R36/superb v6 around 300 bhp and four wheel drive

Saloon car championship yet half those cars listed are hatchbacks or coupes, not saloons!

145, Mito,

Audi

A1, A2, A3, TT Coupe

BMW

1, Mini Cooper and Mini Cooper S

Chevrolet

Kalos,

Saxo,C1, C2, C3, C4,

Daewoo

Kalos, Lanos, Lacetti

Daihatsu

Charade, Sirion

Fiat

500, Panda, Brava, Bravo, Grand Punto, Punto, Stilo, Coupe, Sedici, Idea, Croma

Ford

Cougar, Fiesta, Focus, Ka, Puma

Honda

Civic, Jazz

Hyundai

Getz, Accent, i10, i30, Coupe

Kia

Rio, Cerato, C’eed, Picanto

Mazda

2, 3, Demino, 323,

MG

ZR,

Mitsubishi

Colt,

Nissan

Almera, Micra,, Pixo, Maxima, 200SX

Peugeot

1007,106,107, 206, 207, 208, 306, 307, 308, 3008,

Proton

Satria GTi,

Renault

Clio, Megane, Twingo

Rover

Mini, 25, City Rover

Seat

Ibiza, Leon, Altea, Arosa

Skoda

Fabia, Citygo

Suzuki

Swift, Ignis, Baleno, Alto, Splash

Toyota

Corolla, Celica Coupe, Yaris, Auris, Aygo, iQ, GT86

Vauxhall

Corsa,

VW

Fox, Lupo, Golf, Polo ’94 on, Beetle , Up

Volvo

C30

If money was no object it'd be a Megane R26R.

The guy with the 106 GTI has the right idea, they were still producing them after 2000 but 106s have been around for years so he probably bought it cheaply and when anything broke it was cheap and easy to get hold of parts.

MX5 mk1, serious fun, cheap parts ad durable.

Just sold mine to someone who is going to race it.

MX5 mk1, serious fun, cheap parts ad durable.

Just sold mine to someone who is going to race it.

Not allowed apparently, I already mentioned it.

woah this thread got a load deeper than i expected

I try to approcah everything

I'm not sure if it's just me.

But having a look and seeing what Dave Rose has done to his Lupo I get the feeling it's a cheap championship that could easily get more expensive as you tweak and modify the car.

With the end result of it not being that cheap, unless you are happy to just take part.

Surely this is like everything car related?

my Fabia was (relatively quick) out the box.

as was it stands would (hopefully) compete against the saxos in the lower classes but deffo not in class.

a shed load of money might get it competing near the front but it doubtful.

Anything gets expensive if you throw money at it

Your Nissan was fast but quickly got more expensive as it performance was improved!

Having attended Combe regularly for 5 years I am i no doubt that a lot of people in the race are just taking part for the fun of it. There are cars/competitors i have seen unchanged season after season with no real progress up the grid and i do wonder "why do you bother?" but there must be something in it!

You could even go the estate route if you wanted to as V70 T5s are very cheap and with a 5 cylinder 240 bhp engine to start with.

There was a guy running a volvo for most of the last couple of seasons until it ended up upside down

Honda accord type R? Not sure If they were imports or uk tho?

yeah there is one up the road from me and indeed it does go like stink.

With regards to a full track day, you'll only do three or four 15- 20 minutes sessions away.

You can't drive round all day, the car needs a rest between sessions, so the three 20 minutes sessions for £200 and the chance to race a bit is probably good value.

All the unit 18 track days iv been to (as a spectator) have been 8/9am start hour for lunch and 4/5pm finish. Open pit, drive all you want, all have been far less than £200 too. I personally would be more inclined to get a track car/toy and do these kinda things for a while first.

I'l tackle these two together.

i was being theoretical in my drive all day comment but in theory with no mechanical sympathy and a big fuel reserve you could just pound round all day.

Matt that was partly why i plumped for my Ibiza Gti and I did indeed do multiple half hour sessions around Oulton Park in December. However the lack of competitive edge took the shine off a bit

The main issue with track days is you can;t get someone to sponsor you to take part in those

R36/superb v6 around 300 bhp and four wheel drive

no 4WD i'm afraid.

They were outlawed a couple of years ago following some huge shunts where 700bhp evos were lapping backmarkers with colossal speed differentials.

Saloon car championship yet half those cars listed are hatchbacks or coupes, not saloons!

Don't shoot the messenger. I think the championship was started when saloons were the norm, then hot hatches and coupes joined the ranks and the name has never changed.

If money was no object it'd be a Megane R26R.

The guy with the 106 GTI has the right idea, they were still producing them after 2000 but 106s have been around for years so he probably bought it cheaply and when anything broke it was cheap and easy to get hold of parts.

Agreed R26R or a Astra VXR would be the way to go if money no object.

The 106's are immense.

A couple of guys have talent to burn but no support (or possibly no wish) to move on to other championships.

I've seen a 106 gti fend off an M3 and a 400+bhp TT for many many laps

I've put together some rough costs for the things involved in running for a season

Medical examination for licence - £90 (although you only need to do this once)

Application for Nat B licence ("Go Racing" pack) - £70 (again only done once)

ARDS training day and test for licence - £150-250 depending on venue (only once)

Annual membership of CC Racing Club (includes championship registration fee) - £99

Season entry fees (10 rounds) - £1855

MSA approved helmet - £90

2nd hand race suit and gloves - £250

Tyres for season (4 sets of drys, 1 set wets) - £2600

2nd hand set of alloys for spare tyres - £400

Race fuel for season - £900

Servicing and spare parts for car (e.g. brakes) - £1000

So over £7.5k not including the car itself

A sponsor would probably be able to cover most of this though and you don't have to enter every round in the season if you're just doing it for a bit of fun.

