Ok guys I dont know how to explain this because maybe you wont understand, but in short:

I dont have a big budget.

There is a track day event in my country, I really want to go, but I dont have a car (I have a pick-up truck, is my working horse). so...

the last track day I rented a car, and I get into the track. It was a lot of fun, I had some action.


here is the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXdJKn0b42g

Renting a car is my cheap fix to enjoy a track day, and since in my country there is so many noobs driving cars with good performance, sometimes I just give them a hard time for my pleasure.


The problem is....

When I took back the car to the rental, they just discovered that I was racing, mostly because the tyres. I dont know the exact term to describe them but... the edges of the tyres were like teared? but they werent that bad, I mean, I could swear that I had a lot of rubber from the track in the tyres. I have pictures, check the attachments.

basically the tyres were like this: (note, I took this pictures from a bike website but the tyres look very similar to my problem)



I was expecting some tyre wear but not this way (since I really did a lot of laps, my local track is not that hard, mostly high speed curves, and one with mid-to low speed, that was the curve I feel it like the hardest on tyres)

A friend of mine told me that I could fixed that easily, doing a sort of "cleaning" to the tyre, I am not sure. it looked like I could take it away with something.

I was trying to buy some used tyres from the racing cars here but the rims size and wide dont match with the rentals available.

Purchasing a set of rims is very expensive for me just to use them one day. Nobody wanted to lend me their rims (I offered to pay for it).

The next sunday is the track day, I am begging to see some rain because in rain I wont damage the tyres.

I was wondering if there is really a quick fix to this, I was expecting the tyres to wear different.
I dont pretend to restore the tyres to their original condition, but getting them a nicer look, a more natural look of tyre wear.
pd: sorry for my bad english.

Buy a track car.

I can't imagine any rental co being happy with what your doing ( understatement !) and if you ding it then you pay, no insurance.

IMHO - stupid choice and don't do it.
( Or steal something and race that, about as sensible. )
The point I'm trying to make is if you want to race, buy it, If you can't afford that then DONT !!!!!

You could rub it off the tyre with some... Something you will find suitable. It's ok to do. But they're checking tyres every time IMHO and they would find out either way that you did something to that specific set of tyres.

The best way is to buy used tyres.

BTW. When you rent a car, drive careful on the track, it's even worse scenario if you crashed your own car. Even if you get hit from behind by some noob, you will always loose, no matter what.

Does the track have some "official" cars to rent for trackdays maybe? You're saying you have low budget, but believe me, any unexpected situation happens on track - it will kill you in terms of finance when you're doing it this way.

I have the same opinion as the previous posters:

Don't go on a race track with a rental car (unless they let you rent cars at the track). If you crash you will not have insurance and pay for everything (financial disaster).

You can't "clean" tires that look like this. It's because they experience a LOT more heat and stress on a track compared to the street. The rubber goes through heat cycles they will never see on the road. It's not just the surface of the tire.

Short answer: Don't do it, get your own trackday car somehow.

Rental car companies might ban you for life, it has happened with people taking rental cars to the Nurburgring...

I understand you guys, I used to work on a car rental company a while ago.

In fact, they wanted me to pay for the tyres as new, the two front tyres, so I did to avoid problems. but they ripped me off lol.

their reason was "I did a very bad use of the car", crap, if they let me do it, that would be a huge promotion for them,since I finished 4th in a 10 car race(6 laps), with mustangs, some bmw's, eg6 civic, a trams am.

thanks for the suggestions, is hard to wait until I could buy a car or something else. is frustrating....

Quote from jnr89 :

I understand you guys, I used to work on a car rental company a while ago.

In fact, they wanted me to pay for the tyres as new, the two front tyres, so I did to avoid problems. but they ripped me off lol.

their reason was "I did a very bad use of the car", crap, if they let me do it, that would be a huge promotion for them,since I finished 4th in a 10 car race(6 laps), with mustangs, some bmw's, eg6 civic, a trams am.

thanks for the suggestions, is hard to wait until I could buy a car or something else. is frustrating....

Yeah, okay. Why don't you go and ask the other car rental companies to let you have one for free so you can finish 4th in a trackday race, see what they say.

I think you know you are in the wrong here. You abused the car, broke the agreement (I bet there's a line in there which specifically prohibits such use), and to be honest if I were in their position I would be looking at a lot of other things I could charge you for besides two front tyres. You got off light.

Quote from sinbad :

if I were in their position I would be looking at a lot of other things I could charge you for besides two front tyres. You got off light.

they did, they were like searching for crashes or impacts. Come on, this is ridiculous, I didnt crash the car, I just pushed it to the limit.

what is "A bad use of the car"? if you ask me, a bad use of the car is driving it improperly,overspeeding,driving careless,and if you ask me, accidents are not "accidents", accidents are crashes that happens because one or more people did something wrong (overspeeding,not paying attention,etc).
putting in that way, every crash or accident I saw while working on the rental, was the driver's fault and the insurance they paid shouldnt have worked.

is nothing compared to taking a car to the race track but people usually overspeed the cars, they break the cars (undertray,tyres,etc) and on the public road...

