Trackday car choice

I know you excluded consumables, but I know the zo6 is way way more expensive in this area than a Miata. I'd rather do more events.

A used stock car from racingjunk.com. They're less than $15k, and you can spend $10k on a truck and trailer rental, and another $5k on consumables.

G_Body_Man wrote: A used stock car from racingjunk.com. They're less than $15k, and you can spend $10k on a truck and trailer rental, and another $5k on consumables.

I don't know if that's a good idea or not, but man is love to find out.

In reply to ShadowSix:

R&T ran a few around a road course, but only described it in an editorial column, as they didn't have enough pages for the feature. The likened it to "shooting fish in a barrel, only the barrel is a glass of water and the gun is a howitzer."

Keith Tanner wrote: You can drive a Spec Miata on the street, although they're not great street cars. But good enough to drive to/from the track. If you run the Toyo RA1, you don't even need to change tires.

You can flat tow those with just about anything that weighs 3500 and has 200hp. I'm a fan of dedicated race cars.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1959-Devin-Healey-283-/141702931967?forcerrptr=true&hash=item20fe2725ff&item=141702931967

Do that and be the coolest guy at your next track day. :) Plus you can vintage race it all day long.

Like everyone else I'll tell you to get Miata but many cars will go round a track all day long.

Some cars will tolerate more abuse than others, Miatas tolerate huge amounts of abuse which is why we like them so much. Once upon a time I raced a Showroom Stock Miata, I put the race tires on the night before the event drove to the track flogged the snot out of it and drove home. I raced it and used it as a daily driver for 2 years, when it aged out of Showroom Stock I used it as a daily for another 3 years. Including what I sold it for I was out a whopping 3K for 5 years of ownership.

I instruct at various track days, mostly Porsche and I've driven loads of different cars from bland econoboxes to a 7 figure Ferrari. I have also raced some pretty fast single seaters and so take my word for it when I say THE most "fun" car you will ever drive on the track is a Miata.

The other plus for a Miata is if you are in one you'll be spared the indignity of having some fiend in one come bombing past your 911 Z06 M3 (pick one) or some other much more expensive car.

OK I'll admit to being petty and small but there is also the great joy of being the fiend in the Miata passing all those "real cars" with the hairdresser mobile.

For the record 911 Z06 M3 are fine cars and drive fantastically well it's just that a Miata is so cheap to run.

Tom

bmw88rider wrote: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1959-Devin-Healey-283-/141702931967?forcerrptr=true&hash=item20fe2725ff&item=141702931967 Do that and be the coolest guy at your next track day. :) Plus you can vintage race it all day long.

I change my answer...This! Logic and rational thought be damned.

I vote BMW E36 (6cyl) or Porsche 944

I've tracked my '98 M3 a bit & have been very pleased.

As an instructor who has ridden mostly in slower cars that really harass faster, more expensive cars my suggestions would be Miata or BMW 3 series. Learn to drive either of these well and you'll amaze people. Momentum cars are by far the best teachers out there. Corvettes and their ilk tend to not make the best tools for a beginner. My 'best of both worlds' choice would be E36 M3 BMW; good power, great handling, tremendous aftermarket support, readily available for affordable money to anyone and welcome at marque events as well as normal clubs. Spend the remainder on consumables and LOTS of track time.

What he said.

Buy nice M3, 95-99. Do complete maintenance, replace water pump and radiator. Add oil cooler and coilovers, race pads and lines. Headers, larger MAF, intake, exhaust... Strip interior and Kirk roll bar. You will have a street legal car that will make you smile. We no have 8 M3 in our track group. They are relatively bulletproof. Parts are available and cheap compared to anything starting with P. You'd have money left over for a tow vehicle and trailer

I considered an E36 M3, but when I added up the costs of fixing all of its common weak points, it got into the thousands of dollars, many days of work and a bunch of welding that I didn't have the tools to do.

I went with an RX8 instead. It's numerically similar to the M3 (power, weight, size, etc), but is on average about a decade newer, fits bigger tires (275's fit easily), has bigger brakes (12.7" front), a 6 speed transmission, has dual A arms front, multi-link rear suspension that's fully adjustable for alignment, the bushings and cooling system age much better and they depreciate like crazy, so are a deal used. GRM had a good buyer's guide and tech tips in past issues to consult, but the 2009 and later cars are the ones to get, as they fixed a few weak points the car had. Consumables are quite inexpensive too. There's no inexpensive power to be found by the aftermarket, but to me that's also a plus, as I'm not tempted to spend money on it.

For basic track prep I gave mine (a 2010 R3) a more aggressive alignment, added HP+ pads and high temp brake fluid, water temp, oil temp and oil pressure gauges, installed a catless mid pipe, as track use will seriously shorten cat life and that's about it. It handled the track use perfectly. I later added coilovers, bigger sway bars, DTC-60 pads and 255/40/17 NT01's on 17x9 wheels, which fit nicely in the back seat. I did some sealing around the stock coolers and did some work to improve airflow to and from them and I can hammer on it all session long without any temperature issues.