I'm about to go to OG Racing to try on seats, and safety gear.
Over the last 3 years my very clean, one owner, 58K mile '98 M3 - a wonderful street car - has morphed from DD that gets lined with mover's blankets before the autocross wheels are loaded to STU class autocross car that's still streetable albeit not too comfortable to track day car that can be driven to events and to work if it's nice out. Which by the way gets mercilessly beaten on, session after session, windows down, in the rain, covered with track crud and brake dust and (especially at Summit Point) big black worms of tire rubber all over the lovely all original paint.
Escalating pace on track and having seen one too many really balled up cars at VIR, and a desire to start doing TTs and instructing has lead to the inevitability; it's time for a roll bar, seats, mounts, harnesses, and a HANS device. I considered the idea of returning the M3 to "stock" condition and finding something like an e30 325is which would be great for DEs and eventually become a spec e30 car, but I've already got a gazillion dollars and 2+ years of development in the M3. Ultimately what it came down to is that the car works perfectly, handles great, and is sort of fast which is fun. I raced slow motorcycles and karts for years. I raced skateboards and bicycles and RC cars. It's got enough HP that some measure of restraint is sometimes necessary, but not so much that say, a well driven spec Miata is effortless to pass everywhere.
I'm sure my ambivalence about dropping more money on safety gear than my first 3 cars cost combined, and hurling myself down the slippery slope headlong toward making this great street car un-streetable - will subside, particularly once the car is in the paddock at an event looking all snarly and purposeful. It'll seem like a ~great~ idea if I ever have "the Big One" and exit the smoking, inverted wreckage by crawling out the window.
Right now though? It seems a little crazy.
