Building a track day car, what would you do differently?

Would you just buy one ready to go? Do it yourself? FWD or RWD? Would you want a fully stripped race car, like an ITA, or just a mildly upgraded street car with maybe a rollbar? Or maybe something totally different, like a Formula Ford? Would you tow it, or just drive it to the track? Momentum car, or something with an SBC?

In other words, a what car thread, but better.

Whoops, should say building a track day CAR. Stupid iPad keyboard.

haha I know your pain. And I was wondering the same thing.

I think the best thing to do if its a true track only car is buy a pre-prepped car. So much cheaper that way.

I would look on sites like www.specialstage.com if I wanted something rally based or wirewheel classics http://www.wirewheel.com/ etc

At the moment I track my Me-Otter, which is also my almost-daily-driver. Mildly upgraded (with more upgrades in the pipeline) and that's probably how I'm going to keep it for the time being. It gets driven to the track and back and currently doesn't even sport upgraded wheels and tires.

The reason is pretty simple, I can't really afford to attend enough trackdays to make a more dedicated car a sensible proposition, so I'm sticking with trackable street cars for now.

That said, I'm having bad thoughts about getting something like a Caterham or a Westfield as a more track-oriented but still streetable-ish car. Or a Maxton Rollerskate if I happen to find one at the same time that I have the money to spend on one.

The last car I attempted to track was actually pre-modded but after that disaster (and a prior one with an egg-spurt build turbo Miata), I've decided that I do the modding myself. At least that way I get to fix my own screwups rather than having to fix other people's in order to screw up something else myself.

IT cars can be had pretty reasonable, some w/ trailers for racers getting out. Unless you're the build your own type not a bad starting place, money and sweat has already been invested... and if it's done right. Freshen as required. As I see it, good for track days and regionals if ya wanna drive more often.

I would still want to build my own, but I would do a well documented, already has the kinks worked out build, vs a "the reason this hasn't been done before is no one else is this stupid" build

Oh yeah and use an engine they sold in the US so parts aren't a nightmare

Keep it street legal, or at least registered, so you can do things like get fuel, bed in new brakes and get the bugs out after modifications without wasting time at a $300 track day.

If your goal is a reliable track car that wears a license plate buy a good handling street car... 911, E36 M3, S2000, Me-otter... whatever floats your boat. Add seats, harnesses, coilovers, camber plates, wheels and sticky tires. Lower and balance it. Done. Go drive it.

If you want to go racing buy a well built sorted race car as your first. Build the 2nd one.

I've been thinking IT car or spec miata. If it is something that you can autocross and track day and race, it doesn't matter as much that it is a dedicated track car. But I guess it does probably mean it is less "dedicated" or more dedicated to one of the three and less to the other two.

You have to decided what you want to do.

Street legal car or dedicated racer. When I was running my ZX2SR, I kept it as a daily driver and then I had a track set up for it and with the Hoosiers on the car it was trailered to the track Glad I did when at Shenendoah I broke the differential.

Roll cages are no fun / dangerous on the street.

For Sale

It's never a bad idea to buy someone else's money for pennies on the dollar.

Provided, that is, they've spent it on the car you'd have built, or are willing to compromise on.

I've got a metric sh!t-ton of money in my '98 M3 track car - It was done pretty much "spare no expense" and I didn't do anything before it was "needed". Bear in mind that once you're going fast, say within 5 or 8 percent of wheel-to-wheel race pace, stuff you don't notice on a street car has to be dealt with. On the M3 it means replacing every consumable part in the suspension. The better the tires you run, the more brake pad you need. The more pad, the more heat. So more expensive fluids and rotor cooling are needed. The S5X motors need the oil pump nut safety wired, and while you're there, a baffle w/ flapper doors in the pan, Hey, the front sub frame is off do the weld-in reinforcements and some urethane motor mounts. Trans mounts too, and do the Giubo and center bearing while you're there. The rear sub frame needs welded reinforcements as well as the trailing arm pockets. Note that we've yet do anything about handling, power or safety...

So decide how fast you want to go, and how much you're willing to pay per lap. Instructing an SCCA PDX event and going on street tires is about a $100 day. Doing a NASA TT on Hoosier R6s which will last 16 heat cycles is a $300 day.

If you have the means to tow and store a trailer, a cheap, old SCCA IT car can be perfect - cheap consumables, you can progress to getting your race license with it. And trailering is nice when it breaks and you can push it back on and tow it home.

2 years ago the M3 spun it's oil pump nut off between T2-T3 at VIR the first Saturday session the weekend of the GRM UTCC. I got to spend 2 full days in the 105 degree paddock trying to scare up trailer space back to home. Not fun.

Woody wrote: Roll cages are no fun / dangerous on the street.

It's true. They should be kept behind bars. (sorry, I can't help myself sometimes)

I've bee ndoing track days with a street car for years. If i had to do it over again, I'd buy an already built race car. There's nothing that's as fun to drive as a race car.

Buy a c5 vette and use it as the nice weather/track day car lol

Caleb wrote: Buy a c5 vette and use it as the nice weather/track day car lol

that would be the "easy button" I believe.

I build streetable track cars myself. Since I am in CA, you have to have a few connections to take care of that whole smog thing if you want real engine mods though. I always trailer it to track days and always will because 3 of 4 track days ended with a broken car. But the valid plates are good for being able to shake down the car on the street before wasting a fistfull of cash on a 5 lap track day

IMO, I think it depends on what level you're at. Beginner? Intermediate? Experienced?

Personally, as a beginner who bought an E30 to be a track car and then having too much fear of balling it up to ever take it there, I want a cheap car I'd have no attachment to.

My Miata is too modified to be a comfortable daily driver, but I can drive it to any event, and tow a tire trailer. Not fast, but runs all day long. Couple track events a year, 10+ autox, I change front pads every 2 years, rear pads every 5 (didn't really need them), sticky tires can run 2 seasons, but pretty heat cycled out by then. Does everything I need except pass horsepower cars. That I have to work for / at. In 11 years of running I've had one on track failure (heater hose) and one bad day because of poor work on the suspension, not the car''s fault. This it Grassroots: the answer always is Miata.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

Woody wrote: Roll cages are no fun / dangerous on the street.

It's true. They should be kept behind bars. (sorry, I can't help myself sometimes)

I hear this all the time, but disagree if you have a well built tight to the body cage and are nimble enough to hop over it. I drive my caged car to work and around town all the time. Seat time is seat time. Even seat time sitting in the drive-through line. And it makes you really popular carpooling to lunch (not).