Interest in a new track for AutoX/Road racing drifting?

[JFormato]

I have a friend of mine that wants to build a place where you can autocross and road race and drift relatively close to the tampa/lakeland area.
For about $30 you could go out and run the course timed and sling the thing around with out having any worries of tickets. We are hoping to be able to achieve about a possible 120mph on the track and have many different sections to open and close to control speed.
Primus is a pretty cool track but was hoping for something with a bit more space so as not to run into the shrubberies. :) this is in some very early stages but we would like to make the place wide enough to drift the corners at high speeds without any worries of trees or hitting anyone. We also want to make the place versatile enough to host Auto X and a good size road course.

Please give me you input. I will post this in the drifitng section as well.
Thank you

Jeremy Formato

[PseudoRealityX]

You do realize the kind of funding you need?

Michelin's Black lake, which is 1400 x 400 was over 7 million dollars.


Good luck.

[Regina]

Just like in drifting forum, if you have the money, build it. People will come regardless. I'll believe it when I see it.

[99TL]

Originally posted by ReginaVagina
if you have the money, build it. People will come regardless. I'll believe it when I see it.

[Rales]

Insurence costs for cars going 120+ on corners??? best of luck

[TIM TIM TIM]

that would be sweet. as said above ill have to see it to believe it

[robofunc]

I wish you the best of luck. IM me if you want someone to test drive it.

[neurovish]

...so many smartass replies ready, yet so little time...

[Ichi-go]

If you do that then you will be loved by all. I think the most economical would be building something like the Japanese do it, the small tracks that litter Japan. I will try to get some pictures of what im talking about.

120 mph is fast, that is going to need to be a long straight. Even a top speed of 100 would be so fun.

When this happens I will try down to Tampa from Jax to try it. You could go to at least 50 or 100 bucks if its all day.

[mofugga]

my guess is he's not trying to rival the black lake ;)



hope you got lots of money tho & several good contacts as it'll be hard work getting this going w/out 'em

[neurovish]

So what new tracks have been built in FL in the past few years?
There's the Gainesville Test Track, built by Gainesville Raceway...host of one of the biggest professional drag events in the nation (so it seems, I don't follow the sport)

Primus test track (kinda)...built by a formula car racing development company who is also the sole(?) importer of van diemen chassis.

More additions to the list?
Primus gets a kinda because it still isn't fully open...they are currently having trouble with nearby residents and the county I hear

[OversteerS2K]

You'll never get anything of that scale off the ground in Hillsborough County. The municipalities will never allow the needed zoning and the taxes will eat you alive.

Personally I would look into farmland in Pasco or Polk County. Even then you'll need a plot that has zero neighbors within a one to two mile radius or else you'll spend several hundred thousand dollars in the future for earthen berms around the place to deaden and redirect sound.

The idea of "come & play" individual rental track time needs to be re-thought, too. You'd be better off building a big asphalt pad and having the autocross and drift clubs rent it and run with their own insurance. There's the possibility that karting organizations would rent it, too. But leave out any open tracking ideas. They have enough established places to play. Realistically you couldn't expect more than $2,500 worth of rentals per month, on average. Car manufacurers spend good money on sites for "ride & drives", but they'll want a place with some permanant facilities with a/c for classroom training and such. And their promaotional events need to be in more accessible urban areas.

I've discussed this with some well-to-do entreprenuers and cautious estimates w/o any facilities, sewer lines, drainage, electricity, or fencing, came in somewhere between $600,000 to $900,000. My former boss, Carl Lindell, spent the better part of the last 35 years developing land in the Bay Area. He said we'd be better off developing an ATV/4wd park where improvements would cost $0. Property taxes in Pasco would run about $11,000 to $15,000 per year for a plot of suitable size. $2,500 per mo. X 12= just paying the taxes and never recouping any of the investment at all. And then in eight to ten years you'd have to spend another $300,000 to get it resurfaced (if you varied the drift courses enough that they didn't tear the shit out of it even quicker).

Don't give yourself any more brain damage on the subject. The best you can hope for is a whole lot of roll-over's for the lottery and you hitting it....maybe then we'll see an FIA spec road course with a paved infield for autocross...

[Leonard]

Originally posted by Ichi-go

120 mph is fast, that is going to need to be a long straight. Even a top speed of 100 would be so fun.



Not really..... We're not talking 0-120-0. We're talking more like 30-120-30. I figure a straight around a 1/4 mile would be enough for anything that traps 110 or better in the quarter.

[g-50Cab]

ANything is possible - just from an economical stand point - that's where it starts getting fuzzy.

[Loren]

Originally posted by Rales
Insurence costs for cars going 120+ on corners??? best of luck

Exactly what I was thinking.

My suggestion is to get an insurance company on board before you even start planning. They'll be happy to work with you, but they DO have guidelines to follow. You don't want to build a track that's uninsurable, or so expensive to insure that you get no business.

[czech09]

Originally posted by ReginaVagina
Just like in drifting forum, if you have the money, build it. People will come regardless. I'll believe it when I see it.

+ 38743943

[Mike]

if i had a dollar for a time someone has said this about building a track.....








well i would probley still have a merkur, but it wouldnt catch on fire.

[MrSideways]

Oh yeah, this is everyone's dream. I looked into it a number of years ago. Your going to need something in the order of 10 million.
When I looked into it the most effecient way was to use a Drag strip as one of the straight aways. Because you can use the drag strip 2-3 nights a week as a constant source of income. Since the track will rarely be used on a week night it just makes sence.

However lets say you can get the $10 million or so. Your still gonna need a politician in the area that your sleeping with in order to get it allowed. THEN you going to need to be sleeping with a lawyer who's got nothing else to do but to help you all day, then your going to need to kill off ever resident within a few miles so they can't give noise complaints, and then your going to need some serious insurance.

The way I saw it was... unless you have bill gates kinda funding your better off setting it up in another country with less people that hate cars. ie less democrates.

How are the rules different in germany that you can pay $12 and have at it for a lap around neruemburg. (SP)

[Muddy]

that would be the Nurburgring, nordshleif (north loop). ;)

[NitroGlycerin]

I would love to put my front swaybar on and run on a road course. Best of luck with it. :thumbup:

[0HP930]

If someone could pull the financial side off my suggestion for locations would be one of the closed phosphate mines out in the mulberry area. Lots of pre existing burms, access roads that could be converted and neighbors who are used to putting up with environmental blights like the giant phosphate plants.

I believe some of the mines out there are in recievership by the state which is on the hook for millions to maintain and reclaim the mines and settling ponds. Perhaps someone needs to suggest to the appropriate agencies what kind of public facilities could be set up on those thousands of isolated acres to help recoup some of those dollars.