I knew the risks, I knew the consecuences, but hey, I am a guy with a huge desire to race... before renting that car, I used my pick-up truck to go around the track, and even I could cut some gap in cars during some sequences of curves, they just erased me in the mirrors in every straightway.
I just wanted to jump into the track and lap it for myself, since nobody wanted to give me a ride as a copilot.

I will look forward to buying a car, probably something cheap and fun to drive, like a EG6 Civic or if I have the chance, a subaru legacy GT, but for now I couldnt do anything.

forgive me but I am a very aware driver, I drive a lot daily, I have no incidents, I See a lot of crazy stuff too. nothing is a valid reason to do what I did but **** it, YOLO, I did it and even if I paid more for the tyres than what I paid for the rental (rental:$100 us$, tyres: $200 us$), I had such a great time and fun.

I wish to go to the track everyday of my life. sorry if I sound reckless but, I am a very aware driver, and I know that is not enough to prevent a crash(sometimes is not even your fault).

I was going to write a longer post about how foolish you're being, but I think this sums it up:

Quote from jnr89 :

YOLO

:ices_rofl

It'll buff out.

Racing at a track day ? Don't you mean club day and if your racing your a total idiot.

Buy a cheap car, race that.

You may be awesome and never make a mistake ( YOLO ) but other people may make it for you.

Quote from Racer X NZ :

It'll buff out.

Racing at a track day ? Don't you mean club day and if your racing your a total idiot.

Buy a cheap car, race that.

You may be awesome and never make a mistake ( YOLO ) but other people may make it for you.

Hey idiot, you used your when you should've used you're.

Sorry, try this: "and if you're racing your a total idiot."

And your bonus win is your own "YOLO"

Wait, so you went out to rent a normal road car from a normal rental company and then you went to a trackday. But you also did a race on the trackday?

What?

did you accidentally also drive your girlfriends VW around brands hatch couple of weeks ago?

Quote from Racer X NZ :

Sorry, try this: "and if you're racing your a total idiot."

That's a negatory ghost rider.

Quote from Bmxtwins :

That's a negatory ghost rider.

Why are you even responding to him? He's just spewing out his nonsense like always.

Quote from jnr89 :

When I took back the car to the rental, they just discovered that I was racing, mostly because the tyres. I dont know the exact term to describe them but... the edges of the tyres were like teared? but they werent that bad, I mean, I could swear that I had a lot of rubber from the track in the tyres. I have pictures, check the attachments.

Yes, that is what happens to tyres on track!
I can easily abuse a new set of tyres to be totally unusable if I want to, I try absolutely the opposite of course.

Suggestion 1, buy some cheap dented used rims, fit some good tyres (preferably R (semi slicks) but semi R (semi-semi-slicks) or track oriented might be ok. Fit them before track driving. Drive on track, abuse your tyres, fit unused tyres to car return car and nobody will know better.

The cheap dented rims will not depreciate in value, you can sell them for profit if you repaint them.

Frankly: If you can not afford the tyre wear, do not drive on track. Driving on track is expensive (I consumed eur 80 of fuel and a bit more in tyres)

Quote from CodeLyoko1 :

did you accidentally also drive your girlfriends VW around brands hatch couple of weeks ago?

[/thread]

Racing is for rich bastards.

If you are not a rich bastard, there is karting. Unless you want to win at karting which is reserved for rich bastards.

Otherwise, sim.

Quote from jnr89 :

their reason was "I did a very bad use of the car", crap, if they let me do it, that would be a huge promotion for them,since I finished 4th in a 10 car race(6 laps), with mustangs, some bmw's, eg6 civic, a trams am.

Omg.. tell me which country you live in? I'd move there immediately. I think in Holland you'd be send to a mental institution, no offense, I guess im even quite serious about that..

Plenty of shops offer cars for rent for track days. Get one of them.

For instance, here Miatas are typically the track day rental, and a caged/lowered Miata will rent for around $500-$700 per day.

Quote from MadCat360 :

Plenty of shops offer cars for rent for track days. Get one of them.

For instance, here Miatas are typically the track day rental, and a caged/lowered Miata will rent for around $500-$700 per day.

That's not really affordable, is it?

not really...for that much money id rather get some old banger, fix it up a bit and have fun.

Quote from Bmxtwins :

That's not really affordable, is it?

There is NO affordable motorsport.* That's how it is.

Either you spend that much tracking your own car (which could get way more expensive depending on what you break), or you spend that much tracking someone else's car.

$500 per day gets you 10 track days per year for $5,000, not including entry fee which is the same for both methods. I dare you to find any beater that will survive a schedule like that for less than $5,000 after purchase and fix-up. Your tire cost alone could be that much if you wanted to splooge on R-comps.

And for the $500, you're getting a car that is race ready. Not some stock Miata or Honda that handles like, comparatively, crap, and will need brakes and hoses and belts and all that crap because it's an old beater.


* well you could make a case for pocket bike racing, but that's still a much more expensive hobby than almost anything else

You can buy a brand new honda civic for not much more than $15,000. You would be better off putting a down payment on that, monthly payments, and get racing insurance.