year old component is busted and your weekend is either going to be spent wrenching in the paddock or sitting on the sidelines.  Something like a $1500 Ford Focus ZX3 has more than enough performance to learn with is completely disposable if you happen to ball it up, and is still new enough that it's not going to need a ton of work to survive a weekend.

Good place to start

Maybe just buy something that is ready to go.

Brake_L8 said:

+1, use the Lincoln for a weekend or two. It's basically a Fusion anyway, they drive/handle well.

+2

Make sure the car has new DOT4 fluid and as long as it's safe, it's a fine HPDE1 car. Besides you will be slow as f*&^ your first season anyways, may as well be slow in a slow car. 

Like stated, be humble. As an instructor myself, it's really the people that "think" they can't drive that can't drive at all. I promise you, going to the track will change your perspective on what cars to get (even though it sounds like you have a good start), but your perspective will change a bit. 

As far as cars here's the path I recommend to anyone who doesn't want to jump right into club/W2W racing... 

*Drive the lincoln for a few HPDE's* -> NC or NB2 Miata -> Drive until you're HPDE3-4 -> figure out which path you want to go

Time for a kart! If you race wheel-to-wheel for a season, you should be able to run on trackdays in a fast car with no trouble.

There is a reason a large majority of us on here recommend Miatas: I've raced everything from a showroom stock Miata to fairly rapid single seaters as well as driving everything a VW Beatle to Porsche 911 GT3-RS on track........a Miata is the most fun car you'll ever drive. If you fit in one and can find a decent one at a decent price.

With that said for your first events take the MKZ, I've autocrossed a bone stock Plymouth Valiant as well my stock Volvo 142, your MKZ is a much more poised then either of those.

As for track days, I've been instructing at track days for around 20 years and have had students bring bone stock Sentra rental cars and they had no issue with the car's performance. Your first weekend is going to be at a much reduced pace relative to an experienced track driver would be doing. So again th Lincoln will be fine.

After you've experienced a couple of events you can then decide which direction you want to go.

As other folks have said, this is a great region to explore your interests in autox, DE and track days, or w2w racing. The autox events at Miller Park have some of the top drivers in the country to learn from.  For DE and track days, there are multiple organizations running events from April through October  at Blackhawk Farms in South Beloit, Road America at Elkhart Lake, and the Milwaukee Mile. For wheel to wheel racing and high speed autox, the Great Lakes Sports Car Club is part of the Midwestern Council of Sports Car Clubs that runs events at all three of the above tracks as well as Autobahn down in Joliet. Head out of state a bit more and you've got the DE and racing events run by the NASA Great Lakes Region. Welcome to the candy store!

Go watch some events, get rides with folks where you can, take the current car to an autox, etc.  The key is to see what type of events you like and who you like hanging out with. Your eventual car choice and prep path will depend on what you end up wanting to do.  Warning though, this stuff is addictive. I started out autoxing and doing DE events in a stock Miata and ended up racing w2w in an e30.             

Thanks everybody for the advice, a lot of good suggestions and points here.

To answer the question most asked I'm more interested in HPDE than AutoX but wanted to try to give both a try this upcoming season if possible.

Another vote you just take the Linclon and sign up for an HPDE novice group.  FWIW (very little), I'm a newly-credentialed BMW club instructor.  If you outgrow that, then start thinking about a used sports sedan.  Or a used C5 is very solid on track and cheap to fix.

Which MKZ do you have?  Either way, Gen1 or Gen2 it has a big engine.  Could be a 3.5L or 2.0t or 3.7L.  Also could be awd.