Taner Colakoglu: “Track days are the perfect way to share our passion for cars”

Taner Colakoglu must have been born holding a gearstick and with oil flowing through his veins. Starting out as a motorsport mechanic, he has travelled the world to work on some of the most amazing race cars ever. Now he shares that passion through TC Motorsport events. We needed to know more!

I was into motorsport since I had the very first contact with this topic. At a quite early age, I had the chance to watch some guys preparing their karts for a race. I didn't have the money for my own kart, but I was able to learn fast. The little guy who was just spectating turned out to be a good mechanic [laughs]. I went to a race, and this is where the magic happened. After several years in the kart sports (during the time when Michael Schumacher, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and so on were starting their careers) I moved on to the Polo and Fiesta Cup, the legendary group C class race cars, and all the way up to international race events. We travelled the world for the Porsche Cup, endurance world championship, 24h of Le Mans, Nürburgring, Daytona, and many more. In my late 20s I decided to start my own company, and TC Fahrzeugtechnik was born. But getting older didn't mean I had to get serious when it comes to cars. So, I bought my dream car, a BMW E30 M3 EVO, which I used as a daily and for track days.

Yes, the TC Fahrzeugtechnik is my garage and TC Motorsport Events is the event management company for track days. The perfect track day is a mix of great cars and motorsport enthusiasts. The level of experience doesn't matter at all here, because the fun, emotions and adrenaline are always the same! We need a mix of great individual cars, from almost daily cars to professional racers. The budget has no impact on the level of fun on the track. The smile after the stint should be the same, whether our customers were just driving a VW Polo or a Porsche 991. When technical knowledge, material, and human skills come together with joy and respect, this is what a perfect track day means to me.

Simple answer: no. You can enjoy any track with any car. Every answer to this question is a personal opinion or feeling. In my case for instance my answer would be the Porsche 997 GT3 Cup.

Due to my network in the world of motorsport, which I built up for many years, I had the chance to get an offer from a guy who was collecting those historical vehicles. I was always into Porsche Cup cars and this one with its special history made the decision quite easy.

The Artega cup cars are kind of a foundation of my second company the TC Motorsport Events. Those cars have been handmade in Germany, in Delbrück, which is very close by. When I saw those cars, the idea was born to share the feeling and passion which I’ve enjoyed my entire life with other people. Now we're using those exotic and very rare cars (we own two of eight cars ever built) as race taxis for our track days. A service that turns out to be a very popular birthday gift for our customers. More so, for us it’s the best way to explain what passion we're into, without using words but just drive and to do what we love.

The partnership with Motul means a lot to me. At TC Fahrzeugtechnik, we work on daily cars as much as on track cars, and since 1997 we have been using Motul products daily. I used them even before the partnership. We went even further and reached the next level of our relationship and involved both of my companies as Motul is now present on all of our track days and motorsport events, which makes me very proud. The highlight for me is that the relationship goes both ways and Motul involved me in their great projects like Motul EVO and the Motul Inject 3in1. How could you not use those products and believe in them, if you have the chance to be involved as a partner in the development and testing process? Why do I enjoy working with Motul? Well, I think they operate as they should: to first think of the needs of the end-user first. I'm very proud of the close relationship with Motul, as you can see on my 997 Cup car.
 

Just do it! Respect is ok but you don't have to be scared. Thoughts like "I could be too slow" or "I could damage something" are not necessary. You will see that the fun factor will dominate all of this. So, sign in, show up and we will take care of the rest and all of your needs. See you at the track!

© Pictures: manguvision, i.am.carsten