Which car would you choose and why?????

As I said before im now planning on building myself a hot hatch track day car as my own little toy and project.

Which one would you guys think would be best.

Things I need to take into account wil be, cost of consumables, availability and cost of modifications, tuning potential, and reliability and of course its must be a weapon in the corners and cheap to buy. the whole budget will be 4-5K total

Initial thoughts were the clio 172 cup.

Clio 172

These are easily available for under £4k. but thinking about I would then have to buy all mods on top of that, so it will no longer be cheap to buy and build. Plus it’s still a bit to new to strip out and ruin.

Pros

Cheap tyres, cheap brakes, excellent base. Once stripped out 950Kg is achievable. Lots of track spec parts readily available. 185Hp/ton once stripped

Cons

Not that cheap for a car that will be abused on track, and stripped out etc. Engine not responsive to tuning unless you throw big bucks at it. If I crashed it id be slightly upset as id lose out on 4k

Pug 205 GTI 1.6/1.9

These are available for sub £500 leaving me a lot more money to mod the car.

really keen on these some great build theads cutting about on them

Fiesta XR2i/RS1800/Rs turbo

Had an XR2i as my first car. Theyare available sub £500. This is what got me into track days in the first place. But I couldn’t afford to insure and run it

Escort XR3i/RS turbo

Cavalier SRI/GSI

Sierra xr4i/xr4x4

Metro GTI

Mini

Saxo vts

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106 GTI/rallye

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Is there any others I should look at

Edited 4 March, 201016 yr by vRSy

i would go for a metro, you can pick up a boggo one for about £100 then just stick a 1.8 k series engine straight in.. job done

They may be rubbish now, but Peugeot used to build the best handling FWD cars.

The 106GTI and 306GTI-6 were about the last good cars they made, i loved my 106GTi to death. I'd love a 106GTi or 205GTi as a track car.

mk2 golf all day long,nothing can touch mine on a trackday,and it still has the boggo 140bhp 16v lump,nice set of coilovers and fully polybushed is all it needs to handle imensly,much much better than the 205 i used to have

i voted golf because theres alot out there for them and a big following! but if you can find a metro and a 6R4 lump. oh my god buy it!

in my opinion the Sierra is the worst choice. everything else you could turn into somthing really nice even the Cav's have somthing about them i like. the Sierra will always be an ugly car and yes even the cossies!

Edited 7 March, 201016 yr by benh199

Where will you get track day insurance from? I have been thinking about a track day car for a while now

MX5 mk1

light, RWD.. easily fettled and plenty of cheap parts available.

as competent as the MX-5 may be, i couldnt own one as to me its a hairdressers car. I absolutely hate convertables. great car it may be but not for me.

to be truthfully honest im a bit of a RWD virgin. I have quite a fair bit of experience on FWD cars on track, but have only driven RWD cars on public roads at town speed in the dry, never on the limit.

Im also looking into the possibility of a E36 318Is or maybe even a 328is.

i voted golf because theres alot out there for them and a big following! but if you can find a metro and a 6R4 lump. oh my god buy it!

in my opinion the Sierra is the worst choice. everything else you could turn into somthing really nice even the Cav's have somthing about them i like. the Sierra will always be an ugly car and yes even the cossies

i like the idea of the golf, however there might be a lot of parts available for them, but do you not get a bit of scene tax on parts and mods,

For some reason i keep getting drawn back to the 205GTI. http://passionford.com/forum/restorations-rebuilds-and-projects/164404-my-205-gti-6-bedford-20th-feb-next.html

does anybody have links to any build threads for track prepped mk2 golf GTI's.

I would vote for MX5 if were an option too. You just won't get a little car which handles better on track. I went for pug 106 as next best.

I have tracked an MX5 (all be it a decently modded one) and it was great for what amounts to a fairly underpowered beast at 130hp. It came into its own on corners though.

PS: I think most of the great MX5 handling is due to RWD. Also the 1.8 has a limited slip diff so both back wheels will spin.

as competent as the MX-5 may be, i couldnt own one as to me its a hairdressers car. I absolutely hate convertables. great car it may be but not for me.

to be truthfully honest im a bit of a RWD virgin. I have quite a fair bit of experience on FWD cars on track, but have only driven RWD cars on public roads at town speed in the dry, never on the limit.

Im also looking into the possibility of a E36 318Is or maybe even a 328is.

i like the idea of the golf, however there might be a lot of parts available for them, but do you not get a bit of scene tax on parts and mods,

For some reason i keep getting drawn back to the 205GTI. http://passionford.com/forum/restorations-rebuilds-and-projects/164404-my-205-gti-6-bedford-20th-feb-next.html

does anybody have links to any build threads for track prepped mk2 golf GTI's.

you only pay the scene tax if you buy from edition/vortex classifieds

Always liked the metro gti, very quick car though rusts just as quick :p seen this one on ebay though I think its a little over priced