Ok, so I keep reading where fellow S2K members are going to this track and that track to race or track their cars, mostly in the CA area. I also see the prices of some of the driving schools like Skip Barber and others and to do that on a consistant basis is out of the questions. I have gone to the local drag strip but that is old now and not what the car was built to do. So my question is what would it take to build and run a track in Nashville TN.

1. cost, to build

2. liabilities, insurance

3. do you have to run a school, or can you just charge a fee to run your car on the track

if anyone has any additional input that would be great, I don't know enough to know what questions to ask.

 

hah I always thought the same thing. There was a video on one of the video hosting sights on pretty much "how to build a race track"

Its no where near as simple as desgin some random course and go from there. You need to plan everything around that course and the course has to be good. There are professional track designers out there that do all this stuff.

1. 50 million+ AT LEAST depending (track style / size, what kind of events) just to build it let alone including things like upkeep, salaries, equipment, or even paying the track designer, etc. Your looking in the hundreds of millions of dollars

2.Everyone sues now-a-days. You can bet you need to get a very good and (of course) very costly insurance plan

3.Its your track, you can do whatever you want with it.


All in all. The average person isn't even going to come near the ability to build a race track. You would need to be eithor very rich, or have lots of high end contacts to get LOTS of sponsors.

Its a cool idea and no doubt I've thought about the same thing but the truth is, its very unlikly it'll ever happen.

 

Wow, I would have guessed it was expensive, but that high?

 

I'm just going by what the video said. It was legit though, talking about all the major road courses and how they were built and by who. It was pretty interesting but saddened me that I'll never be able to build one

 

When are they gonna open the Englishtown one?

 

I don't know, I think that it can be done for a hell of a lot cheaper then that. No one is saying that you have to build something like Motegi. I have seen pics/videos from places that look like someone took a stretch of land and laid down asphault. I know its not nearly as simple as that, but I also don't think that it has to go to the other extreme either. I think the highest cost would be insurance for such an operation, but isn't that what waivers are for?

 

Well as I said it really depends.

Land is a lot of the cost of a race track. Then you have to figure in the area for people to sit, garages for the cars.

If you want to build a race track that is really worthy of being called a race track your going to spend a LOT.



If you want a simple small track thats just basically a secluded road your looking at a couple million depending on area. Around here an acre costs ~1 million dollars; its rediculous



The englishtown race track can't even be considered a race track. More like a pre-set autocross track. I've actually been on it. Its a low speed track that isn't wide enough to really pass any cars. My guess is, it'll be used for the go-karts rather then actual cars

 

I always told myself that if I ever hit the lotto I'd open one

 

I think he had something more like Willow springs in mind.

I think you could do it for less than 50 mill. Just depends on how big really. is it going to be flat or banked.

I think a track like willow springs (SOW) track can be built for a lot less than 50 mill.

To answer your question, it takes money, plenty of money unless you have sponsers. I'm sure a track like willow springs or button willow has already made its money back.

 

Hey spec, you did see that he said Nashville right?

http://www.landintennessee.com/green...west/index.php

Here's what the property cost's out there. Around $175k for 6 acres. Enough land could be bought for a well layed out track for $2mil

Need to plan a track? Why not just copy one instead!! (maybe modify it some or ask permission) My suggestion would be of course tsukuba, which by my calculations would require about 65.56 acres of land to reproduce the main circuit with facilities.

I would estimate another mil for building the garages and maybe another mil (to be safe) for paving it correctly.

So you're looking at around $4-5mil would be my guess in your area.