# What's the farthest you've driven to go to a DE?



## BobC (Jun 17, 2003)

Just curious how far people are willing to travel for a Driving School. A friend of mine and I where just day dreaming about going to Lagua Seca. He lives in Chicago and I live in Portage, MI. It be about a 2700 mile trip ONE WAY for me.  

The farthest I've ever driven was for this years O'Fest and the school at VIR: 1500 miles round trip.


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## Nick325xiT 5spd (Dec 24, 2001)

BobC said:


> Just curious how far people are willing to travel for a Driving School. A friend of mine and I where just day dreaming about going to Lagua Seca. He lives in Chicago and I live in Portage, MI. It be about a 2700 mile trip ONE WAY for me.
> 
> The farthest I've ever driven was for this years O'Fest and the school at VIR: 1500 miles round trip.


 For racing, I might go that far. It seems silly to go more than a few hours just to drive around with no competition.


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## SergioK (Aug 14, 2002)

500 miles to Thunderhill.


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## Jim44 (Feb 28, 2004)

520 miles to Las Vegas. Twice. Once for the "club" track, once for the "big" track.

Plus, it's Vegas 

Jim


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## Galun (Aug 14, 2002)

bay area to vegas


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## vaio76109 (Feb 3, 2005)

100 miles LMAO!


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## Pinecone (Apr 3, 2002)

5 hours. But 5 hours from here gets you to BeaveRun, the Glen, Lime Rock, Pocono (less actually), VIR, and Summit Point (less than 2 hours). Why would I drive more?  And potentially 3 more tracks coming.

If it what you want to do, go for it. But I would probably find a school there and do a school event. I think Jim Russel school runs there. Fly out, do a good school, and fly home. My wife and I did that to Vega for Derek Daly schools. Of course my school has been VERY expensive. 



It got me my Regional SCCA license, which turned into a couple of races to keep the license, to a couple more, to buying the race car, to racing a LOT more.


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## dhabes (Jan 22, 2004)

Ive gone 200 miles... or about 3 hrs to spectate a DE... does that count .


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## Mr Paddle.Shift (Dec 19, 2001)

From *A* to *B* and back. 475 miles one trip. Come to think of it...WTF. Hated the trip. But love the track. Next time I am going up there, I will have a trailer.


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## corgicoupe (Sep 12, 2004)

I met a guy at Barber that drove down form Minnesota. Something like 17 hours, but he was able to couple it with some business.


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## doeboy (Sep 20, 2002)

SergioK said:


> 500 miles to Thunderhill.


:stupid:

Wow... Michigan to Laguna Seca? That's one heck of a haul....


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## Interlocker (Jun 27, 2003)

BobC said:


> A friend of mine and I where just day dreaming about going to Lagua Seca. He lives in Chicago and I live in Portage, MI. It be about a 2700 mile trip ONE WAY for me.


I'm in the 500-ish mile crowd, but I know of a few who've made the trek from Seattle down to Laguna Seca.

My personal advice... Not worth that distance and time to drive out. HOWEVER, it's more than worth it to fly out and rent a car. Don't mention what you're using it for, of course, but I can guarantee that you'll have a ton of fun and get there a lot sooner. 

A Dodge Neon, Ford Focus or Toyota Camry will work surprising well at Laguna... And you'll have plenty of time to talk things out with your instructor between T6 and T8.


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## Pinecone (Apr 3, 2002)

It just depends on how hard core you are.


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## SimonH (Nov 21, 2003)

Driving that far for a DE is not worth it. I regularly drive between 10-15 hours for various races from the midwest, Mosport, Watkins Glen, Lime Rock, VIR, Road Atlanta, Road America. The furthest I have gone is about 17 hours to Texas from Indianapolis. I've looked into driving to the west coast and it is about 33 hours which is just too much. That is more than 2 days driving. I'm still considering it but more than likely I will scrap the idea.


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## Interlocker (Jun 27, 2003)

SimonH said:


> I've looked into driving to the west coast and it is about 33 hours which is just too much. That is more than 2 days driving. I'm still considering it but more than likely I will scrap the idea.


I see in your sig that you drive a JS M3. There are a few of those for rent out here that you could look into.


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## SimonH (Nov 21, 2003)

Yeah I know about Brad's car. It probably makes a hell of a lot of sense to rent and fly out there. Its just not cheap.


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## Interlocker (Jun 27, 2003)

SimonH said:


> Yeah I know about Brad's car. It probably makes a hell of a lot of sense to rent and fly out there. Its just not cheap.


There are, or were, other cars available too. I think Bullett and a couple of other places rent them out as well. I think Mike Mills also has some SpecE30 cars for rent. None of the rental programs are what I'd consider inexpensive, unfortunately, but just knowing what's all available makes me feel better.


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## FierySphere (Jul 11, 2004)

Interlocker said:


> None of the rental programs are what I'd consider inexpensive,


Arr, there speaks a man who has never owned, and raced his own racecar 
At around $2K a weekend, it makes pretty good $ense.
I bet Mike's SpecE30's are less than $2K for the weekend too. Spec Maita's are around $800 a day with support.


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## Pinecone (Apr 3, 2002)

FierySphere said:


> Arr, there speaks a man who has never owned, and raced his own racecar
> At around $2K a weekend, it makes pretty good $ense.
> I bet Mike's SpecE30's are less than $2K for the weekend too. Spec Maita's are around $800 a day with support.


:stupid:

Figure trackside support runs $250 - $500 per day, NOT including the car and tires. And witha rental, all normal wear and tear (including engine wear and tear) are covered. Price and engine rebuild and then compare to the number of weekends between rebuilds, adn see where the money goes.

Around here, Spec Racers go for about $800 - $850 per day, with a discount for longer weekends. In some parts of the country, you are looking at $1200 per day, EVERY day.

Racing cars is NOT cheap, even a "cheap" class.


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## woody underwood (Feb 9, 2004)

Kansas City to: New Hampshire...Laguna Seca...Road America...St. Louis and Topeka KS a lot.


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