Winter Daily / Summer Track Day Car? Options?

Yes, another help suggest a car thread. A recent charity lapping day at VIR has really started the itch to get back out on the track again. I'm limited to one garage bay (wife will let me buy toys, but will not give up her garage spot) at the current house.

• Currently daily an E46 M3 convertible, which I really enjoy as a summer driver, and great to take the family up into the mountains, go for ice cream, etc.
• Have had everything from MGB V8, a Midget, 318ti with M52, etc
• I raced a Reynard FF for a couple of years, and that is my only track experience. That was lots of fun, but not looking to get back into that level of expense (tow vehicle, trailer, etc) at this point in time
• I am pretty confident in my wrenching skills and like to tinker, I've done engine swaps, a nut-and-bolt on the FF, learning the basic's of INPA, etc.
• We don't get significant snow here in Raleigh, and if the weather is too bad, I'll take my wife's AWD SUV into the office
• I am not planning to wheel-to-wheel race the car at this stage. Just run a few track day / HPDE events per year

My thought is to buy another vehicle to use as my DD in the winter, put the M3 away, and then swap the winter DD into "track mode" for the summer months. I don't mind spending a weekend switching the seats, installing a bolt-in roll-bar, etc twice a year.

My desire in this car:

• Something of reasonable weight. The M3 is fun, the one time I had it on a track it seemed extremely heavy, but maybe that is because my only track experience has been in an FF
• Something with decent aftermarket parts support, including race parts, roll-bar, etc. I don't want to have to run to a dealership every time I need a part.
• Must be capable of installing roll bar / with harness bars. I put the FF into a wall once early on when I wasn't wearing a HANS and swore to myself, I'd never go back on track without one. Your neck is REALLY flexible :-(
• Preferably less than $10k with track updates, obviously less is better domestically, plus I don't want to track anything so expensive that I would feel too bad if I balled it up into a wall
• Manual transmission, I get my flappy paddle gearbox fix with my M3

The best I can come up with currently is a Mini Cooper S. Your thoughts?

Thanks!

E36 M3 or a normal e46 seems to be the most recent answers around here.

The answer is always: Miata.

Where do you live? Do they salt the roads? I did the year round DD and track toy with a previous Miata. I even swapped suspensions. Never again. The salt ate at the car and the nuts and bolts underneath. It made working on it miserable. But if you're in an area without salt and little snow, it might be OK.

Another E46 so you have parts interchangeability. Nothing like being able to pull spares for one car off the other when you're troubleshooting or just really want one of them to run. :)

Miata is probably the easy/cheap button. While I like NAs enough to buy four of them over the years, I find them too cramped once I've got race seats and a roll bar in them.

If you don't mind FWD, I'd also take something like a decent Civic Si into consideration, if you can find something that's not been completely riced to death.

RX-8 or S2000.

8th-gen Civic Si. They are really good.

Not Mini Cooper S. Our 2011 is currently the bane of my existence.

Thanks for the responses so far.

To answer a few questions:

1. While salt is occasionally present in the Raleigh area, it is typically very short lived in comparison to the places up North I have lived. Pre-storm brining seems to be more common. Sand is a rarity.
2. Since my E46 M3 is already a convertible, I'm leaning towards a coupe.
3. The RX8 did come to mind, as a possible solution. I reread the recent GRM article last night. However, after just a short period on-line, it seems that high mileage RX8 engines are few and far between, and many were replaced under warranty at 50k miles which is concerning. However, that would get the check the owning a wankel engine off my automotive bucket list.
4. Unevolved - What don't you like about your Mini Cooper S?
5. Another E36 or E46 could be a possibility. However, my short time on the track with my E46 M3, was not pleasant. It seemed to under-steer horribly. From a bit of research tho, that could be partially fixed by going to a square tire set-up. I suspect the DWS tires were not helping much either. My track experience is non-existent in anything but my old FF, which is obviously a much different experience so I don't have anything street car related to compare it to.

Something lightweight and balanced. I don't have a lot of track experience either but on my first outing this summer I followed a E46 M3 for most of a 20 minute session. He had good tires and great straight line acceleration but his brakes were toast within 10 minutes.

A Miata (what I was in) might not be your cup of tea but some of it's bigger siblings are likely what you want. The RX-8 tracks well and when the motor pops just swap in another one.

