Hi guys and gals,

 

Merry Christmas fist off

 

just a quick one.

  who here has a dedicated track car? 

 

is there anyone looking to get one? 

 

I am just looking into what you would want from one?  are you wanting a road car that will do on a track or a track car that's road legal?  are looks important?

 

what sort of power would you be looking at and what sort of engine?

 

things like that,

 

just interested guys.

 

might have a nice interesting one for you to consider in the caterham, ariel atom sort of thing.

 

cheers

billy

 

Want one, on the look out now. Something fun the drive and work on myself. Speed not too important.

Most likely a road car that works on track too.

I'm currently thinking e30, and then dropping an s5* engine into it after everything else is sorted. There might be better options, but I've wanted an e30 for ages, and there's a huge after market.

I'd love a clio 172 / 182 for a track car! Not the fastest car in the world but so much grip.

I have a track car, taxed and insured for getting to the track, it is in the early stages of becoming what I want, it is a Golf MK 4 V6 4Motion, quite a heavy car, however it has a torquey V6 with 200 bhp as stock.

I have replaced the suspension with adjustable shock coil overs, also put big ARB's on it too and some decent tyres but so far I have only fitted DS2500 pads to the standard discs and stripped all the interior apart from the dash.

I have also tracked the Wife's Fabia VRS and for me the Fabia was £14K and Golf was £350 so the appeal of the Golf is that of, who cares, if I get it wrong!

My personal thoughts on upgrades and handling are to just do what you can afford, no competition will be won on a track day. I started with the Golf because it was cheap, I also feel the 4 motion gives a really good traction/handling set up and after tweaking the suspension I can confirm it drives really well on track and cornered with minimum fuss, I did find the 200 bhp was a little lacking when up against MK 3 2.0 GTI's that are stripped out, straight line performance was similar, so next step for this car is a turbo, low pressure set up for another 100 bhp or there a bouts.

To sum up, get your nose through the auto trader, see what is reasonably priced, quite nippy and go for it.

Fun.

Enough speed not to be embarrassing.

 

That's all most people need.

My Elise is weekend / trackday car. For me it needs to be road legal and with enough waterproofing to drive to the track..

 

Needs to be reasonably cheap to run, so no huge wheels and a lighter car gets through less in the way of pads and rubber. 

 

The option to do some of the spannering myself is also necessary.

 

300 bhp / Ton is nice, but a bit less is acceptable.

 

A quiet enough exhaust and induction set up to get on as many tracks as possible, preferably Goodwood which is one of the more stringent, but also a great track and my local one as well.

I've a trackday/race car and have bought another to prep for 2015.

It needs to be fun and quick enough to be competitive, within championship regs. ( AND NO STUPID DRIVER AIDS!!!!)

Edited 25 December, 201312 yr by dobbey

Ive just got a old 206Gti to use as a trackday car next year,

 

Done a couple of trackday sessions in VRS last year and found it to be far to cumbersome and really struggled with traction,

 

Hoping the 206 will be abit more suited to been thrashed round a track and if i kill it or crash it i can just put it on trailer and fetch it home

If I was going to have a car to tow to and from a circuit, I would probably want to have something revvy and non turbo.  I like the idea of a Clio 182 myself.  I would probably go for something older and cheaper though.  Dare I say it even something like a saxo VTS.

Rover 214 with a quaife gearbox and enough talent to make 112bhp count

looking at a MK2 Lotus Cortina, Savage Cortina MK2 or a Vauxhall Firenza sportshatch, but then again I'm old and like my old'uns.

If I was going to have a car to tow to and from a circuit, I would probably want to have something revvy and non turbo.  I like the idea of a Clio 182 myself.  I would probably go for something older and cheaper though.  Dare I say it even something like a saxo VTS.

My thoughts exactly, I'd love a saxo vts for track days, they are light with quite a bit of tuning potential

Cheers guys.

Keep it coming.

I was thinking of sometging about 800kg, 2l Turbo with around 300ish bhp and a nice sleek body. No driver aids I dont think.

Its in the mix and soon as I know more ill definitely share it with you all.

