Track Car: Exige, Cayman, 997 GT3, or Something Else?

[powellypowelly]

New track car time.

I'm in the Middle East so no open tops. It's only for track use plus driving to/from the circuit.

I think I can stretch to an Exige 410 Sport, an Cayman GT4 or a 997.1 GT3 (unfortunately not an RS).

Which one, why, and are there better options I'm missing?

Thanks

[kiethton]

Exige for me

Light so low consumables costs, plenty of aftermarket options to improve parts which wont break the bank or ruin the value of the car, minimal depreciation and scope to add another 80bhp (via Hanger 111 or similar) if you get taken by an upgrade.

As a S2 Exige owner I may be slightly biased however....

[Paul_M3]

They're all good cars, but the Exige will be significantly cheaper in consumables.

It would also arguably be the most involving to drive.

I would consider the Exige to be a winner over the GT4 for your purposes. A guy I speak to has just sold his GT4 to buy an Exige 410, as the GT4 didn't feel 'special' enough to him. It's almost too civilised and 'normal' according to him.

Exige vs GT3 is maybe a tougher choice, as a GT3 is an amazing machine. I'm still not sure you'd be having more fun in a GT3 though, but your running costs would definitely be higher.

In the interests of bias: I do currently own an Exige 410. I bought it because I wanted to do more track days, and be able to drive to / from all the circuits, and the car live outside all year round. I couldn't find anything which suited my needs better.

I have owned and tracked a Cayman S and a 991.1 Carrera 4S, but obviously neither of those are as fast / involving as their GT versions so it's not really a fair comparison.

My thoughts in summary:

If it was both track days and lots of roads trips - Probably at GT3 or GT4.
Purely track days and driving to/from the circuit - Exige 410.

[powellypowelly]

Excellent, thanks both, I am worried about the running costs so an Exige under warranty probably is the best route.

I have an appointment at the Lotus dealer tomorrow so we'll see.

Paul - How fast does your Exige go through tyres/pads/fluids/etc on track days? Anything other factors I should be thinking about?

[ecain63]

My Exige 410 did 25 track days on a set of Cup2 rears. Fronts still have over 4mm.

Stock brakes are excellent and don't be tempted to change from the OEM pads. There's no need.

Fuel will be your biggest cost.

[Paul_M3]

powellypowelly said:

Paul - How fast does your Exige go through tyres/pads/fluids/etc on track days? Anything other factors I should be thinking about?

Eddie’s response above has answered this for me. He’s owned his car for much longer and done many more track days than me.

I can confirm however that the CUP2 tyres seem to be amazing and barely wear at all. I also agree that there isn’t even any need to change brake pads. (It’s the first car I’ve ever owned where I haven’t felt the need to put upgraded pads in for track work)

I’m not sure there’s much else you need to know really. The 410 has 3-way adjustable Nitron dampers and adjustable anti-roll bars as standard, so if you like tweaking suspension settings you’ll be able to do that without upgrading anything.

It’s very easy and relatively cheap to fit a harness bar and Harnesses, and I think that makes a big difference on a track car.

As Eddie says, all you really need to do is put fuel in it…

[powellypowelly]

Thanks!