Cheap Track Day Car

[ccam84]

Hey, I need a bit of advice regarding a cheap, disposable track day car. We've got about a grand to spend for something that would be suitable for thrashing round Knockhill on track days.

At the moment I've been eyeing up a few Sierra XR4X4's, and was thinking maybe a 6 cylinder BMW E30 if the budget was big enough.

We're not gonna be doing any major mod's to it, just ripping out the interior, air filter, etc...

What other cars should I consider?

Cheers!

[dazren]

Mark2 golf GTI. A lot of them get the crap thrashed out of them on german trackdays. Dunno if a grand will pick up a good runner though.

DAZ

[iguana]

if ya want a MK2 Golf I'll sell ya a nice rust free complete car for next to fec all

[trooper1212]

I bought a race modded mk1 golf for 700 quid recently, for chucking around the track.

a good place to look for a car is here

www.rallyusedparts.co.uk/showcarsbydate.cfm

T.

[williamball]

ccam84 said:

Hey, I need a bit of advice regarding a cheap, disposable track day car. We've got about a grand to spend for something that would be suitable for thrashing round Knockhill on track days.

Hear what you're saying about 'cheap', but is the plan to use this at KH Hot Hatch days, Top Marques, or 'private hires' like SIDC, Lotus, TVR dealers etc? Remember, KH doesn't host any of the more typical Book-a-track/Easytrack style track days.

If you're looking at Hot Hatches, then anything cheap will do. Pop along and see what everyone else is driving. If it's Top Marques [I guess not though] then the car must at least look like it could be worth £10K, so anything 'cheap' is probably out.

As to the other track days, no problems going out in a 'cheap' car, but even though a track day isn't a race, no-one likes to be passed by everyone else. If you get something cheap that's seriously off the pace, I'd give it 2 outings before you gave it up as a bad idea!

Also, I doubt if the regulars at the Subaru/Lotus/TVR style events would be too happy to be out with someone just having a thrash in a car they considered as 'disposable'. Your car might be cheap, but other folks cars may not be, and they'll expect you to appreciate that.

Can I suggest an alternative? The running costs for a converted road can can be significant in terms of tyres & brakes. Why not look for an older Caterham or Westfield? OK, it might not be quite as cheap to buy as you might like in the first place, but it will cost loads less to run, and you would stand a chance of keeping up with the 'average' pace on track.

...unless all you're looking at is the Hot Hatch sessions, in which case disposable seems the name of the game...

WB

[ccam84]

It will be for the 'Hot Hatch' sessions at KH, should of made that clear at the start.

Thanks for the advice folks, I'll consider an early Golf now also.

[lx993]

205 GTi. Doesn't need a vast amount doing to it to make it a decent track day car... sling the rear seats, put in proper buckets & harnesses, uprate the suspension and brakes and you're away.
Actually it's pretty good as standard, but it's always nice to go over the top

One thing to remember - removing the rear seats & spare wheel, replacing the fronts with light buckets will leave you with a <850 kg hot hatch. Nice.

[accident]

you were looking in the right park for a good "fun"trackday car. strip the un needed crap out of an e30 325 and have a great time(especially in the wet)or find a 2.8 xr4i stick 2wd cossie breaks on the front and an xr4x4 rear axle and have a bomb proof fun car with such low corner speeds you can really have a laugh.
convert an xr 4x4 to rear drive will have the same effect.if left in 4wd config the sierra needs about a million bhp to be fun.
as for the hot hatches there are some great ones but they are well out of budget(sunbeam lotus,chevette hsr),as for the warm fwd hatch things well you get an understeering box'o'crap,you can make em fast but never fun.

[joospeed]

accident said:

you were looking in the right park for a good "fun"trackday car. strip the un needed crap out of an e30 325 and have a great time(especially in the wet)or find a 2.8 xr4i stick 2wd cossie breaks on the front and an xr4x4 rear axle and have a bomb proof fun car with such low corner speeds you can really have a laugh. convert an xr 4x4 to rear drive will have the same effect.if left in 4wd config the sierra needs about a million bhp to be fun. as for the hot hatches there are some great ones but they are well out of budget(sunbeam lotus,chevette hsr),as for the warm fwd hatch things well you get an understeering box'o'crap,you can make em fast but never fun.

wise words

[cptsideways]

Having done exactly what you want to do previously I'd suggest the following, these often embarass much more powerful cars especially on the wiggly bits

For allround drive it there fun you need lightweight:
1) Pug 205 good handling, surprisingly fast
2)Golf Mk3 Gti (bit dull)
2) Pug 106 rallye if u can find a cheap one light & v fast
4)Mazda 323 Turbo 4x4 cheap scooby style fun wicked rear biased handling excellent winter/wet fun.
5) Nissan Silvia Turbo rwd reliable fast & light

All the above are readily available in the bargain banger department of autotrader for a grand or less

[DR Chuff]

There was an Alfa 75 going free in the classifieds.
Nice Italian RWD fun.

Dr C

[viper]

there's a guy at my work selling a white D reg, Sierra 4x4 a runner at around £600, can get more details if you wish

[anonymous-user]

accident said:

as for the warm fwd hatch things well you get an understeering box'o'crap,you can make em fast but never fun.

cobblers. the 205 is so much fun on the track i suspect you are writing without experience. three words, lift off oversteer!. so much fun, they dont understeer half as much as people say they do, and once you have fitted some yokohamas anda strut brace, they are a surprisingly well balanced car through corners. they are very responsive and the 1.9 is brilliant in 2/3/4 gears where the engine just keeps pulling. a grand would get a good 1.6 which is always thought of as the better handling car, leaving some leftover for a new seat and harness. you can make them fast but there really is no ndeed, they represent more fun per £ than anything else, parts are dirt cheap too.