Suitable track car ?

[Wryka]

I know this topic was sort of covered a few threads back but it didn't quite answer my situation.

I have a 500 Griffith which has been slightly modified with a Mark Adams Tornado chip and a sports exhaust with a bit of suitable remapping. Now the question is does itmake a good track car for a complete novice or should I be looking for something else. Bearing in mind that the griff is my pride and joy and the thought of possibly lunching it into a tyre wall doesn't fill my heart with joy. I have been considering aa Elise 111s as this may be a bit more forgiving in corners etc.

Sorry if this has been covered before but any help would be grateful.

[dern]

I did my first (and only so far) track day in my old 4.6v8 westfield and while it wasn't an ideal first track day car I had loads of fun. You'd be safer initially on an airfield day as you'd have less to hit... I went straight through a hairpin early on and the only casualty was a cone. You'll have the same problem I had of huge engine braking but then you'll soon learn to tame that. If you change to an elise you'll simply swap engine braking issues to overcome with lift off oversteer. You'll have the advantage of knowing the car already and if you like it there's little to be gained by changing it in my opinion.

Regards,

Mark

PS. The track day did result in me selling the westfield because I thought the gearbox was a bit agricultural and wanted to focus on something more track oriented. You'll regret not giving the tvr a go though and you can always change later if you find yourself still wanting the elise.

Edited by dern on Wednesday 13th December 20:06

[James_UK]

I would have thought your Griff would be much more forgiving than an Elise. They have a bit softer suspension and the engine in the right place

Edited by James_UK on Wednesday 13th December 20:13

[blindswelledrat]

I would suggest that the whole point of a novice trackday is building up a knowledge of your cars limits and that is where the fun is. The fact that you feel a little concerned about your P&J is the reason you are unlikely to trash it. You will start slowly and build up speed throughout the day. Go for it!

[cwin]

Hi Wayne
I was in a similar situation with my gt2,frightend of bending it.I took my bec to oulton park on my first track day and to be honest with you i felt a little vulnerable with my young son at the side of me,i have ended up with a mazda rx7 and would recomend you have a drive in one as you can pick a modified one up for decent money.The cars handle fantastic with a perfect 50/50 weight split,good brakes,and superb power/weight ratio mine is running 348@wheels and weighs around 1000kgs.It will suprise you how well they go on the track with a superb power delivery.

Edited by cwin on Thursday 14th December 22:25

[Wryka]

Thanks for the help guys, perhaps I give the Griff a go to make sure I like it before I splash out and buy an Elise as well.

Should I keep the suspension standard on the Griff? Or think about modifying it with adjustables?

[Howard R]

An Elise is a good track car - but far, far better is a Caterham 7

Although your Griff should be entertaining on the track.

Whatever you decide to use - one of the best performance upgrades is some tuition on track.

[Locoblade]

Make sure you also appreciate all the costs involved before deciding on a car long term, a friend of mine used to use his 5L Chimera on track and he said it cost him a more per trackday in brake pads/discs, tyres, track fuel etc than it did for the event itself and associated costs getting there and back. It will be similar with most "heavy" (ie over ~800kg) cars though, especially more powerful ones, the same chap now runs a Westfield Megabusa on track and although its far quicker and better handling on track, it costs him far less to run than the Trev.

[R TOY]

Wryka said:

I know this topic was sort of covered a few threads back but it didn't quite answer my situation.

I have a 500 Griffith which has been slightly modified with a Mark Adams Tornado chip and a sports exhaust with a bit of suitable remapping. Now the question is does itmake a good track car for a complete novice or should I be looking for something else. Bearing in mind that the griff is my pride and joy and the thought of possibly lunching it into a tyre wall doesn't fill my heart with joy. I have been considering aa Elise 111s as this may be a bit more forgiving in corners etc.

Sorry if this has been covered before but any help would be grateful.

I've tracked a 4.5 chim a few times which was std apart from front susp and uprated brakes. Went extremely well and v enjoyable. I now have a tuscan which i tracked earlier this year at oulton but i didnt want to make to much of a habit as sp 6 engines dont come cheap and the car is quite frankly to fast for its handling and my abilities. So when a mate suggested that we buy a track car i jumped at the chance and we went halves on an Elise. Bought cheapish (6k)plus a few mods like tyres and exhaust and we have a crackin trackday motor. Much easier to drive to our ability and learn the trade so to speak. The cars performance is amazingly good (std 118hp k) It does start to run out of steam over 100mph tho and we have a 160vvc to install when we get the time. I had wondered wether i would miss the power of the tvr but not so far. We also have the advantage of a trailer to take the car home on should the worst happen and a little less regard for the cars safety than i would for my road car. Would certainly recomend similar from my experience plus you dont get wet like those poor caterham pilots. Hope i'm still as cocky after Doni tommorow regards Dave.