Lexus track day car
 

Hi all, my current daily hack is a Lexus is200. It's in very good nic, engine is strong etc. Now, I'm ready to get a new motor and prices of these things now are pretty much worthless. I'm thinking of stripping this out and using as a track day car. I personally think it would be a pretty good if it shed quite a few pounds. 2.0 straight 6, rear wheel drive. Plus, would give me something to 'tinker' with at the weekends, and slowly build my own little track car for a bit of fun. Only thing I'm uncertain is, do I go balls out and make it not road legal, or keep it within MOT restrictions:idea: I need to look in to what I can and cannot remove to keep it road legal. Obviously I will be removing rear seats etc. Has anyone here got a road legal track car, if so can you shed some light on what can and cannot be done?

Road legal is very nice for a track day car, as it means you can do on the road testing. I'm not talking about high speed runs through town, but just to make sure that e.g. the clutch works as it should, that no bits fall off it etc etc. Imagine turning up at an expensive track day only to not go on track because something simple isn't working.

On the other hand, you have to pay for insurance, tax and MOT if it's to be kept road legal.

Re shedding weight, you can definitely get rid of all interior, sound deadening etc, and swap the side and rear windows for plastic. I'd start there myself, as at least it's cheap.

Anything that you remove that is part of the test will just be noted as "unable to test". So long as they can open all the doors and bonnet as normal you should be ok. Obviously you will need to keep things like washer bottle, horn, lights (for Day time MOT) to pass.

I would remove the seats, all carpet etc, boot carpet, spare wheel, roof lining and any other basic bits of trim like radio and glove box.

To start with I would leave AC pump and associated bits. It can be nice to have AC when needed esp if you are driving there and back.

I would also leave stock glass for now, but look at Perspex when you can.

Of course you need to seriously consider roll cage, probably a brake upgrade and once you have pulled 2-300kg of crud out of the thing you will probably need new springs - ideally new shocks too.

You will want a decent drivers seat with 4 point harness.

Vauxhall did a Vectra Super Touring or something in years gone by which was basically the same thing. They were just stripped and I think they used them at Donnington in the late 90s as tuition cars. Went quite well IIRC.

Oh and use caution around the air bags.

haha, yes I'm a bit nervous regarding the air bags. I'm assuming it will still pass an MOT without airbags then? Don't mind throwing a few quid at it regarding brakes etc, after all its giving me something to do in my spare time. Just want to build something fun for a few track days, rather than let the scrap man have it - it's too good for that.

Have a look on outlawjapclub ,,, they do all sorts of stuff with these lexus and you might also shift any parts you strip from it there

I had an is200 a few years ago ,,, loved the looks but so slow and pants to drive ,, cant imagine even a stripped out one would be that much fun on a track with a standard engine tbh but as you say itll be fun finding out

Strange that, I had one a few years ago too and quite liked it, thought it was ok for what it was, a bit of a barge in the twisties and not desperately fast but quite fun and controllable, sat on the autobahn at 140mph (on the clock) way better than the Audi'e and BMW's which were skipping and bouncing around, it did ok around the ring too, with a portable air conditioner in the boot too.:lol1:

I think a stripped out one with some stiffer springs would be fun on track and probably not that slow either as mine used to hustle along once moving and in the vvti zone or what ever it's called.

Don't fancy your fuel bill much though if your caning it they don't half like a drink when your ragging the tits of em.

Maybe because i got an is300 afterwards which a totally different animal and real fun to drive ,, tbh i just think of the 200s as a waste of a bodyshell tbh ,, they should just of made them all 3 litres