If you were going to spend £5k on a track/road car.......

[Turbo T]

.......... what would it be?

Preferences

1/. reliable
2/. handling
3/. braking
4/. power

all thoughts greatly appreciated. I am currently think along these lines:

Mr2 Rev3
Impreza RA ( import one)
EVO 4
GT4

on top of the £5k I would set aside say £2k for certain mods.

[Steve_Evil]

As you didn't mention practicality and I presume it will be a second car a kit car would fit the bill nicely, will out handle, brake and accelerate all the cars listed, and go through consumables like brake pads and tyres a lot less.

>> Edited by Steve_Evil on Friday 2nd June 10:32

[Turbo T]

yeah Steve I really should of. I am not sure I could live with a Kit Car. I often wonder about a Striker, but practicality needs to be considered.

[Steve_Evil]

Ahh ok. Friend of mine is likely going to sell me his 130bhp 1275 mini, which has been stripped to the bones and fitted with carbon fibre panels so weighs about 500kg, probably gonna have that as my weekend/track car and use my £68 626 GT as my everyday tool.

[Raify]

IMHO, the 4wd cars you've mentioned might not give you the fun and feedback that should be top of the list in a track car. Plus, they'll eat tyres and brakes.

What about a properly sorted fwd chassis? Pug 205gti / 106 rallye? Or a simple rwd? Mx-5, Mr2 Mk1?

My list of preferences would be:
1. Handling
2. Brakes (can easily be remedied if the stock items aren't up to the job)
3. Power

I'm biased because I've just got one, but a Mx5 fits the bill. Simple, cheap and excellent fun. All it would need is a roll cage + brake upgrade.

[System-G]

How about a MK1 MR2 Supercharger? It's is quicker around a track and offers better handling than the MKII Turbo.

We have just picked up a relatively mint Supercharger for a bargain price (a lot less than £4k). It came with adjustable suspension, HKS big pulley,Custom intercooler, Custom large bore equal length headers (with heated oxy sensor), custom exhaust, HKS super power flow air filter, ABV mod, MKIII 15" Alloys.

[bint]

MX5 of course!

[iaint]

MX-5 for a few k and add a cage is a possible.

I'd personally go for a Gen2 rx-7. Possibly n/a. Not powerful but looks good and handles well. 5k would leave me with 2.5 spare after buying it too...

[tuttle]

Gazboy said:

Rev3 MR2 turbo- without question.

Really Gaz? Shocking!
Are talking mainly road with occasional track use here? If so I think durability/reliability would be big on my list, closely followed by handling, braking & power.
My personal interest is moving away from 'power stuff' into something that is lighter, more agile & fun.
If you can live with a 2 seater I'd go for the MR2, OTOH the Scooby RA is probably the best all-rounder. OOh could kill for a decent GT4 too

[Turbo T]

tuttle said:

Gazboy said: Rev3 MR2 turbo- without question. Really Gaz? Shocking! Are talking mainly road with occasional track use here? If so I think durability/reliability would be big on my list, closely followed by handling, braking & power. My personal interest is moving away from 'power stuff' into something that is lighter, more agile & fun. If you can live with a 2 seater I'd go for the MR2, OTOH the Scooby RA is probably the best all-rounder. OOh could kill for a decent GT4 too

Thats the dilema. I dont track anywhere near as often as I would like, and with the current car, it seems almost criminal to abuse her. I would love to track more, but its not going to be an every weekend thing.

And yes I can live with 2 seats . I still have a soft spot for MR2's, but there are so many other options. Whatever I chose will need to be pretty bullet proof as I dont want to be spending £££ on it all the time.

[tuttle]

Turbo T said:

Thats the dilema.

Yes Completely agree. We spend all that time & effort & pour shed loads of our hard earned into 'tuning/improving' our P&Js, by the time we reach a certain point we feel guilty about giving said P&J too much serious abuse-which is why we did it in the 1st place!. For me,anyway,it all got a bit serious & precious about it- in short I wasn't having as much fun with a car that I loved but was becoming scared of its ability do destroy me financially.
Low-cost fun cars are looking very appealing these days

[Steve_Evil]

Amen to the low-cost fun cars. Had to buy a car worth under £100 for the banger rally to Prague we're doing in September, picked up our Mazda 626 GT and it's a hoot, still need to get it road legal but was surprisingly quick on the drive back from picking it up, and you really don't give a toss about kerbing it, bumping shopping trolleys out of the way or anything. Not saying everyone should go out and buy a £100 crapbox but it's very liberating and just as much fun as something that costs 100 times as much. I would buy something fun for a couple of grand, good enough so that it will be fun and capable, but cheap enough that it isn't going to ruin you financially if the worst happens.