Here is my dedicated track car. When the weather is dry and sunny, it is an absolute hoot chasing big-power stuff around. But when it's cold, wet and miserable like this time of the year, it's not much fun when snot mixed in with track spray is running down your face while you try and keep the thing in a straight line. Hence buying an Octavia.

 

In reality it has to be able to get me to the track & home again - but this thread is about a dedicated track car I suppose. 

 

Is there a budget attached to this?  £500 or £5000?  I've always liked lightweight revvy cars for a blast as turbo power seems a bit of a lazy way to get down the road or track. For hauling the kids round it's fair enough, but for a memorable experience it has to be normally aspirated.  Just my opinion of course.

what it is guys is a family member on my wifes side is building a car.

 

he has lots of years experience in the car building and design field from F1 to performance cars.

 

Ive seen pics of the new one he is making and its pure porn.

 

he is still getting it track ready then its on to the road legal tests but he knows all about whats needed so should be sorted.

 

Soon as I get more info on the car Ill let you know too. cant say much as it stands yet, hoping to get to a track soon for testing.

 

 

I am just interested to know the general consensuse on what every one is after from a track car be it a road car that's ok on track or a dedicated track car that's legal for the road, then if its got a roof and screen or one that needs a helmet due to no windscreen.

 

Just wanting to gather as much info as the one he is making has no windscreen or roof which I would like so I could use it all year round but due to the bull ****e legal crap that's needed when you make a car with a windscreen and roof he says its not worth it just yet.

 

 

As far as budget, anything from free to 100k+   not sure what prices this one tho.

 

Billy

edited

The best of the front wheel drive cars to have for trackdays are Clio Cups, Paxo GTI's, Golf Mk2,  Pug 306 Rallye/6  All very cheap to buy and run,  get you to the track and back home again. Plenty of young drivers these days share the hatchbacks mentioned to cut the overall costs.

One type of car that doesn't seem to work well is the Imprezzas and Evo's, the 4WD systems seem to kill any enjoyment going round a track, tried one once and didn't like it a all, funny thing is, the 1st. cars to loose control and go off the track are the 4WD cars.

If you are more into trackdays and maybe sprinting you need to start considering rear wheel drive cars, much more involvement and you learn again how to drive fast.   Old Beemers are very popular but not much choice of other rear wheel drive cars unless you are into the big money.  By far the best fun cars are Kit Cars which you can build or buy relatively cheaply, there are many 7 type kits available for all budgets. I have a Westfield with a Vauxhall 2.0L. GTE engine and have been fiddling with it since I bought it, a bit more power here and more grip there, It's a hobby as well.

 

If you are thinking of a light car with a turbo then don't, it don't work.   

   Supercharger? well yes on a more controllable boost.

This is mine - fully road legal (as its in Roadgoing class) and driven to and from sprints and hillclimbs. Cost £1500 and is mighty quick - 900kg and 181bhp. It'll shake off most modern performance cars easily.

Found the one photo of it on a trailer

Www scimitar

Well I would love to have a dedicated Track Car.

 

But budget constraints mean that I would need it road legal too, and therefore it would be rather slow.

 

But I suppose the sensible thing for me would be just to have a track car to get experience while also having alot of fun! Then once im a bit more experienced, and when i have some more cash, I can get something quicker

I like the tow car, That's class but what is your track car?

It's a Reliant Scimitar Sabre. The same underneath as the slightly more common Scimitar SS1.

Backbone chassis, plastic body and a Nissan 1.8 Turbo. Blooming cheap too. You can get a road worthy one (SS1) for £1k and because its a turbo, very cheap to make it go a lot faster.

I will be selling a white SS1 in the spring and the blue Sabre after this coming season is over. We're preparing a non road legal one with more power and less weight for '15 so need funds, space and time

And yes, the yellow GTE is absolutely fantastic - it sounds evil on full chat

And yes, the yellow GTE is absolutely fantastic - it sounds evil on full chat

 

Does it have the Essex V6 in? 

Yes, mildly tuned to 162bhp and with a couple of silencers taken out