In the hillclimb world I've seen quite a few 5k formula vees. Older "non competitive " engines but enough to get out and learn to drive in while going at relatively safe speeds with cheap tires and maintenance. But then again.....it's not a 800hp fire breathing mustang or Integra so they get overlooked and people assume they aren't fun.
RonnieFnD said:In the hillclimb world I've seen quite a few 5k formula vees. Older "non competitive " engines but enough to get out and learn to drive in while going at relatively safe speeds with cheap tires and maintenance. But then again.....it's not a 800hp fire breathing mustang or Integra so they get overlooked and people assume they aren't fun.
Well, people are dumb so..... I stopped listening to them.
In reply to RonnieFnD :
I saw an ad a few weeks ago for an F-Prod MGB. It was an old racer and would have needed new tires, fluids, brake pads, but it could have been race ready with a weekend of work. It was an asking price of $5K. A car like that would suit me just fine for a track day toy. The wind in your face would make it feel like 200 mph, even as the stockish Miatas blew by.
In reply to bobzilla :
I concur. Slow cars are fun as hell and that's why I have them. Before the chevy sonic I was a neon guy but unfortunately all the good parts are gone for them.
In reply to brandonsmash :
I'm guessing you could go to RacingJunk right now and find a number of reasonably well-sorted track cars with safety already done for less than $10k.
ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) said:One possible solution is to daily a 1/2 ton pickup or larger SUV, then get a trailer. If you remove the requirement for your track car to be street legal, a whole world of inexpensive possibilities opens up. The only real flaw in this argument is that you need a place to store the trailer and the car, which can be quite expensive.
i autocross, time trial, and drift my daily... it's my only car, but backup vehicle is my motorcycle! it can be done successfully.
RonnieFnD said:In reply to bobzilla :
I concur. Slow cars are fun as hell and that's why I have them. Before the chevy sonic I was a neon guy but unfortunately all the good parts are gone for them.
I've been lobbying for years for tracks that are wider and longer than Kart tracks, but shorter straightaways than the big time road-racing tracks. Something like 20-25 turns with multiple configurations and double-digit speeds would be perfect.
In reply to Matt Huffman :
I sent JG and David a response on this topic. I've found the Mazda RX-8 to be a fantastic option. I've had two of them. My current RX-8 is my only car (daily), i bought it for $3,300 in 2019, it still has the original engine, i autocross and time attack competitively, drift for grins, and for very minimal investment it routinely places top 4 raw times at local autocrosses, is somewhat competitive in STX, and has set SCCA Tuner 4 track records. It's super fun to drive, super easy on consumables, extremely reliable. Couldn't be happier.
In reply to ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) :
The floor drop, seat, and harness are not really that expensive. What's expensive is the infrastructure (or nuisance) to then tow a track-only car that's not really suited for street driving.
Besides, I rather like my turbo NB and it's not going anywhere!
In reply to Matt Huffman :
Only with Mazda rotaries is "79k on ORIGINAL engine!" notable as "extremely reliable" and worth bragging about, complete with some weird Spongebob clickbait meme.
Can you imagine Toyota trying to sell a car on that premise? "Our cars are so good they're not likely to require an engine-out repair or replacement before 80,000 miles!"
That reminds me of the classic Dodges that had something like a 30-day manufacturer's warranty.
Matt Huffman said:In reply to Matt Huffman :
I sent JG and David a response on this topic. I've found the Mazda RX-8 to be a fantastic option. I've had two of them. My current RX-8 is my only car (daily), i bought it for $3,300 in 2019, it still has the original engine, i autocross and time attack competitively, drift for grins, and for very minimal investment it routinely places top 4 raw times at local autocrosses, is somewhat competitive in STX, and has set SCCA Tuner 4 track records. It's super fun to drive, super easy on consumables, extremely reliable. Couldn't be happier.
Yeah sorry that's been sitting in my reply pile getting buried by other stuff.
But it is a good point. There are still some good used car track toys out there, but I think increasingly they're becoming the exception rather than the rule. I mean, your car is a great example. Yeah it's awesome and you're getting way more life out of it than they get credit for, but how easy would it be to find another one?
I'm just afraid the days of the $5000 track rat are in the past. All of the E30s and 240SXs and CRXs and Civic Sis have been gobbled up by nostalgia-crazed genXers richer than me, and even if they were still out there they're going to be rolling chicanes at most track days compared to an Elantra N.
the FRS/BRZ are probably the closest thing we have today to a commonly-available solution, but they still need some money thrown at them before they're fully track ready for more than the occasional quick lap. Your RX8 is amazing, and those cars have some of the best steering of any car off the showroom floor I've ever driven, but they're getting rare in general, and ones that aren't ticking timebombs or recently-exploded bombs are rarer still. (I'd still love to have an X-Men edition, though)
If you must have the newest hotness, or even something recent, yeah it can get expensive.
My 8th gen civic was bought with 93,000 miles for $6500 at the peak of pandemic pricing. It's just a 1.8/5 speed coupe. I bought all used parts to make it competitive in H street autocross: Koni sport shocks, big rear sway bar, RPF1 wheels, and a 3 year old set of a06 Yokohama tires, total of another $1000. I did new rotors and pads, and turned 53 laps at the Firm, fastest a 1.31, my first ever track day (not counting all of the horse races). Sure that's slow, but it was really fun.
No, it's not an SI, but it gets 30-36 mpg on regular gas, and serves as my daily.
Raw timing all of the B Street cars at my last autocross.
My son is also running an rx8 he paid $5600 for. No rust, less than 80k miles, and has held up to track days, and autox well.