[iaint]

tuttle said:

Turbo T said: Thats the dilema. Yes Completely agree. We spend all that time & effort & pour shed loads of our hard earned into 'tuning/improving' our P&Js, by the time we reach a certain point we feel guilty about giving said P&J too much serious abuse-which is why we did it in the 1st place!. For me,anyway,it all got a bit serious & precious about it- in short I wasn't having as much fun with a car that I loved but was becoming scared of its ability do destroy me financially. Low-cost fun cars are looking very appealing these days

I just decided 'feck it' and started to get the rex track ready. a few too many grand later and T70 turbo on order and it's about there...

[Turbo T]

iaint said:

I just decided 'feck it' and started to get the rex track ready. a few too many grand later and T70 turbo on order and it's about there...

Hope its not the same T70 we tried on the Supra mate, it was a surge monster.

Gaz, my car is really very good around the track, just get guilt pangs about it.

[iaint]

Turbo T said:

iaint said:

I just decided 'feck it' and started to get the rex track ready. a few too many grand later and T70 turbo on order and it's about there...

Hope its not the same T70 we tried on the Supra mate, it was a surge monster.

Gaz, my car is really very good around the track, just get guilt pangs about it.

The kit (tubby, manifold, downpipe and 50mm wastegate plumbed in to dp) is on a few tuned 7s. Good for ~400rwhp on 1bar boost. Current setup and fuelling should be good for up to 1.2 bar but, obviously, I'll be sticking to lower boost

Turbos seem to work differently on the rex as this is a 700bhp turbo on a pitsony thing but would max out around 500 on the rotary...

What do you mean by 'surge monster'?

[vixpy1]

iaint said:

Turbo T said:

iaint said:

I just decided 'feck it' and started to get the rex track ready. a few too many grand later and T70 turbo on order and it's about there...

Hope its not the same T70 we tried on the Supra mate, it was a surge monster.

Gaz, my car is really very good around the track, just get guilt pangs about it.

The kit (tubby, manifold, downpipe and 50mm wastegate plumbed in to dp) is on a few tuned 7s. Good for ~400rwhp on 1bar boost. Current setup and fuelling should be good for up to 1.2 bar but, obviously, I'll be sticking to lower boost

Turbos seem to work differently on the rex as this is a 700bhp turbo on a pitsony thing but would max out around 500 on the rotary...

What do you mean by 'surge monster'?

Mates just putting a T04E on his Type R, should be fun.

Currently deciding what setup to put on my Rex, won't be for a while though..

[AJI]

I'd go for a old import TT Supra (with LSD) and then spend the rest on suspension, tyres, brakes.
Chuck all the weight off it and you'll have a great fun RWD track car to blast round.

[iaint]

vixpy1 said:

Mates just putting a T04E on his Type R, should be fun.

Currently deciding what setup to put on my Rex, won't be for a while though..

Concidered and discounted the T04E - a bit long in the tooth and, while giving better spool, wouldn't give much better power than the cfurrent setup. GT35/40 would be a better option or even better an T04Z (about 1k more than the T04E though).

If it's not been done yet upgrade the shocks, front disks and pads all round. The shocks and springs will likely be a bit tired and a more modern setup (something like the tein flex I've got on the FD) will transform an already great car.

Seen a really intereting v-mount setup on the FC. The standard FMIC setup can be a bit cumbersome coz of the nose shape.

Toughest thing for upping the power on the FC is finding a decent ECU that's not costing silly money and that people have some experience of. No point going M800 but the PFC for the FC is like hens teeth...

Looking forward to seeing it at the RR day. Shame mine won;t have the new turbo then though... 4 week lead time on the manifiold...

[vixpy1]

He got the T04 because it was cheap lol

My plan is to do the suspension and brakes first on the FC, because its a track car after all, then do some track days and see how its goes.

Been offered an Emange which will go straight on, not sure i can put up with the crapness though.. hmm

[cptsideways]

I reckon a manual (rare) Toyota Soarer 2.5 TT would be a good bet, 280bhp standard genuine 170mph car, utterly reliable running gear, rwd, lsd as standard, superb handling, lose some weight, 3-4-5k for tidy ones though you'll have to hunt for a manual one.