Never been tracked !
Author
Discussion

T450t

Original Poster:

415 posts

221 months

Wednesday 5th November 2008
quotequote all
Having looked through the classifieds recently to gloat on over the residuals of many TVR's I cant help noticing the words "never been tracked" now does that suggest a car has been treated badly, maybe thrashed to within an inch of its life by the owner!. Its a bit like the one "Lady owner" cant for the life of me think why that should have a bearing on its condition.

Tell me. Why is a TVR a better TVR when it has not been tracked. Surely a TVR with a tracked history and a mollycoddled service history is better than a TVR with no track history and a patchy service history. Now I don't know about other owners but my TVR is tracked and over serviced, in fact half of its life is on ramps being checked,changed,cleaned and played with.

What do you think and would you buy a tracked TVR.

Edited by T450t on Wednesday 5th November 09:02

trackcar

6,453 posts

256 months

Wednesday 5th November 2008
quotequote all
I'm sure there are TVRs that are tracked and underserviced, just as there are TVRs that are never tracked and overserviced, as well as the two situations you mentioned. Bottom line is you should judge every car on it's own merits and never trust the wording in an advert anyway.

Would a known track history stop me buying a TVR? Hell no! Half the outings of my own TVR this year have been track days smile and the rest of the time is spent on the dyno! The car never complains and never lets me down, that's good enough for me smile

Edited by trackcar on Wednesday 5th November 09:10

grahamn

1,777 posts

264 months

Wednesday 5th November 2008
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Add to that the "Never been driven in the wet", would have done about 50 miles this year.

gemini

11,352 posts

294 months

Wednesday 5th November 2008
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Never been parked at the supermarket (no small dents sratches)

stepej

445 posts

270 months

Wednesday 5th November 2008
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This is an interesting one.

It is very difficult to drive cars such as TVRs to their limit on public roads. I enjoy a spirited run on NSL roads but my car hasn't been near a track.

My thinking is that tracking a car like this gives the owner the chance to really 'rag the arse' off it. I wouldn't want to do that to my car without then having it inspected/serviced to make sure everything was still ok.

Your comments have got me thinking though... Yes my car is for sale.... and yes it does say 'never been tracked'.... maybe i should change it?...

dbv8

8,676 posts

250 months

Wednesday 5th November 2008
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1. Never tracked
2. Always garaged
3. Never used nitrous
4. Never hit the rev limiter at 6200rpm
5. Never fitted and abused semi-slick tyres.
6. Never tried to race a motorbike.
7. Never missed a gear.
8. Never broke the speed limit.
9. Never been drag racing
10. Never had fun!

heightswitch

6,322 posts

280 months

Wednesday 5th November 2008
quotequote all
T450t said:
Having looked through the classifieds recently to gloat on over the residuals of many TVR's I cant help noticing the words "never been tracked" now does that suggest a car has been treated badly, maybe thrashed to within an inch of its life by the owner!. Its a bit like the one "Lady owner" cant for the life of me think why that should have a bearing on its condition.

Tell me. Why is a TVR a better TVR when it has not been tracked. Surely a TVR with a tracked history and a mollycoddled service history is better than a TVR with no track history and a patchy service history. Now I don't know about other owners but my TVR is tracked and over serviced, in fact half of its life is on ramps being checked,changed,cleaned and played with.

What do you think and would you buy a tracked TVR.

Edited by T450t on Wednesday 5th November 09:02
One Lady owner to me means it probably needs a de-coke and the clutch is slipping!!

N/

TVR_owner

3,349 posts

221 months

Wednesday 5th November 2008
quotequote all
Some of the best maintained and presented cars I know are regular track tools. They are serviced to death, never see salt, and are used hard, but NEVER abused and often look better than new. Cars that are used mainly on track, often trailered to the circuit, rarley see the drudge of stop start traffic and will probably have seen many less cold start-ups that are the killer for most engines.

Other cars I've seen used at track days appear under serviced, are thrashed from cold, and I would not go near them with a barge pole.

Buy based on known condition is always the best advice. smile








zippy500

1,883 posts

299 months

Wednesday 5th November 2008
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What about a non tracked car with lots of history, how can that be a bad thing. Not everyone is in to track days or ranting the tits out of it.
Just because its only been used on sunny days and driven sensibly does not mean the car has not been well cared for.

TVR_owner

3,349 posts

221 months

Wednesday 5th November 2008
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shaunsmith said:
TVR_owner said:
Some of the best maintained and presented cars I know are regular track tools. They are serviced to death, never see salt, and are used hard, but NEVER abused and often look better than new. Cars that are used mainly on track, often trailered to the circuit, rarley see the drudge of stop start traffic and will probably have seen many less cold start-ups that are the killer for most engines.

Other cars I've seen used at track days appear under serviced, are thrashed from cold, and I would not go near them with a barge pole.

