Racing on a budget - what would you get?
Discussion
I hope this is the right place and not the motorsport section, as I'm really keen to know others' experiences of various track day cars.
I may be looking to enter a club championship later this year and am looking for a 5-7k car as a basis for stripping out and modifying. Local workshop labour is about half the cost in the UK, and cars tend to depreciate much more rapidly, hence what is available to me in an overall budget of 10-15k (sterling) is probably a lot more than in the UK.
The championship will take place mostly on the Dubai Autodrome, which is a medium to high speed circuit, hence outright power will be a factor in the choice. Great handling must be a given.
Ability to endure 20 minute races in the heat and availability of parts are important factors: for example, some European cars have not been around here longer than about 6 or 7 years. Loads of Jap stuff though and likely to be more reliable. I have a personal hankering for a late 80s 944 turbo but wonder whether I am entering a world of pain, and would appreciate some feedback from those who may have been through this process before, or possibly used the following as dedicated track day cars:
- 944 turbo (too old?)
- Nissan Skyline (probably R32) (too heavy?)
- Toyota Supra (costly to fix?)
- E36 M3 (too dull?)
Many thanks!
Harris
I may be looking to enter a club championship later this year and am looking for a 5-7k car as a basis for stripping out and modifying. Local workshop labour is about half the cost in the UK, and cars tend to depreciate much more rapidly, hence what is available to me in an overall budget of 10-15k (sterling) is probably a lot more than in the UK.
The championship will take place mostly on the Dubai Autodrome, which is a medium to high speed circuit, hence outright power will be a factor in the choice. Great handling must be a given.
Ability to endure 20 minute races in the heat and availability of parts are important factors: for example, some European cars have not been around here longer than about 6 or 7 years. Loads of Jap stuff though and likely to be more reliable. I have a personal hankering for a late 80s 944 turbo but wonder whether I am entering a world of pain, and would appreciate some feedback from those who may have been through this process before, or possibly used the following as dedicated track day cars:
- 944 turbo (too old?)
- Nissan Skyline (probably R32) (too heavy?)
- Toyota Supra (costly to fix?)
- E36 M3 (too dull?)
Many thanks!
Harris
the best advice I can give you is buy a car that has already been prepared and used building one from scatch costs so much more and then you have to get it set up right, much easier/quicker to buy one, such as this one;
PORSCHE 944 Coupe - TURBO S RACE/TRACK CAR Manual
88F 0 Miles 3 Owners metallic grey
Full service history partially by franchise UK car
Additional comments: Full sorted car nearly £10K spent, stripped, cage, harness,only done 10 laps of Cadwell since hpi clear road car, ring for full spec.approx 300bhp.
PRICE: £8000
CAR STATUS: Physical V5 available Highlight this advert
CONTACT: Philip Beasley
DEALER: Fountain Bridge (Hull) Ltd, Humberside
MEMBER SINCE: Oct 2005
TEL: 01482 587134 MOB: 07970 153220
PORSCHE 944 Coupe - TURBO S RACE/TRACK CAR Manual
88F 0 Miles 3 Owners metallic grey
Full service history partially by franchise UK car
Additional comments: Full sorted car nearly £10K spent, stripped, cage, harness,only done 10 laps of Cadwell since hpi clear road car, ring for full spec.approx 300bhp.
PRICE: £8000
CAR STATUS: Physical V5 available Highlight this advert
CONTACT: Philip Beasley
DEALER: Fountain Bridge (Hull) Ltd, Humberside
MEMBER SINCE: Oct 2005
TEL: 01482 587134 MOB: 07970 153220
Toyota Supra would be the choice out of your original list for me.
As long as the turbos are not overworked they are solid units and even on stock power levels your looking at a very fast track car once its been stripped and setup.
Toyota reliability should see the need for repairs drop substantially below the other cars on the list. But its things like bodywork damage (through close racing)... Supras are not all that common and therefore panels may be higher cost than the other cars on the list.
There is a race team who has just signed up to the Brit GT championship here in the UK who are racing a Supra. If you see this as an option then you can ask questions to them about their preparation of their Supra on our Supra club website : mkivsupra.net
As long as the turbos are not overworked they are solid units and even on stock power levels your looking at a very fast track car once its been stripped and setup.
