Adidas

I was at the auctions this morning, a Sierra 4 x 4 went through for £350. It was in reasonable condition with just under 100k on the clock.

Got me thinking, a good size engine with 4 wheel drive. Strip it out and put big brakes on.

Surely it'll make an adequate track day car?

Your thoughts please

B9GLY

would be adequate but i would get a pug 205 gti or a mk11 golf gti, just as cheap to buy and will be more fun!

Torpid

Not suitable. Why would you want four wheel drive for track work?

Adidas

Already got the Pug , the Golf could be a possibility

It was just a thought, 4 wheel drive does have better traction on the road (notwithstanding rubbish tyres)

Torpid

4 wheel drive does have better traction. In my experience you don't want 'good' traction or too much grip on track, the exact opposite in fact.

Andy M3

It's a bit old, and not much of a racer. My mate had one that he bought for £100, never serviced it and abused it all the time, both on and off the road. I think the floor pan dropped out after a while, which was the end of that.

So robust is a word i would use. With 60/40 split on the AWD it drove like a RWD with traction if you know what i mean??? Could make a good one but might be expensive to find modded bits. The french stuff is cheap cheap cheap and possibly a better option, but i see where you are coming from

RedScoob

The 2.8 is seriously underpowered and the 2.9 isn't much better. The 4x4 system is agricultural (and that's being kind....). Fuel consumption is abysmal and the handling is a bit vaigue for a four wheel drive chassis. On the plus side, they do have comfy seats - If you're ready for a retirement home....
4/10 - could do better.

Audibummer

Audi make great track cars

stilover

They both had 150BHP.

Mike123

On paper......

RedScoob

Yeah. Right.

TopBanana

You want RWD for the track, preferably not FWD and especially not 4WD

logiclee

The later versions with a cat only made 145bhp.

The 2.9 Cologne engine had more torque over a much wider rev band than the old 2.8.

I owned a couple back in the early 90's when they first came out, they were good in their day but I wouldn't recommend one as a fun track day car.

Cheers
Lee

Adidas

Thanks for your comments guys

astraboy

Quoted for the truth.
The tyres i got for my Volvo 340 drift car are so abysmal that its bordering on being dangerous However, when you have a car thats this underpowered and you want to play, they are just what the doctor ordered. Well, after you inflate them to 80 psi that is
astraboy.

TopBanana

Astraboy, defender of the truth, guardian of the faith!

billythekid

There was an XR4x4 RR shootout recently for one of the fast ford type mags. Cant remember which mag sorry. Any way most in standard trim put out approx 140bhp. Not a lot you can do the the engine really thats cheap, airbox, light port, exhaust will see 160bhp and thats it. If you are going to spend £2k+ you might as well go the proven route which is twin turbo charging for about 300bhp. Anyway I digress. When I first started doing track days in the late 90s one guy I knew ran a sierra xr4x4 2.9 and TBH it was fine. Quite light with all the interior stripped and in wet conditions it was quite handy. Must have ran it for a good 3 years from what I remember, cheap, parts easy to source and fairly reliable. Dont expect to be keeping up with modern cars but if you want cheap fun its an OK choice. Would also consider a good 205 GTi or 106. Dont forget to add on the price of a good roll cage and seat / belts.

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Adidas

That's what I was thinking

As already mentioned, I've got the Pug, so I'm quite used to be the slowest thing out on track

Thanks for your views

B9GLY

why not speend some more money on your pug then???

rb5_336

Even standard 205's are fast on track relative to more expensive machinery. TVR Gary puts in very good 'Ring times on a fairly standard car.

If your slow look at your driving ability, easy to improve with tuition.

Here's my 205, goes rather well round the track. Who say's FWD isnt fast or fun round a track eh!



Sean
track-monkey.co.uk

sti-04!!

There sh!te on track to be honest, i used to run a 2.9 xr4x4 at Knockhill, ended up shoving some laughing gas into the ****** & well .......................
The block was history

Adidas

Guy's,

I'm comparing the 205 out on track with Scoobs running 300bhp+, 911's, Evo's and alike, therefore it will be slow. TBH I have loads of fun in it, if I crash, smash or blow it up it really doesn't matter. If I wanted to go faster then I'd take the Scoob .

As for throwing money into the Pug, I've have it nearly 2 years and am getting a tad bored with it.

The whole point of this thread was to enquire if a CHEAP, 4 wheel drive medium sized engined Sierra would be any good. The general opinion seems to be that it won't.

scooby222

one of my mates is just finishing off one of these as a fun day car, he got it for about a 100 quid then put it on a crash diet- threw away everything bar the engine and running gear and stuck them into a stripped out caged talbot sunbeam