About to buy a track car, whats the first thing I should do?

[Mr Red Barron]

Take it on a trackday obviously!

Seriously though,
I've agreed to buy a track prepared Saxo VTR for under £500. I have a trailer which will tow it so no need for it to be road legal. It doesn't have an MOT anyway so no issues there.

I was never after outright speed (hence the purchase!) but more just a cheap way of getting on track and enjoying myself.
It already has the following:

Full OMP bolt in cage
35mm lowering springs
Sportex Backbox
Stainless centre pipe
piper 4-2-1 manifold
Induction Kit
Its been stripped bar the dash.

Bad points:

There's some slight damage to the passenger door (looks like it may have dinked a tyre barrier somewhere along the line but nothing too serious)
unknown brake condition
unknown tyre condition

I'm travelling a fair distance on the weekend to pick it up and providing its not too bad, bring it home. I realise there will be a few jobs to do before it's ready to hit the track but what should be the priority?

Pics to follow once I collect it.

[Blanchimont]

Brakes & tyres.

Not necessarily a big brake kit, just a check and refresh of what you have will be sufficient. New lines, pads, discs and fluid will be more than enough.

Tyres, as they're an unknown entity, and in Saxo sizes, cheap.

The last thing you want is crap brakes on track, and the tyres can contribute a lot to the braking performance. Cup 2's on my Megane with decent road/track pads (not out&out track pads) was able to brake seriously late and hard with 0 fade.

[MrC986]

Even though you’re not going to have it road legal, I’d be inclined if you’re not doing the service work yourself to have a local garage change all the fluids/filters including brake fluid & gearbox (replace with uprated brake fluid) check the brake discs and replace the brake pads with track biased ones and change the tyres for something more suitable for your use. Also check all suspension bushes and the engine mounts.

I’d also check the seat/harness mounts are appropriate before tracking it & find out what the weak spots are on this model when using it on track. You could always swap the damaged door for another one if it annoys you, though you’re probably working to a similar basis as I am with a friend where it’s about having fun safely & not having the shiniest car on track!

[JayK12]

Along with the obvious mentioned above, you might as well change the cambelt and plugs. Also check over for leaks, worn bushes and ball joints. Used to have a highly track modified VTR many many years ago. Great fun car.

[CedricN]

I would definitely rebuild the calipers, the rubbers gets very crisp with track use, and when they go bad its very easy to overheat brakes since the pad doesnt move freely. And the new race pads etc as the other points out.

[Black_S3]

Brakes first, the standard fronts are solid unvented iirc but there’s plenty dirt cheap caliper swaps off the likes of 306s that take vented discs which are worth doing before buying expensive pads for the standard caliper. Get over to one of the 106/Saxo forums and ask about the setup that fits under the standard 14 inch wheels - there always used to be loads of these for sale with used but decent discs and proper pads as people bought bigger wheels and 4 pots.

Then tyres, as mentioned dirt cheap in 14 inch for a set of summer type falkens or toyos.

You might have enough left to look at the suspension - 35mm drop on standard worn dampers will be poor, lowering with just springs generally coincides with rear lowered by clicks on the torsion bar rather than the proper way of doing it. Budget sport damper and spring kits used to be around £150 - might be worth running while saving up the funds for one of the Billy B6 based setups.

If you buy well and do all the work yourself you can probably get that lot done for £500ish