Dual Purpose Rallycross/HPDE car?

How doable is it having a car that works for rallycross decently with appropriate tires but can also be decently enjoyable HPDE?

Bonus points for a path that could lead to chump/wrl/aer/some sort of racing in the future

It would mostly depend on the local rallycross region's surface.

Wilson Fairgrounds/VIR so mostly Dirt, can get kind of fluffed and soft?

Miata is the answer. You're going to be a bit soft for track stuff, but that's less of an issue with the longer time between elements on track. Especially in a stock-ish Miata, there is a loooooong time between elements.

Depends on how fast you want to go on the HPDE. My rallycross/stage e30 is perfectly capable of HPDE if I reattach the swaybars and swap on my street wheels with Star Specs....

Then again, I run stiffer springs on it than I would if it were just for rallycross.

I imagine the answer to that question on here is damn near anything.

I blinked and answered "Neon".

Seriously. Dave Rudy here in Ohio used to do HPDEs and rallycrosses in his Neon. Same tires too, I think. I don't remember if it was an ACR or just an R/T.

That's my end plan for my Civic, keep stock suspension and just swap tires. I'm not experienced or serious enough about track stuff yet for suspension to matter much though.

Easily done. BMW, Miata, WRX in near-stock form should all work fine. Soft FWD stuff you'd probably want to get a real rally suspension for. Our Sentra would be awful to drive on track. Like a hippo on a pogo stick.

I have been on a road course track with my e30 in stage rally trim....with DMack gravel rally tires on them.

Wasn't all that fast, but boy was there a lot of fun sliding tires and body lean!

A first gen DOHC ACR or R/T Neon rocks that. I won the FWD Stock National Championship about 10 years ago with a Neon that had 390,000 miles on it. With some 15x7 wheels and Star Specs I could play with Boxsters and RX8's at track days.

For under $2k!

Yeah I had a miata before. It is a fun car and hard to beat. I would not mind something with a bit more space inside and a bit more exciting power however.

But if its the answer, its the answer lol. Wonder how my fatcat suspension would have done if we kept it stock height ish

Is a miata also the answer when it comes to something chumpable and reliable?

I have not been to VIR this year so I don't know if it has gotten better but last year when I was there they had a lot of ruts so I was hitting the skid plate a lot and my miata is a little taller than stock.

I'll mention this, my Celica has mac strut front and SRA In back. I can change between track and rally suspension in an hour by myself, or 39mins with a buddy.

Having two sets of suspension is great for seasonal driving too.

Are you changing out spring and shock sets?

Anything that is more enjoyable to listen to or has some more power than a miata thats a good option?

When I say Chumpable, I don't really care specifically about chumpcar I could just see HPDE leading to wanting to do some budget racing

I had thought about some RX-7s before especially with how easy they seem to be relatively to swap a v8 into. Chumpcar rules seem insane for swaps I tried their calculator and putting a base ls1 into a gen 3 camaro was like 2000 points. I just have no particular love for the rotary. I know the first gen rx7s would often run against the miatas in the NASA PT series?

Jaynen wrote: Anything that is more enjoyable to listen to or has some more power than a miata thats a good option?

A turbo miata :)

E30, E36, WRX, etc. They will all have higher consumable costs than the Miata though.

Jaynen wrote: Is a miata also the answer when it comes to something chumpable and reliable?

miatas and e30s/e36s are the most common cars in a chump race.

ProDarwin wrote:

Jaynen wrote: Anything that is more enjoyable to listen to or has some more power than a miata thats a good option?

A turbo miata :) E30, E36, WRX, etc. They will all have higher consumable costs than the Miata though.

I did think about finding a turbo miata, they seem to sell for cheaper than it takes to build them. I'm already really familiar with them but this time I would want a hard top and working AC please :P

You can go participate in a chump race with a more expensive car you just cant win/get penalty laps right?

Keep in mind, depending on your courses and how well matched your springs / shocks are, you can go a lot stiffer on the suspension than most people would for rallycross without really giving up a whole lot of performance. At the events I go to, it's not uncommon to see minimal difference in times between a guy in a Forrester on mushy stock springs with no sway bars and another guy in a 2.5 RS on fairly stiff suspension. As in, close enough that if you had them switch cars, they'd probably still place the same most days.

Jaynen wrote: I did think about finding a turbo miata, they seem to sell for cheaper than it takes to build them. I'm already really familiar with them but this time I would want a hard top and working AC please :P

Buy one with a hard top and working AC then

An S2000 is basically a Miata turned up to 11. If I found one that was already kinda beat, I'd rallycross it.

We have been thinking about upgrading (side-grading?) to a Z33.

Thats the BMW roadsters? Or the older 300zx?

Sorry, 350Z = Z33.

miata is always the answer.