Toyota reliability should see the need for repairs drop substantially below the other cars on the list. But its things like bodywork damage (through close racing)... Supras are not all that common and therefore panels may be higher cost than the other cars on the list.
There is a race team who has just signed up to the Brit GT championship here in the UK who are racing a Supra. If you see this as an option then you can ask questions to them about their preparation of their Supra on our Supra club website : mkivsupra.net
rallycross said:
the best advice I can give you is buy a car that has already been prepared and used building one from scatch costs so much more and then you have to get it set up right, much easier/quicker to buy one, such as this one;
PORSCHE 944 Coupe - TURBO S RACE/TRACK CAR Manual
88F 0 Miles 3 Owners metallic grey
PRICE: £8000
PORSCHE 944 Coupe - TURBO S RACE/TRACK CAR Manual
88F 0 Miles 3 Owners metallic grey
PRICE: £8000
That would be close to perfect except that importing a car is logistically a bit tricky for me. Perhaps I need to take a trip over and scour the market, but I would have to plan the trip very carefully so as not to waste the effort.
AJI said:
Toyota Supra would be the choice out of your original list for me.
Supras are not all that common and therefore panels may be higher cost than the other cars on the list.
Supras are not all that common and therefore panels may be higher cost than the other cars on the list.
Thanks for the tip re the website. I hadn't thought about replacement panels on a Supra - I guess that could prove to be a challenge.
I noticed also that someone had posted about a the M3 as a potential racecar, but perhaps that post has been subsequently deleted?
Anyone got experience of the Skyline as a track slag? I think I'll spend this weekend doing searches on the Jap Chat forum...
Is there any reason why you could not run a caterham/westfield - that would be an ideal car to run, fairly easy to drive reasonably quickly and can be raced fairly cheaply.
As far as turning a 10 or even 20 year old road car into a competitive race car that will cope with the heat etc - trust me that will cost a fortune. You would be so much better off buying a car that has already been turned into a racing car.
But why not rent a car at the outset to see if you like racing and are any good. Surely someone connected with the circuit must rent out radicals or something like them ?
Have fun
As far as turning a 10 or even 20 year old road car into a competitive race car that will cope with the heat etc - trust me that will cost a fortune. You would be so much better off buying a car that has already been turned into a racing car.
But why not rent a car at the outset to see if you like racing and are any good. Surely someone connected with the circuit must rent out radicals or something like them ?
Have fun
Agreed - but by "budget", what I mean is I don't intend to participate in an exotic supercar race series with a travelling team of mechanics and inexhaustible supply of spare parts.
Re the Caterham Academy - no such thing out here (although there is a VW GTi Championship, a Formula BMW Championship and the Gulf Radical Cup - the first of these is too boring, the latter two quite expensive as they require the outright purchase of brand new race cars, hence the reason why the local motorsport body is setting up a club championship with open categories).
Re the Integra: good choice, perhaps not as powerful in stock form as I would like. A friend runs one, but he has spent top dollar to get close to 300bhp, extensive chassis mods and lightweight body panels, and now it gets close to the lap times of his GT3. If I come across one, I will certainly consider it but I really don't want to be going too crazy with mods (famous last words).
Re the Caterham Academy - no such thing out here (although there is a VW GTi Championship, a Formula BMW Championship and the Gulf Radical Cup - the first of these is too boring, the latter two quite expensive as they require the outright purchase of brand new race cars, hence the reason why the local motorsport body is setting up a club championship with open categories).
Re the Integra: good choice, perhaps not as powerful in stock form as I would like. A friend runs one, but he has spent top dollar to get close to 300bhp, extensive chassis mods and lightweight body panels, and now it gets close to the lap times of his GT3. If I come across one, I will certainly consider it but I really don't want to be going too crazy with mods (famous last words).
Harris_I said:
Agreed - but by "budget", what I mean is I don't intend to participate in an exotic supercar race series with a travelling team of mechanics and inexhaustible supply of spare parts.
I was kidding, but my (admittedly limited) experience of sprinting my TVR leads me to the conclusion that race car budgets are subject to Parkinsons Law - they expand to exceed the funds alloted to satisfy them ...
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