I planted the seeds 4 years ago with my work who are super green and environmentally friendly - think biodiesel fleet with hydrogen powered delivery vans - about going racing in my Fabia VRS.

That never happened and assumed it never would however now our "Green Champion" has approached me asking if i'm still into my Fabias and how much cash would we need to "do one up and go as fast as possible around Silverstone"

 

Having looked at ebay, autotrader and here I think w're probably going to go Seat Ibiza Sport TDI as they are about £1000 cheaper than comparable Fabias.

I suggested a max of £3000 to buy something, another £1000 to mod it (RARB, remap etc) and then the remaining £1000 to pay for attendance at trackdays.

it'll go on the company insurance and tehy'll pay to tax it potentially liverying it up and giving it me to run as a company car.

 

Seems too good to be true so i'm not holding my breath but i'm just wondering if there are better ways to do it.

 

I starting thinking "yay i can get another Fabia VRS"

then i went "oh actually Ibiza's are cheaper" but realised it's not my money

and then "oh actually i bet you could have a 320d compact or 330d for the same price"

 

Thoughts - needs to be diesel (so we can run it on biofuel and manitain the green direction, be quick, cheap to maintain (and i guess modify)

 

As much as i'd love to do this to a Fabia

 

 

I can't help but think that a 330d

 

like this for £2000 one (even with 190k on the clock) would be a better investment

 

 

 

 

 

i'd stick with a smaller car as people generally see bigger cars as less efficient(green) even though that might not be the case. Plus a fast BMW is pretty much expected nowadays and i'm not sure Skoda or Seat have got that rep in the general public's opinion so it could be perceived as more impressive going with one of them. This is all of course my personal opinion and i would go with the Fabia.

As much as it pains me to write it go with Octy, not Fabia if you want to stay with Skodas.

Otherwise 330d is no brainer really.

Have a read about biobutanol, not sure how accessible it is though - you could use it in mk2vRS potentially as all it needs is a different bespoke map as far as I know

http://www.biobutanol.com/Butanol-Fuel-RoadTest.html (plenty of better websites but this one is very succinct). 

Probably get away with just a remap for the 330d so cheaper on mods.

330d no brainer

Plus you can get the arse end oot

And a BMW looks 'better' than a SEAT/Skoda as a brand perception tool, even if they both have the same fiscal value. (Or to the masses anyway)

 

Plus that 330d will outhandle an Ibiza as stock easily

 

Edit - that said, from the few minutes of research into bio fuel I did, I don't think the CR systems like it, or at least, not long term. And that's an early 330d, so if it's a manual, no swirl flaps either IIRC.

Edited 11 August, 201411 yr by TriggerFish

All those nice environmentally friendly green images and then you hit the throttle and a huge plume of black smoke belches out the back of it...... I don't think so.

 

 We have a 330d and just standard it has a lot of shove!  Huge smile time every time we go out in it.

Just in case.... How much are tyres, exactly, for a 330D?

 

Surely, track day = lighter car with a 1.8T with 200+BHP and full decat.

In respect to the BMW, isn't that what the muppets from Top Gear do a few years ago when they supposedly 'grew' their own bio diesel and raced at the Silverstone 24 hr?

What level of bio are you going for? If you are thinking 100% you will need to consider the fuel system components. The elastomers in the system will behave differently and may well swell, shrink, slough or any combination of the three.

Nissan Leaf Nismo

Ibiza cupra tdi any day, lots of fun, better spec'd than a Fabia vrs IMO.

So you think, standard, they have arbs, big brembo's, 160 pdi engine etc - all you'd need is the map to utilise the best out of your Eco- grown fuel

Can pick one up in the region of £2.5 k if you look in the right places.

Just in case.... How much are tyres, exactly, for a 330D?

Surely, track day = lighter car with a 1.8T with 200+BHP and full decat.

Standard 18s are 255/35r18 rear, but 225/40 are used up front and offer the same circumference for a cheaper rear.

I swapped to 17s for comfort which are 225/45 front and 245/40 rear, so nothing madly exotic. £100-150 upwards for a non budget a corner size and make dependant. Not too far off the 15s on my e30, depressingly.

Edited 11 August, 201411 yr by TriggerFish

Thinking I might "let" work buy Mrs Pasty's Fabia off me, give her the Ibiza for commuting and i've then got £5000 to spend on mods and trackdays....

Sounds like a plan

Any thoughts on biofuel?

our company already has a biodiesel tank on-site fuelling the delivery vans and certain fleet cars hence the desire for a track car that sips from the black pump

Thinking I might "let" work buy Mrs Pasty's Fabia off me, give her the Ibiza for commuting and i've then got £5000 to spend on mods and trackdays....

This sounds like a better idea. A £3k e46 330d just sounds like alot of pain to me.

VAG PD engines are not recommended to be run Diesel substitutes of more than 5%,  I seem to remember a page in the Fabia handbook about this.  You would have to check which engines can be run happily on, or converted to use Biodiesel , then select a car.

It's a great idea for your company to sponsor a car for you, wish my old firm would do something like that.  Openreach are in penny pinching mode at the moment.