god damn it you might be right, friggen GTRs. yes it would probably be more popular. but I will kick their ass at the same time in my 300, lol.
If your talking GTR's, why not consider a EVO as well? They don't take too much fidling to go super quick, and they are even harder to crash
I have to agree there , i have a RVR hypersports which has the evo 3 running gear thru it, i couldn'd even image what sort of stupid driving id have to do to lose control of it Rgrds Trev
how about data logging everything from the ecu, from rpm to AFR, that way you will be able to tell if it was driver neg or car fault.
evos are getting cheap(ish) these days as well, you can get a VII imported for around $23k fully complied, without compliance (being a race car) it would be even less. Cant wait to get enough money to get one, a VII or an VIII will definitely be my garage in the next year or two
I can guarantee u will love the car(evo) the suspension /chassis and 4wd work wonderfully together not to mention the 4g63 Still the zed once modded is faster AND kills it in the looks department :zlove: Rgrds Trev
Not having mainstream is a big advantage - the typical Trev and Shazza won't want to drive a zed - thats good - you don't want them anyways. Doing alot of drive days in "V8 Supercars" here in Perth I can honestly say that the driving standard when people are put in a car with a helmet on and sent out onto the track is lower than expected! You don't want to attract that sort of client! I would suspect that Fleet would be doing this more of a experience thing for the average driver rather than a huge money making excercise for him. I know I would prefer to not have the car running flat out all day driven by monkeys but have it out twice or three times during that day driven by people with more respect for what they are driving!
If you really want to get a decent client base, spend some dollars and import yourself R35 Skyline for race use(no compliance). They will scare the pants off most people and you wont have to do any performance modifications to it. People will come from far and wide to drive one of those beasts. Especially after putting Clarksons neck out on Top Gear. Just an idea.
I 2nd this, I'm not a fan of them but totally agree with Ztoy, you will get a hell of a lot of people come to drive the R35. Even with minor tweaks it'll still be friggin awesome to take out on to the track but i'll ALWAYS be a Z32 boy at heart MoulaZX
^^^that is spot on, which brings me to this below, you could in all practicality only have a standard say $1000 ecxess. the machines should have (your car/s) rev limiters, some form of traction control even if it's only a front/rear wheel speed limiter/engine soften. As a business it couldnt work otherwise (ie: excess range from 700-5000) like ZedZilla said, having the co-pilot in there like when i di the V8 supercars thing in perth was a good set up. but yeah what ever way you wanna approach it. maybe look at charging 800 (every customer puts 100 into your little "opps bang" savings and you only get an effective 700/catomer turn over?) ....was a thought at least or just use some sort of brokered insurance and factor in the cost of insurance into the drive/customer basis.
Maybe a 2 stage thing, a driving instruction on increasing boost for $500 which they must pass to be given an opportunity to take it for a solo on full boost for $500 or you could lower boost based on your appraisal for the solo. Covering the risk of loss is an interesting one, I think it has to linked to driver fault some how, offer your own insurance at $250 (non refundable) up to $5000 damage, and an option of full responsibility for at fault with a refundable $2000 security deposit. Something like that would allow you to minimise risk with an appraisal of the driver, build a self insurance fund, and still offer a very reasonable $500 price to people that have the ability to slap a $2000 cash security down. Also keeping your recoverable loss under $5000 that would keep it in small claims, some what cheaper to pursue. But at the end of the day if someone wreaks your car and they cant cover it can be very difficult to get your money. Example if someone with $250/$5000 coverage does $7000 damage they are liable for $2000, someone with $2000 security does $7000 they are liable for $5000. Also build one car and use your beast as back up in the event of damage or failure on the day. Again no expert just some ideas.
Nobodys going to drive a car that potentially could come with an insanely huge repair bill. What if the transmision is already flogged to death and you just happen to the be one it lets go on? Going to charge that person the full repair bill? It'll never happen, they'd have every right to refuse to pay a cent. The rally experience is only $500 for a half day and they've got like 6 different cars and they teach you how to drive a rally car etc You could never do it with one car. Say a group of 5 want a go, the first guy screws the car up. Now you're left with 4 pissed off customers who will tell everyone how shit it was! lol
backup car is the answer to that one. Im thinking the customers can opt for damage insurance of an extra $500 to cover them in case they do happen to blow a motor or damage something. otherwise they will need to fork out for the excess. and in my experience, I cant see someone blowing a motor, a transmission, and doing panel damage in one session anyway. once these cars are built with the right gear they are bulletproof.
Points of interest... This is a race car so: You can not charge excess or damage bills etc for blown engines, boxes etc. An engine can blow at any time (no matter how well it is built) same goes for gearbox, diff etc. So if it blows, Pete, you'll have to cover that. You CAN however, charge for panel damage (or an excess for panel damage). QR is quite a safe track BUT anything can happen.Imagine someone going head first into the wall coming onto the straight because your driver has stepped on his dick with 400kw and lost control......that will be BIG & EXPENSIVE. It may cost him an excess but the repair bill could be thousands ! The V8's have a contingency fund if you hire a drive (different to what you propose I know but) You have to have a back up fund to pay for damages in the V8 lights (anywhere up to $30 or $40K for example - at least it was a while ago) No one is going to have a go if they know that they could be up for a big rebuild of your car if they crash it. You need to take into consideration the caliber of driver that will have your 400kw at their disposal. If you have customers wanting to experience 400kw then I suggest that YOU drive them Pete. They still get the feeling of acceleration and stopping etc without the risk of having to pay for $$$$ damages. If you damage it then at least it was all on you. If you want to 'hire a drive', then de-tune the shit out of it so the risk to you is minimal. Customers still get the feeling of racing a Z and you have some peace of mind also. PUBLIC LIABILITY: The waiver that people are made to sign means diddly. If they can prove that your duty of care was negligent then say goodbye to everything you have worked for. INSURANCE: You will not find any insurance company that will cover a car that is used on the racetrack - period. Much to consider Pete, great idea but make sure all your 'i' are dotted and 't' are crossed. If you really want to offer this experience then the idea of a 2 stage format is not so silly. Just like the gokart hire - prove you can do consistent times under a set time in the slower kart and you progress to the fast ones. By a cheap NA (doesnt even have to be modded) and set a time that will make sure the guys that beat the time have proved they are capable of progressing and able to competently handle a high hp car. But then again, this will be hard to do at sprint days, and private track hire is way ti expensive to make it work with just two cars. Just my thoughts mate, I'd hate to see you end up losing it all. GL John
