Matt Prior's tester's notes - are track days for wimps?

We’ve got a contributor who thinks track days are for wimps, for those who don’t have, if you’ll pardon the expression, the balls to go racing properly.

I sort of agree. Sort of. But I mostly side with those who quite like the odd track day now and again. Mostly because I don’t have the balls to go motor racing beyond what this magazine asks me to do, or racing karts. Karts cost less and hurt less. I like racing a car, but only after the event. I like racing a kart all the time.

I enjoy a car on a track with no pressure around, no stopwatch, no people standing there, in your employ, waiting for the moment that you bin it or finish near the back, then nodding and giving you platitudes before admitting to their mates that, truth be told, you’re a bit slow.

I figured I couldn’t be alone in thinking that way. So it was no surprise that when I was talking to a bloke from a race/track day car maker the other day, he said the market for seriously expensive track day toys was going tremendously well.

I’ve had a pet theory about this for a long time. Yes, you could use a supercar on a track day if you wanted, and it’d be a lot of fun, but no matter how well you drive it, it’ll always weigh a tonne and a half and it’ll always get through consumables at a frightening rate. The running costs of supercars or hypercars are high, even for those who can afford it.

Granted, track days cost a lot, too, but if you can make a set of brakes and tyres on a lightweight track car last for three or four days, that’s better than a new set of Eagle F1s and some main dealer servicing every few hours.

And? And you get to have a bit of a play with, in effect, a race car. Something light, something immediate, something that you can spend hour after hour in, chipping away at a line here or there and knowing that, deep down, you’re learning and you’re getting faster.

Okay, you might not be doing that alongside 20 other hooligans, all testing yourselves against each other and the clock, but I really don’t mind that. In fact, I quite like the idea. And if that implies a lack of testicular dimension, I’m afraid I’m guilty as charged.

- Is there a better-driven vehicle on the road than a fuel tanker? Always in the correct lane. Always at the right speed. Always courteous and clear of intent, and never rushed. This makes a lot of sense, really, given the implications of things going wrong. Maybe we should all tow a few tonnes of explosive liquid fuel around with us.