Buy based on known condition is always the best advice. smile
Totally agree. Additionally, If I was looking for a Sagaris including all the Sagaris's for sale at the moment on here etc, yours would be the one I would buy no question...
Thanks for that Shaun, it's a bargain now as I've reduced the price....

Pentoman

4,835 posts

293 months

Wednesday 5th November 2008
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I think if it's been tracked it's both good and bad. Theoretically track use could show up any major problems such as weak drivetrain components, massively wonky geometry, brakes that pull sideways, steering problems and so on. So hopefully those will have been spotted and ironed out. However maybe they'll just have been worsened, with everything else worn a bit extra too!

Still, if it had been track used I'd like to then feel confident you could thrash it without worrying about the engine having a fit because it's the first time it's been over 4000 rpm in over 10 years...

shaunsmith

1,229 posts

247 months

Wednesday 5th November 2008
quotequote all
TVR_owner said:
shaunsmith said:
TVR_owner said:
Some of the best maintained and presented cars I know are regular track tools. They are serviced to death, never see salt, and are used hard, but NEVER abused and often look better than new. Cars that are used mainly on track, often trailered to the circuit, rarley see the drudge of stop start traffic and will probably have seen many less cold start-ups that are the killer for most engines.

Other cars I've seen used at track days appear under serviced, are thrashed from cold, and I would not go near them with a barge pole.

Buy based on known condition is always the best advice. smile
Totally agree. Additionally, If I was looking for a Sagaris including all the Sagaris's for sale at the moment on here etc, yours would be the one I would buy no question...
Thanks for that Shaun, it's a bargain now as I've reduced the price....
Yeah, outstanding car, last time I saw it it looked as good as new or even better... Really, with the subtle modifications better than new in my opinion.

Shaun

morebeanz

3,283 posts

266 months

Wednesday 5th November 2008
quotequote all
I think you are over-complicating what is meant.

"Never tracked" implies that the additional wear and tear that is generally put on a car by being tracked (and treated more vigorously), is absent.

Servicing schedule, preventative maintenance and other actions can all more than compensate for this, but the inference is that tracked cars are exposed to more wear.

TVR_owner

3,349 posts

221 months

Wednesday 5th November 2008
quotequote all
morebeanz said:
I think you are over-complicating what is meant.

"Never tracked" implies that the additional wear and tear that is generally put on a car by being tracked (and treated more vigorously), is absent.

Servicing schedule, preventative maintenance and other actions can all more than compensate for this, but the inference is that tracked cars are exposed to more wear.
Depends what the track use is vs road use. The quite recent trend to buy cars for almost exclusive track day use complicates your otherwise sound theory.

I refer back to my cold start/use note (and the use in Winter - something TVRS build quality stuggles with sadly) suggesting therfore, that a car thats been almost exclusivly used at track days and over serviced will be streets ahead mechanicaly - I include the chassis in that statement.

Cosmetically it's down to pride of ownership and the owner.

The caveat is a car thats been used almost exclsively for concours - something I think is sad....

Tangoed

924 posts

245 months

Wednesday 5th November 2008
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It's a can of worms! I have and do track my car, and its well looked after and serviced. I think alot of people who track their pride and joy tend to look after them and are more sympathetic to wear and tear.

But heres another, One careful Lady owner-one burnt out clutch

What about buying a car off a non TVR savvy owner, not warmed up correctly and only does say 6 miles to work and back. Serviced once a year(low mileage service), and thrashed at weekends.

So who's car would you buy

Simpo Two

92,812 posts

295 months

Wednesday 5th November 2008
quotequote all
morebeanz said:
"Never tracked" implies that the additional wear and tear that is generally put on a car by being tracked (and treated more vigorously), is absent.

Servicing schedule, preventative maintenance and other actions can all more than compensate for this, but the inference is that tracked cars are exposed to more wear.
Quite. The opposite of 'never tracked' is 'thrashed'. I don't want a car that's had the nuts caned off it sideways.

willtvr

1,099 posts

227 months

Wednesday 5th November 2008
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"Rag the arse" and "rant the tits", not familiar with these terms, is this something I should be doing? To avoid doubt I am heterosexual.

zippy500

1,883 posts

299 months

Wednesday 5th November 2008
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Apparently if you dont do it, your car is a pile of crap that is not maintained properly, uncared for and no one will buy once your done with it.

dhf

1,103 posts

224 months

Wednesday 5th November 2008
quotequote all
I'd be quite happy purchasing a tracked car over and above the obvious of properly set up suspension,brakes etc because with my limited mechanical knowledge i would be happy in the knowledge that the car had been properly warmed up etc before use and i would have thought there is less mechanical stress on a flat track than on a bad B road surface on all the major components

macdeb

8,759 posts

285 months

Wednesday 5th November 2008
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Whether it's been 'tracked' or not it still depends on how the owner drives it and looked after it. Though the TVR that gave me the most problems [engine]was a car that had been 'tracked' and the others I've had/have didn't have any probs' at all.