Interest in a new track for AutoX/Road racing drifting?
bucket
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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
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
F K D
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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...
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...
OUCH!!!
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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.
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.
TR Balla Donor Supreme
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ANything is possible - just from an economical stand point - that's where it starts getting fuzzy.
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"If you can make black marks on a straight from the time you turn out of a corner until the braking point of the next turn, then you have enough horsepower"
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Originally posted by Rales
Insurence costs for cars going 120+ on corners??? best of luck
Insurence costs for cars going 120+ on corners??? best of luck
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.
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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.
Just like in drifting forum, if you have the money, build it. People will come regardless. I'll believe it when I see it.
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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)
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)
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Ian
1995 BMW M3 STU trim.
Ian
1995 BMW M3 STU trim.
Last edited by MrSideways; 08-02-2004 at 10:56 AM.
The Fat Cobra
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that would be the Nurburgring, nordshleif (north loop). 
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You need to grab ahold of that line between speed and chaos, and you need to wrestle it to the ground like a demon cobra.-Talladega Nights
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I would love to put my front swaybar on and run on a road course. Best of luck with it. 
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