When to trailer your racecars and why?

I'm looking for some GRM wisdom and stories. When did you decide to start trailering vs driving to the track? What pushed you to make the leap? How many events do you have to do in a year to make it feel worth it?

I've been driving my dailies to the track/autox/rallyx for years and I've never had a failiure that required a tow home, I imagine my luck will sooner or later run out. I recently invested in a 1st gen Tundra for towing/daily duties but am now moving to an even more urban area with limited parking. The best I could get would be renting two off street spots in different locations in addition to street parking. Space for the truck, trailer, and 1-2 race cars is going to be a serious challenge. It sounds crazy just typing it. On the other hand, I'm in a unique position to finally have enough free time and money to track/rallyx at least a couple times a month and build cars to be competitive. Trailering comes with tons of benefits like traveling farther reliably, easy overnights, never getting stranded far away, being able to drive 10/10ths, etc. When is it worth it?

I've read a lot of stories about AAA denying tows for anything track related so I don't want to rely on that. How much has it cost you to U-Hual your broken car home? Is a tire trailer a more elegant solution than it looks? I'm all ears.

Edit: I guess I should add my goals are really only to have fun and get seat time, though I love the competition I'm not chasing season podiums or spec classes yet.

when it stopped being street legal.

If your track car has a roll cage, you should probably trailer it in any instance that you aren't wearing a helmet. Living in a congested area is tough, though. It might be wise to rent some space in a friend's yard or something.

It depends on your situation.  Many (most?) things that are "racecars" aren't legal to drive on the street.  I tow the Formula Vee to the track because driving it on the street isn't sane even if it were legal.  I tow the (street-legal) rally car to the rally because I've broken it in 2/2 rallies, and have no reason to believe the 3rd will be any different.  I drive the street-legal track Miata to the track, because why tow it when I can drive it?

What's the car?  How safe is it to drive on the street?  How far are you going?  How miserable is it to drive vs to load on a trailer?  Are you safe driving it without a helmet?  Can you carry all the tools/spares/tires you need in the racecar?  Trailering a street-legal car to the track as insurance is a cost-benefit calculation like any other insurance question--can you afford it when the bad happens?

Its usually worth it as soon as you can swing it.   Your current situation makes it tough, or at best expensive.

I have a street legal licensed and insured car, but it runs on $15/gallon fuel and no A/C.  Basically totally crazy to try to drive 5 hours to most of my favorite tracks.

When one gets 10/10ths serious there usually is a trailer involved.   Especially if distance and over night stays are involved.   YMMV

In reply to dannyp84 :

That's a great point I forgot to add. I've never been able to build a car with a cage but I would certainly prefer to have one in anything I'm tracking and I would avoid street driving a caged car at all costs.

I'm transitioning to trailering my E Street miata to events. Reliability or breaking the car isn't an issue driving a stock miata to autocross events. I do want to keep the mileage down on the car.

Primarily, it's wearing me out driving to some of the more distant venues. I usually wear ear plugs, but it is still loud. Also no cruise control, AC doesn't hold a charge (and the evaporator is out of production), crank windows, uncomfortable seat, and highway cruise is 3900-4700 RPM. Some of my round trips are seven hours, so I'm rarely attending that venue. Five hour round trips are fairly frequent.

If I ever finish my challenge car, I'll need to trailer it. Planning to autocross it too.

I started to trailer my Datsun once it was caged.

I drove my Showroom Stock Miata to the track and a all used it as a daily driver. I was low enough in the car that I was wasn't likely to hit my head in a street car crash.

I bought the Foxbody Mustang with the intent of driving it to events but none of them are more.than an hour from the house.

I have heard of AAA denying tows from race tracks, but I don't know how they justify it.  I've read the fine print of my towing policy and there's nothing in there about race tracks.  It has to be a street-registered car, and it has to be something that the tow truck driver can safely load, but those are both compatible with dual-duty cars.

