Taking my Cup off the road and just doing track days now.

[StuOwen86]

Well I've had my 172 Cup a year now which I bought as my first track car it's been mega fun and reliable on track (more than I thought to be honest lol) and the tax/insurance run out 1st December now it was mainly a track car and used on the road now and again which was costing the same to insure as it was to tax so I've decided to save the £550 a year on them both and take it off the road as that's almost a 1/4 of the trailer value and after 3-4 years has paid for the trailer with the money saved and the trailer will still be worth something. I'm going to be buying a trailer for getting it to and from track, I'm just waiting for Neil@Greenlight to get back to me but I was wondering if anyone else has a policy just for having the car sat on the drive (a laid up policy I think they are) in case it's stolen or anything and while having one of these policies is it still OK to trailer to track and use it as Renault intended lol or will this void the policy as it's not just sat there on the drive obviously I know I cant claim if I damage it on track so just weighing up my options , I debated calling the house insurance and asking them but will hang fire until Neil gets back to me.

Plus it means I can go a little more track focused and remove headlights to ones with cold air feed's ect and strip out more stuff and maybe get a full cage with door bars, fiberglass doors, poly windows as a few things (have been put off doing these so far as it's still used on the road now and again) plus not have to mess around swapping road pads to track pads the day before

 

[James363]

V6Dan may have some details, he mentioned insuring a V6 laid up in this thread:
http://www.cliosport.net/threads/my-new-iliad-v6.778050/
Although he didn't insure it laid up in the end afaik

 

[wattson]

Hi there. I have been contemplating to buy a 172 for track use, keep it off the road and tow it to track days roughly once a month. I hadn't thought of the insurance but I've come across a few other issues that need to be resolved, listing them here just so you can have a think about them as well.

1. Towing licence: If your driving license was issued after 1997, you will need an add-on in your license to tow a car legally. I've read in other forums that people paid £400 - £600 for weekend courses to get it.
2. Towing vehicle: You will need a breaked trailer and the weight of your Clio plus the trailer must be within the towing weight limit of your tow vehicle. I drive a Saab 9-3 1.9 tid (1600 kg tow limit) and think it can just about do the job although something heavier and more powerful would be better.
3. Storage: Obvious, but you will need space for a trailer, tow car and the track car. I have a tiny garage to keep the Clio and can park the Saab on the road but have no idea what to do with the trailer. I've seen ads on ebay to hire trailers for around £100 per weekend so that could be an option but then the tow limit could be an issue as the ones I've seen are rather large / heavy trailers. Also I don't want to pay £1000 per year just for hiring a trailer!

Please do correct me / share your solutions on these. Best of luck!

 

[theburns1]

Hi there. I have been contemplating to buy a 172 for track use, keep it off the road and tow it to track days roughly once a month. I hadn't thought of the insurance but I've come across a few other issues that need to be resolved, listing them here just so you can have a think about them as well.

1. Towing licence: If your driving license was issued after 1997, you will need an add-on in your license to tow a car legally. I've read in other forums that people paid £400 - £600 for weekend courses to get it.
2. Towing vehicle: You will need a breaked trailer and the weight of your Clio plus the trailer must be within the towing weight limit of your tow vehicle. I drive a Saab 9-3 1.9 tid (1600 kg tow limit) and think it can just about do the job although something heavier and more powerful would be better.
3. Storage: Obvious, but you will need space for a trailer, tow car and the track car. I have a tiny garage to keep the Clio and can park the Saab on the road but have no idea what to do with the trailer. I've seen ads on ebay to hire trailers for around £100 per weekend so that could be an option but then the tow limit could be an issue as the ones I've seen are rather large / heavy trailers. Also I don't want to pay £1000 per year just for hiring a trailer!

Please do correct me / share your solutions on these. Best of luck! :smile:

Spot on, only thing I would say is you could keep Clio on trailer to save on space.

If it was me and doing it on a budget, I would buy a cheap tow car with tow bar for about £1000, a semi decent trailer for about £500 then towing licence. So still £2k worth of investment but that's it then for a few years of track days

 

[StuOwen86]

I have a HGV class one so towing isn't an issue and we have a Traffic Van for towing space is fine as I'm either going to leave it at my mum n dads who have a very big driveway/cctv or at my house where I have enough room to store it on the trailer and just secure the trailer to a post concreted into the ground/wheel lock on the trailer. I could store the trailer somewhere else and use my crappy run about to go pick up the trailer get car sorted and strapped down/loaded up ready for the van. I have a 52 plate Focus for going to work but I think it's only good for towing about 1250kg so probably just over weight wise {trailer about 450kg and Clio about 900kg} unless I load the car up lol and that'll make it weigh more so the trailer and clio don't weigh more than it.