delcbr

right wanting a cheap trackday car.budget around 2500 grand narrowed it down to either a subaru turbo or an mx5 which i know are fun and unburstable. or any other reliable suggestions.integra too dear.106 gti too much maintenance.

my question is this is the subaru likely to cost an arm and a leg if used on track and are things likely to go wrong or do i opt for an mx5?

also 3 of us are going to chip in to buy the car for some fun and to keep the costs down.the problem is do i trailer the car(still to buy trailer).or does one of us insure it to drive to the track and back. anyone else done the above or do we get a cheap westfield type of thing instead and trailer it up.any advice for us novices appreciated .

Ian

iTrader: (10)

a m8 of mine has got a 5 gtt car for sale, that has been striped out, lots of sparis etc etc, think he is only looking for £600 for the lot as well

Ant

if you want something cheap to maintain then a impreza would be out the question,

All honesty something like a VTS or GTI would be my bet you can get them really cheap get some throttle bodies and cams on it and you'll have a decent track weapon and hell of alot cheaper to fix then a impreza.


I wouldnt insure to go on the road a trailer to hire is about £35 quid. And then you can get away with putting slicks on and not messing round with tyre changes

s70rjw

iTrader: (2)

Get something already prepped. Mate of mine bought a 16v Clio, caged, spare wheels, tyres, adjustable suspension, uprated braked for £1200. Several trackdays at Ty Croes later he flogged it for the same price and bought an Elise 111S.
Have you consudered a 16v Renault 19? They handle very well.

delcbr

looking at mx5 tomorrow.
french stuff are good on track but cant be fooked with the things that go wrong.

Wish

iTrader: (2)

We had the same dilemma as you. I looked at lots of options.
If you went with a road car you will be wanting to change this almost straight away.

I was looking for a track car for the wife, we looked at 206 GTi's Clio's 172's all kinds of things.
Ended up buying a very clean and tidy Mini Challenge car... She loves it, as do I as the car has all the safety options fitted.
Now shes talking about racing it next year in the Challenge Series...

Finding a decent car trailer was the real problem ..... most I looked at were around 3 yrs old and feked .... Bought a new Brian James in the end after an offer was rejected for a 3 yr old one when a offer of £300 less than its new price was rejected.

davyboy

Pick 2 from the options below:

Cheap
Fast
Reliable

Impossible to have all 3.

Leslie

Although a Scooby would be great once you have the bump steer and understeer sorted, it would be a seriously expensive problem if No 3 big end let go as can happen with a highly tweaked engine which has been detonating.

I would certainly go for something with a very tough motor and good handling to suit. The MX5 sounds a good bet to me.

Les

delcbr

hi bought an mx5 today its a mk1 1997 1.8 found out it was cat d when i got there so got it for 1500 notes.Mazda : 1997 P Red MX5 Mk1 Great Condition
wont be a problem since its being solely used on track.

mamoon2

I'm glad you posted this thread as i've just decided to get a track car too for me and the missus, with exactly same budget. Hadn't thought of MX5, are these good on the track?

Does anybody know much about the 205 GTi 1.9?

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

205 1.9's are damn expensive for their age, your better off with a 306 GTI-6 or a 309 GTi which are both cheaper (though the GTI-6 will be as much fun and has a great engine )
They all suffer similar problems, but the 306 is probably the easier to repair due to the car still being quite popular, 205's are pushing 15 years old for one of the last ones, others are 20+ (they started in about 85/86 for the 1.9's, 82 for the 1.6's 105bhp version).
Rear beams for all pugs, the bearings in these go, fairly cheap to fix, well if you call 2-300 quid fairly cheap), heater matix's are a killer, they just go pop, cooling systems (the rads really suck) are naff, uprated alloy rad is about 120 quid, brakes on the GTI-6's are really good and the gearboxes are pretty robust also.

Tony

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I will second that, spent a brilliant day at Anglesey circuit with RHH (Simon) off here, him and his mate have an MX5 each, one still road legal and one not, I was passenger for a fair few laps, managed as well to grab a few laps in an Evo, lovely and very capable but I was itching to get back in the MX5's, 1600 cc being revved to death, the Evo was obviously faster but didnt feel it due to its relative refinement.

I think if you want to do it relatively cheaply then stay away from anything too powerful, the ones that were blowing coolant out tended to be the faster one, on the road you dont get the chance to do so much wide open throttle operation as you do on the track, a track day is like a years fast driving condensed into about 7 hours without much chance to cool down, if you break it after two hours you have wasted most of the day you paid for and all that arsing about trailering the thing there, so relaibility is key which is where the little mazda seems to excel.