That said, a small chance of breaking it is not a good financial reason to go invest in a tow rig.  Even if you pay $1000 out of pocket to get the car towed home, that's about 10% of what a good, reliable tow rig will cost you.  An unreliable tow rig is worse than useless -- if the truck breaks down now you've got to get both it AND the trailer towed home.  BTDT.

So, good reasons to invest in a tow rig:

- A non-street-legal or non-street-safe (caged qualifies as such, IMHO) race car is the biggest and most obvious.

- Tow vehicles may be more comfortable than dual purpose race cars, especially when you're tired and hot after a long day of racing.

- Towing lets you bring a lot more stuff with you.  This is both a blessing and a curse.  A big toolbox?  Four sets of tires?  A spare engine and transmission?

- Enclosed trailers form a great base of operations at the track.  You've got shelter from the sun and rain, a portable garage, even AC if you want it.  Also, your stuff stays in the trailer, rather than being spread out on a tarp on the ground.

- You may want to bring more people than can fit in the dual-purpose race car.  This is the reason that ultimately pushed me into it -- I wanted to go to the FM open house in Grand Junction, but you can't fit a family of four in a Miata.

We tow pretty much all the time even though both cars are street legal. Just the peace of mind is worth it. We've melted brakes, blown a headgasket, been t-boned, and never worried too much about bringing the car home. One time we brought two cars and one trailer. Guess what happened? AAA got called. And one time, two of us drove the car home on a longer adventurous route while two other guys towed the empty trailer so there's a positive and fun side.

We are very lucky with parking...

I mostly bought a truck and trailer because my Miata has hardly any suspension flex, virtually no seat padding, and very loud exhaust. It's wonderful on autocross courses and at the track, but if I have to drive it more then 30 mins on the street (back roads excluded) it becomes pretty sucky very fast. Then I bought a second track-only race car project to further justify it to myself.

As for whether AAA will respond to a tow request, my last, and I mean last, experience with AAA was when they said they only said they were responding.

They don't have to decline to tow, they can just not show up. 

When I wad it up in a ball at a track >2 hours from home.  =~ (

I flat towed my lemons car for several races til I decided my luck was gonna run out and bought a trailer to tow it instead. Worse milage on the tow, but carrying more spares and not needing all 4 wheels pointing the same way at the end of the weekend has saved a lot of headaches

When I was prepared to race it hard enough to break it, and modify it enough to not be legal in the street.  
 

That was my first race. I've never driven my race car to the track. 
 

I race junk. When I can afford enough of a street driver to be able to enjoy it at the track, then maybe I'll make the leap to going to the track without a trailer. 
 

Probably not. 

I'm a onelapper, I drive to all the tracks. I also don't drive 10/10's, and the car is street legal. Longest haul to date is to Topeka last fall from Indiana, around 9 hours one way. Drove home with busted cats and clogged exhaust. Still got 32mpg. Normally I can average 35-38mpg for the transit, and that is MUCH better than the 14-15mpg I get towing it. 

I spend too much time at Gingerman. that's 210 miles each way. round trip 425. Towing that would be about $90 in fuel. $36 in fuel for the Rio. Blackhawk round trip would be $136 compared to $52. Heartland? $250 compared to $95. Just those three in one year means I saved $300 in fuel cost alone and I am lucky that the tow rig setup gets 14. Most don't get near that. Friends that towed with ram hemi's were getting 9mpg. That's $370 in fuel for one weekend. 

I am not a huge fan of towing a trailer, however in my youngers years I learned my lesson when 5 events that I drove too, 2 of those events required a tow. I had to call a friend and someone let me borrow their trailer at the track which then required it to be brought back. It was a terrible day.  The second time my friends shop was a hour away and he was able to take it, but the weekend was a wash.  When I ran a endurance team, my co-owner took care of the maintenance and towing, so I didn't worry about it. When I raced regularly a kart track, I just rented a garage which was fantastic. You should probably evaluate the mod progress of your car and if your plan is to go wheel 2 wheel. Call local towing companies and see what the cost is if you ball up your vehicle to tow (AAA is not reliable source as stated above). Lastly depending on the roads and travel do you really want to feel the stiff suspension on public rough roads? or possible ruin your tires on the street? If you don't have a trailer they are really easy to get from Uhaul, I have rented from them a dozen times. 