In reply to JG Pasterjak :
I shall respectfully disagree on the $5000 track rat.
Yes the iconic cars have moved up in price but there are still good deals out there.
When this topic came up I looked online and found 3 cars in the $3500 to $5000 range local to me.
Part of it definitely depends on how much you're willing to think outside of the traditional Miata/BMW/Si/Pony car box. I troll marketplace absolutely every day and I routinely find $5-10k cars that could easily be combo daily/weekend track cars as long as you're not looking to set any records. Also, I maintain that even now there's still a Mustang out there for pretty much any budget, but I'm biased :)
LukeGT said:Part of it definitely depends on how much you're willing to think outside of the traditional Miata/BMW/Si/Pony car box. I troll marketplace absolutely every day and I routinely find $5-10k cars that could easily be combo daily/weekend track cars as long as you're not looking to set any records. Also, I maintain that even now there's still a Mustang out there for pretty much any budget, but I'm biased :)
That's why we are going with a Foxbody Mustang.
One of the guys in the local Camaro club tracks a 5th Gen V6. As soon as I get done with coaching basketball in another month, my 6th Gen V6 will be going that route too. A quick look on several popular used car sites show plenty of 5th and 6th Gens from $5k to $15k, and they have Track Beasts built on their platform, which easily bolt up. 1LE and CTS-V for the 5th Gen, and 1LE's of 4, 6, and 8 cylinder variety, and the ATS-V for the 6th Gen.
There's many versions of track day/race car dedicated cars that don't require a truck and trailer. I towed my track cars with a tow dolly and a cx-5, a Mazdaspeed 3, and a cx-9 before I ever went to a truck and trailer. In CA there are a bunch of folks that flat tow their track cars that I encountered when I lived out there, presumably because they were working around space constraints.
ClearWaterMS said:The average price of a new vehicle in 2023 is $48,759.
How do people do this? Wow.
LukeGT said:Part of it definitely depends on how much you're willing to think outside of the traditional Miata/BMW/Si/Pony car box. I troll marketplace absolutely every day and I routinely find $5-10k cars that could easily be combo daily/weekend track cars as long as you're not looking to set any records. Also, I maintain that even now there's still a Mustang out there for pretty much any budget, but I'm biased :)
Or you can stay firmly in the traditional BMW box, buy any e36/e46 or 1 series for 5k and track it brutally, be faster than any of the "old school" $5k crap boxes, and relatively easy to wrench on.
Inflation exists people. It's a real thing and so comparing $5k car today to a $5k car 5-10 years ago is silliness. Hell go back 30 years in your brain machine and buy a new bmw m3 for nickles if your going to ignore inflation.
In reply to JG Pasterjak :
I'm going to take issue with one phrase you used...."rolling chicanes". As long as the people who are able/willing to spend serious money on their higher powered track day cars think that way ,there will be an atmosphere not welcoming to those in their 108 HP Hyundai Accents, etc. Track days need to accommodate slow cars, too, or remain a haven strictly for top end cars. The fastest growing class in SCCA currently is B-Spec. I think that's an indicator of where the whole track day scene needs to look. There will still be days for the Corvette/Porsche/Ferrari club folks no doubt, and that's fine. Just my two cents as a former four cylinder racer.
In reply to Olemiss540 :
You're definitely right that there are still plenty of BMW's that can still be had in the 5k price range. The issue with those is that they often double in cost by the time you get them up to par in terms of maintenance, to where they're "safely" able to handle a track day.
Kreb (Forum Supporter) said:Boy, my old Lotus 7 replica sounds better and better. Two years, half-a-dozen track days and a dozen autocrosses plus a good deal of backroads flogging, and I went through a fuel pump and gas. Okay, I had to replace a couple items when I ran into stuff, but no other consumables.
Under-appreciated comment right there - With a bit of research and marketplace scouring, one can put together a nice locost7 for fairly cheap, and you can DEFINITELY flat tow/tow dolley one of them w/ a toyota corrolla from the 90's.
Tom1200 said:In reply to JG Pasterjak :
I shall respectfully disagree on the $5000 track rat.
Yes the iconic cars have moved up in price but there are still good deals out there.
When this topic came up I looked online and found 3 cars in the $3500 to $5000 range local to me.
Ditto. I got the last one shut down because of this so I'll leave this as my farewell tour on this topic. There are an absolute metric E36 M3 ton of fun cars for the track, but no one can be bothered to look past "civic si, bmw, miata" blah blah blah. I thought the whole point of any grassroots program was to have fun with what you had at hand and not spend $20k for a starting point.
I can show you how to do it, but I can't make you accept that its real. Mine was also my daily for 2 years before I bought my nice daily. Not because it wasn't a good daily or usable, but because midwest frost heaves and craters are hard on good suspension bits and wheels.
DeadSkunk (Warren) said:In reply to JG Pasterjak :
I'm going to take issue with one phrase you used...."rolling chicanes". As long as the people who are able/willing to spend serious money on their higher powered track day cars think that way ,there will be an atmosphere not welcoming to those in their 108 HP Hyundai Accents, etc. Track days need to accommodate slow cars, too, or remain a haven strictly for top end cars. The fastest growing class in SCCA currently is B-Spec. I think that's an indicator of where the whole track day scene needs to look. There will still be days for the Corvette/Porsche/Ferrari club folks no doubt, and that's fine. Just my two cents as a former four cylinder racer.
and in time attack it's the Grid Life Sundae Cup that started life as Spec Fit. Now it's chock full of silly fun cars like old civics, accords, Mazda 2's, Mini's, fits, and even the oddball Kia.
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