Donington and winter Z4 track day advice

[JSz4]

Sounds like you've got the bases covered relatively speaking.

I'd say your rear tyre pressures are on the high side - I'd be aiming for 30-32 hot personally both at front and rear.

You have fixed dampers so you have nothing to tweak really - if you had adjustable you'd be wanting to go soft as you can.

Like any day, I'd just start slowly and build into it. You're doing the right thing if you're unsure getting some tuition booked, it'll do wonders for your confidence and also you'll start out by learning the lines properly etc.

As has been said above, there's a little crest just before the turn-in for the last left of Craners (the corner marked '3' on the track map below) - be careful of big throttle adjustments there, a lift or dab of brakes can really unsettle the car.

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Donington is a cracking circuit, I've done several days there in the wet and dry - you'll have a blast!

Pic of my last wet day at Donny, just because

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Thanks everyone for replies, really helpful

I'm hoping the brake temps will be ok but might try the fog light solution for the next warmer track day. Appreciate gear advice Brillomaster, will try short shifting before the left Craner curve and 3rd for the old hair pin, were the curbs slippery? I understand you should ideally use plenty of curb for Redgate, Old Hairpin, McLeans and Coppice, but not the Goddard chicane as they're aggressive (I'm doing the national configuration).

Cheers Pheonixboy, will anticipate it being slippery, saw on the touring cars and British GTs that it was resurfaced at the start of the year so hopefully that'll help.

Thanks mmm-five, sounds sensible if they delay start, did Brands in Feb 8yrs ago and icy Paddock Hill bend was pretty entertaining. Completely agree, don't get people disappearing early but nearly ran out of fuel before too, I'm assuming they have pumps there?

Thanks for advice Ed Doe, will try and book first tuition as early as possible and build speed slowly, being as smooth as possible with inputs through Craner left. I imagine traffic can be challenging through that section. Re tyre pressures, do you mean I should start off 30/33 and check them as soon as I come in after each session and drop them to that? Great pic, can't beat coupe profile!

[Ed Doe]

Have a blast mate, it really is a cracking circuit to drive - once they've released the spring dates (and I've got the various bits of essential maintenance sorted on mine over winter) I'll be booking in a day there too

Yeah I'd aim for 30-32psi to start, do a few laps, come in check them, adjust and repeat. I would suggest you'd want to aim for 32psi hot both front and rear.

One word of warning if you've not clocked it already - be VERY careful of taking too much kerb - I can't recall which corners (keep an eye out on your sighting laps), but they've fitted metal 'speedbumps' (see pic below) inside of the kerbstones certainly on the right hander of the Esses, and I think at Coppice too. Basically be effing careful of taking too much kerb, if you hit one of those at 50-60mph you'll likely knacker a tyre, they look awful!

donington-park-castle-donington-leicestershire-uk-23rd-april-2023-23rd-april-2023-donington-park-castle-donington-leicestershire-england-kwik-fit-british-touring-car-championship-dan-cammish-in-his-napa-racing-uk-fo.jpg (25.14 KiB) Viewed 331 times

[Phoenixboy]

Regarding fuel, you can normally buy fuel at the circuit, but you will pay a premium.
we usually brought jerry cans of fuel, and arrived with a full tank.
if its your road car, remove your number plates before going on circuit, trust me, its a good idea.....

[mmm-five]

There's an unmanned / card only fuel station on site...but it'll be about 25% more expensive than a normal garage and 10% more expensive than going to the local Donington services for fuel.

Currently (for normal unleaded):

• Moto Donington: £1.71
• National average of £1.49
• Donington £1.90-£2.00 (estimate)

[AndyBeech]

if its your road car, remove your number plates before going on circuit, trust me, its a good idea.....

Why? I thought only people on car finance / HP or similar did this?

[brillomaster]

i used to bring 20 litres of additional fuel as it was cheaper to buy outside the circuit, but now i don't bother, and just refill at the circuit... the convenience saves faffing around with jerry cans.

similarly i have never removed my number plate from any car before going on track... but all my cars are at least 15 years old and are owned outright, so no finance or warranties to worry about.

No one's mentioned insurance yet... personally, i've never insured any of my cars on track, but if you want to be covered for accidental damage i think a rough rule of thumb is insurance will cost 1% of the cars value for a day's cover.

[Ed Doe]

Yeah why bother removing your plate?

If you're using shell v power it's worth factoring in getting a full tank sorted out before you get there - as said above fuel on site is VERY expensive, and there isn't a shell very close to Donny.

If you want some sort of insurance, worth giving MORIS a call - from memory it worked out about £85 a day for insurance (does NOT cover mechanical failure, only a crash, and the excess is very high (Circa £1k from memory), but obviously it does work out cheaper than replacing the car!). You can also get a Multi-day policy, even if you don't know the venues or dates immediately - 3-5 days' insurance works out cheaper per day obviously.

[mmm-five]

if its your road car, remove your number plates before going on circuit, trust me, its a good idea.....

Why? I thought only people on car finance / HP or similar did this?

Also where some warranty/breakdown companies who may claim you've been 'racing' and try to void your breakdown/warranty policy.

[Phoenixboy]

The reason for removing your number plate is insurance.
You obviously understand that your standard insurance will not cover you for use on track.
Insurance assessors regularly turn up at track days, and will make a note of number plates, then when people put there car into the fence and submit a claim saying its happened on the road, they have evidence you were at a track day.
May seem a bit extreme, but be assured, it happens regularly.
Your choice, but it takes a few minutes to pop them off.

[Phoenixboy]

There's an unmanned / card only fuel station on site...but it'll be about 25% more expensive than a normal garage and 10% more expensive than going to the local Donington services for fuel.