KyAllroad wrote: A Miata (what I was in) might not be your cup of tea but some of it's bigger siblings are likely what you want. The RX-8 tracks well and when the motor pops just swap in another one.

Give the old one to me.

What's the thought on the RX8 motor? Is it as fragile long term as it's reputation online? The fear mongering on some online car forums sometimes amuses me. If I believed everything in the E46 forums, my E46 M3 would have a broken SMG, cracked sub-frame, and blown up VANOS as some think that every one of those items happens simultaneously at exactly 100k miles

The RX8 motor seems to be good for about 100k if treated properly, at least that's based on the ones I've looked at out here. There's plenty of scope for shortening their lifespan but if you look after them properly, keep the oil topped up and make sure the coils etc don't go bad, you'll get a lot more miles out of them than most people. IME (I've owned a few RX7s) the big issue with rotaries is finding someone competent to work on them.

Re the Cooper S, I was talking to one of the guys at the shop I take the Porsche to (which is one of the few consistently trustworthy shops around here). They also do BINIs and BMWs, and when I talked to him about a Cooper S as a dual use car he suggested that in a budget similar to yours, the R53 wasn't a bad buy, but would advise against the R56 as they've seen a lot more problems with the R56s.

Porsche 944, Nissan 350Z, C4 or C5 Corvette

Yeah, a 350Z - specifically a 350Z "Track" seems like it would be a good tool for the job here. Other option - Boss 302 or Camaro 1LE.

wake74 wrote: 4. Unevolved - What don't you like about your Mini Cooper S?

While we were moving, it sat under cover for about 4 weeks without being driven. Since that time, we've had a coil go out (understandable, it happens) and it has somehow developed a misfire under load that I can NOT narrow down. Even BMW specific scanner apps can't find a useful code other than "misfire."

I've talked to some BMW techs, and they agree these problems happen, but no one has a good solution for me. So now I'm pressure testing the intake tract just to rule out a boost leak before I start getting even more in depth. Can't sell it until I fix it.

Devilsolsi wrote: C4 Corvette

The C4 Corvette is an interesting option. Aerodynamically they are amazing, the chassis under them is actually excellent, and because they have a small block Chevy they can be made to make power easy. Also, because nobody wants them, they are real cheap. The downside is that they suck ergonomically and have awful interiors and the styling is polarizing.

Thanks for the continued input. A 350Z is an interesting option. I need to explore that one further to see what type of track enthusiast following there is.

The C4 vette is out just based upon styling, which is not my taste. Although that's a lot of easy HP for the money.

wake74 wrote: The C4 vette is out just based upon styling, which is not my taste. Although that's a lot of easy HP for the money.

Yeah, the styling is certainly dated. I'm not a fan either, but if I was going to make a track machine, it'd be a solid base.

wake74 wrote: Thanks for the continued input. A 350Z is an interesting option. I need to explore that one further to see what type of track enthusiast following there is. The C4 vette is out just based upon styling, which is not my taste. Although that's a lot of easy HP for the money.

I know on the 370 brake cooling was an issue for track use. Not sure if the 350 is the same way.

I was never a C4 fan, but they have actually been growing on me.

Devilsolsi wrote:

wake74 wrote: Thanks for the continued input. A 350Z is an interesting option. I need to explore that one further to see what type of track enthusiast following there is. The C4 vette is out just based upon styling, which is not my taste. Although that's a lot of easy HP for the money.

I know on the 370 brake cooling was an issue for track use. Not sure if the 350 is the same way. I was never a C4 fan, but they have actually been growing on me.

The brakes weren't as bad on these. But I recall that they had issues with oil temps. They would get hot in short order and go into reduced power. Big oil cooler was pretty much necessary for track use.

Lots of craigslist window shopping as of late, thanks to the ideas above. Would something like a WRX also work for a winter DD / summer track toy? I haven't found much in the way of stock WRX's with decent miles for sub-10k. A lot of them seem to scream to me, I had money for an oil change, or some new gadget from Harry's, and I chose poorly.

In reply to wake74:

They would definitely work for the DD and the winter driver part. I know there are some issues with oiling systems on extended track use and something about ring lands. As much as I like these cars, I have honestly never looked into them too much. Did drive a 2012 STi Sedan with a Perrin intake, Perrin full exhaust and a Cobb Accessport and it was a total riot to drive though.