Another point on using a road car - it's worth going over the technical regs with a fine toothed comb as if they require things like an external fuel cut-off, piped fire extinguisher etc. I'm not sure the car would still be road legal.

Realistically if I was doing it (putting the R26R idea aside) I'd probably get something for £1-3k like a 106 or Ibiza or Fiesta ST, a £500 trailer and a diesel Octy to pull it with and have the car as a dedicated racer and the diesel as my daily.

How about a Saxo VTS, wernt they something like 130 odd horse power?

How about a Saxo VTS, wernt they something like 130 odd horse power?

From 1.6l.

With the class boundaries, an AX GTi would make more sense at 1435cc, slightly lighter than a cigarette paper, and 110bhp.

From 1.6l.

With the class boundaries, an AX GTi would make more sense at 1435cc, slightly lighter than a cigarette paper, and 110bhp.

Wiki says : Production 1986–1998

Has to be post millenium so AX GT is too old

Am tempted by this at under 2 grand though:

http://www.imperialc...201232481442099

or they've got this with only 70,000 miles it seems relatively well priced at £3777 (random!)

http://www.imperialc...201242488916031

Not sure I want ANOTHER black Fabia though

Not entirely useful given your budget but a TD Civic ex btcc touring car was recently up for sale on piston heads. How hilarious would it be turning up in a full on touring car to a track day/amateur racing event

FFS pasty what have you done. Just spent the last 2 hours looking a various race classes, costs, fees regs etc.

What about a toyota aristo with a 2jz engine? Or even the lexus equivelant......dont think their imports

Easy to tune to big power and bulletproof

Corolla tsport

189bhp from a 1.8 n/a

Cant think of anything that would beat it grunt wise in the category

What about a pug 306 gti6 or equivalent xsara vts same engines just xsara gas 5 speed box instead of 6.

Both 160bhp and very rev happy and light enough to stick on a trailer and tow with something that will keep you below the 3.5ton trailer licence law (unless your old enough that it doesnt apply).

Corolla tsport

189bhp from a 1.8 n/a

Cant think of anything that would beat it grunt wise in the category

Integra Type R would be faster... but the Corolla is still a good car.

For doing a lot of track work would you not want a cage? Could be an issue for road use. You sound like you want the car to be competitve but also want to drive it daily, to my mind there is a contradiction here. If you can afford a full seasons racing then can you not afford to run a dedicated track/race car and a daily driver?

My short list would be:

Pug 306 GTI / Xsara VTS

Saxo VTS / 106 GTI (if you have small feet and are not too tall)

Honda Civic (1.5 VTEC hatch or 1.6/1.8 VTI)

Honda Integra Type R (if rules allow)

MG ZS180

Toyota Celica/Corolla with the 190bhp engine

Other than that you could look at small hatchbacks and engine swaps (Fiesta, Corsa, Civic...)

Old school Suzuki swift??

Integra Type R would be faster... but the Corolla is still a good car.

For doing a lot of track work would you not want a cage? Could be an issue for road use. You sound like you want the car to be competitve but also want to drive it daily, to my mind there is a contradiction here. If you can afford a full seasons racing then can you not afford to run a dedicated track/race car and a daily driver?

My short list would be:

Pug 306 GTI / Xsara VTS

Saxo VTS / 106 GTI (if you have small feet and are not too tall)

Honda Civic (1.5 VTEC hatch or 1.6/1.8 VTI)

Honda Integra Type R (if rules allow)

MG ZS180

Toyota Celica/Corolla with the 190bhp engine

Other than that you could look at small hatchbacks and engine swaps (Fiesta, Corsa, Civic...)

Itr would be faster through the twisties but id still say corolla tsport would be faster on the straights. Owned both myself

Used to have a Yaris T Sport, and even standard it was pretty quick and easily shown some bigger engined cars up. Handling needs sorting on it ASAP, but plenty of coilovers kits available from the likes of D2 and Tein, sort out a good exhaust system and breathing mods and it'll be looking approx 120bhp.

Another option I thought of was a Lupo GTi?

Yes but with a 1.6 your into the next category

Cheap as chips suzuki ignis sport

1.5l 107bhp i think

Light as anything

And has good handling. Compared as a baby ctr

My mate had an Ignis and the 2 cars were pretty evenly matched, mine would be quicker at accelerating and his was quicker through twisty stuff, but after upgrading the suspension and ARB's on them, the cars were pretty much identical, the Ignis was quite tail happy, but seemed to be quite difficult to source any parts for it compared to the Yaris.

I'd go for a circa 1988 BMW 3.25 and strip the thing right out.

Cheap to buy and running right with all the weight out

I reckon it would be a monster. RWD too :p

Got to be made after 2000

And with a 4.10 diff it's faster than the M3 of the time too in a straight line. (I'm after one, desperately!)

Not sure how it would complete against modern stuff in that category though power wise.

Edit - And what Jase said!

Edited 21 October, 201213 yr by TriggerFish