I always tow mine, even if it is street legal. My thought is, what if something breaks. Then I have to get home and go back and tow it anyway. 

My plan is to get the car to the track and inspected; it's able to be flat towed . Then save for a light weight trailer.  The car is under 1800lbs. If the car needs some specialty work having a trailer would also be a plus. 

As my Datsun 1200 street car slowly started transforming into a track car, towing was considered when the concerns of bending it balanced the headaches of towing. That, and how track events kept getting further and further away. With Midlana, there was always some concern about getting to where I wanted to go, so it was trailered to every driving event.

moto914 said:

My plan is to get the car to the track and inspected; it's able to be flat towed . Then save for a light weight trailer.  The car is under 1800lbs. If the car needs some specialty work having a trailer would also be a plus. 

Note that some states require that any vehicle being towed with wheels on the ground (so either flat or dolly) has to be registered.

I'd tow if I had space to store a trailer. My car is street legal and will remain registered. However it would be nice to make it even more racecar and not care. AC would come out. Radio and heater core would come out. Tools and tires I can haul with my tire trailer, but it would be nice not to worry about more major failures.

I'd convert the trailer into an erstatz RV with fridge, matress and AC. That way I could camp at the track easy. It would make a number of tracks a lot more palatable to attend. Hotels add a ton of cost. It would be nice to wake up at the track rested and assured I'd be driving home in a comfortable vehicle.

As for when to do it- when you put a full cage in for sure. Most of the rest of the issues you can really mitigate with a tire trailer. When you get more than a 4pt cage its not a street car anymore.

Not many events after buying a trailer, I had an oil line pop on my street car at the track. Glad I had the trailer to get me home, but I can't help but think that coincidence was untimely. I've got a non-street legal track car and a very street legal one (after retiring the one that blew the line to street duty only). The truck and trailer end up requiring more work than either of them, go figure. 
 

I don't have any good advice, I only enable bad ideas. 

A word on tow vehicles and trailers; historically I've always tow vehicles and trailers that are 25+ years old.

Typically they are not pretty but mechanically solid. I am on my third truck and trailer.

I bought a solid running 68 F100 for $800 in 1994 along with a $500 single axle trailer. The truck had a fairly fresh motor.

I swapped the F100 for a 74 F350 with a rebuilt engine that needed a installing. I did that trade in 2003. 

That truck stayed with us until 2007 when we bought my current tow vehicle, a 1990 E350 campervan. I had the tranny rebuilt as it was tired and I wanted to upgrade it of towing. I also had the AC repaired. I now have $9000 in the van. A friend gave.me.his 16ft enclosed trailer that was in need of TLC. Indoor the old trailer for $600 and used that money to put tires on the new trailer.

I've had good results running old trucks; you just need to inspect them carefully or know the vehicle.

Purple Frog said:

Its usually worth it as soon as you can swing it.   

This.

There are certainly factors that make owning a trailer and tow rig challenging, but it definitely makes life at the track a lot easier, for all the reasons posted in the thread.  The drive to/from the track is generally more comfortable, so you're fresher/more relaxed going on track, you can get the car home if it breaks, you can carry tools/spares/lunch/shelter/etc and you have room for friends/family.

Where it really helps is when you get serious about lap times or are competing, because that's when the safety equipment, tires and general modifications to the car make it unsuitable for street driving.  Especially longer distances.  And when you're pushing, you're more likely to break or damage the car. 

Being able to transport the car to the track takes a mental load off, because it can be just a 'track car' and you don't have to drive it to work on Monday.