Currently (for normal unleaded):

• Moto Donington: £1.71
• National average of £1.49
• Donington £1.90-£2.00 (estimate)

from memory there is a petrol station at the end of donington village on the right.

[mmm-five]

from memory there is a petrol station at the end of donington village on the right.

Yes.

• BP Castle Donington (out of the circuit, then left)
• Total Swarkstone (out of the circuit then right, right, right)

Both offer super unleaded.

[Ed Doe]

if its your road car, remove your number plates before going on circuit, trust me, its a good idea.....

Why? I thought only people on car finance / HP or similar did this?

Also where some warranty/breakdown companies who may claim you've been 'racing' and try to void your breakdown/warranty policy.

I had an engine issue at Goodwood in 2019 which resulted in having to be recovered by the AA. I've specifically always maintained membership with AA as they are the only breakdown service who recover from "non-competitive trackdays for fully road-legal cars". Even then when the AA Patrol man rocked up, he literally ignored me, walked straight past me, placed his hand on the tyre, said "you've been on track mate, we don't cover motorsport". He ignored my quoting the T&Cs at him, called control, said "yeah just checking we don't cover motorsport...yeah thought not" and then drove off.

I got recovered by Midhurst Engineering for £280, and then phoned the AA on the following Monday, and in fairness they held their hands up, apologised and reimbursed me in full.

So yeah it's not the cheapest recovery service, but if you want the convenience of spending lots monthly, hundreds up front and then the faff of claiming back after the event, AA is your port of call!

The reason for removing your number plate is insurance.
You obviously understand that your standard insurance will not cover you for use on track.
Insurance assessors regularly turn up at track days, and will make a note of number plates, then when people put there car into the fence and submit a claim saying its happened on the road, they have evidence you were at a track day.
May seem a bit extreme, but be assured, it happens regularly.
Your choice, but it takes a few minutes to pop them off.

I guess that's the big thing really - if you're going to go on track and don't want to take out a track-specific insurance policy, then if you have a whoopsie you have to put your big boy pants on and own your mistake. I very much doubt an insurance assessor would stop at 'not seeing your plate' on track if they suspected you'd been at a trackday event and were trying to submit a hookie claim fro a RTC. In this day and age it's the matter of a few minutes to obtain an electronic register of cars on track from any TDO, and cross-reference that against your car. In fact I'd bet the police would do that on attending the scene before it even made it to the insurers.
Wailing that, it also wouldn't take a genius insurance assessor to look at the damage to your car and the state of your brakes and tyres and correlate that to the staged 'scene of the crime'.

Bottom line, imo if you're foolish enough to try that game you deserve every bit that's coming at you. So just be an adult, leave your plates alone and go have some fun!

[mmm-five]

Wailing that, it also wouldn't take a genius insurance assessor to look at the damage to your car and the state of your brakes and tyres and correlate that to the staged 'scene of the crime'.

But they'd still have to prove (or you'd have to prove otherwise more likely) that the accident damage was from an on-track accident, and not just that you'd been on the track 30 minutes before you slide off the road on a pile of wet leaves (as I nearly did coming back to the hotel from a Castle Combe trackday once).

[AndyBeech]

The reason for removing your number plate is insurance.
You obviously understand that your standard insurance will not cover you for use on track.
Insurance assessors regularly turn up at track days, and will make a note of number plates, then when people put there car into the fence and submit a claim saying its happened on the road, they have evidence you were at a track day.
May seem a bit extreme, but be assured, it happens regularly.
Your choice, but it takes a few minutes to pop them off.

Hmmmm not sure about that, but if you say so. How would they know if you did it on track or on the way home / left early etc? The onus would be on the insurance company to prove that it happened on track, don't see how a guy taking number plates down proves anything.
Surely it only matters taking your plate off if your planning on committing insurance fraud in the first place in any case, sure the OP wasn't!

Anyway, I insure track days through Moris so not something I have to worry about personally

[JSz4]

Have a blast mate, it really is a cracking circuit to drive - once they've released the spring dates (and I've got the various bits of essential maintenance sorted on mine over winter) I'll be booking in a day there too

Yeah I'd aim for 30-32psi to start, do a few laps, come in check them, adjust and repeat. I would suggest you'd want to aim for 32psi hot both front and rear.

One word of warning if you've not clocked it already - be VERY careful of taking too much kerb - I can't recall which corners (keep an eye out on your sighting laps), but they've fitted metal 'speedbumps' (see pic below) inside of the kerbstones certainly on the right hander of the Esses, and I think at Coppice too. Basically be effing careful of taking too much kerb, if you hit one of those at 50-60mph you'll likely knacker a tyre, they look awful!

donington-park-castle-donington-leicestershire-uk-23rd-april-2023-23rd-april-2023-donington-park-castle-donington-leicestershire-england-kwik-fit-british-touring-car-championship-dan-cammish-in-his-napa-racing-uk-fo.jpg

Thanks that's really helpful, I'll aim for those tyre pressures. Hadn't seen those new curbs on guides but, having spent a lot recently on suspension bushes, camber arms and alignment I'll stay well clear!

I hadn't really considered insurance before, as it's a 3.0i on 125k the value isn't that high but still wouldn't want to write it off so might think about insurance in future given value of other cars on track too.

I only renewed with Green Flag 3 weeks ago but after reading your experience, and after a panic last year at Bedford over an oil leak, I cancelled and switched to AA. Currently 40% discount so only £35 difference and lady I spoke with confirmed what you said about track day recovery. I'm in Dorset so always a reasonable drive to tracks so good to have that reassurance especially given age of car, thanks!

Cheers mmm-five, will definitely fill up beforehand with a tank of V power.