supercaptaincrash

me and a friend are intrested in having a cheap track car for the weekends! please can anyone explain whats needed,can you tow to track witha dolly or gotta be a trailer? do they need tax.mot,ins etc?whats the rough cost of a day as our nearest track would be oulton park or is there anywhere else not to far from the manchester area? sorr for all the questions,but really need some advice! cheers

fordsportjay

iTrader: (6)

most trackdays are during the week due to race meetings at weekends.
a lot of people use their road cars with maybe some different tyres for the track.

be warned-once you start you cant help but keep improving your car to make it more track orientated.

i began with an e36 m3 road car,,,,
uprated the brakes with pads,fluid,hoses. still not up to the job so i went mad with a proper brake set up-awesome.

suspension was ok but room for improvement-so ended up on bilstein coilovers-awesome.

then r888 tyres,then full slicks.....

ended up with a completely stripped out m3 that was awesome on track and was trailered everywhere......oulton park was my local circuit and my car held its own with much more expensive machinery for 20-odd trackdays.............until it threw a rod through the block at 6000rpm in 4th gear on the pit straight!!!

i then gave up due to costs ...... best thing ive done in years and i really miss it

jammerrs

if you plan to trailer it, you dont need mot/tax, needs to be safe though

im not sure on insurance, maybe theres one for track cars only

imo get a half decent car (usually french hatch of any kind for cheapness vs speed (205/172 clio would be my choice)) put in a rollcage (simple 6 point jobby will be fine) buckets harness's and some slicks.

then your safe and fast and dont have to worry about tyres blistering with the heat

you can get 15" and 17" (id go for 15"s) tyres pretty cheap second hand that will be more than up to the job

Drunken Master

If you have a hot hatch or something I'd personally just take it there standard and see what you think, easy track and msv sell trackdays for oulton park all the time. Your lucky as well because your local track is awesome.

If what fordsportjay said it's addictive and you'll soon start wanting to make your car better for track and worse for the road. But personally if your looking for some cheap fun I'd look at buying a clio 172 and stripping it out fitting bucket seats and harnesses and just lowering springs on standard suspention with a few washers here and there and maybe some uprated pads/hoses/fluid and keep it road legal and drive it down. Trailering it will make life easier though if your willing to spend out. But it's alot to spend out if it's not for you. So I would either hire a car and use that first or take your own car and see how you get on.

The only thing is if your used to driving a car with a bit of power you'll soon get fed up of that. I wouldn't use slicks as suggested though for your first days as there not very progressive and if your not used to driving on track you might find it hard to get some heat into them.

supercaptaincrash

Thanks for the advice lads! were thinking about a reno chamade 16v!

Shings

Sod the chamade.

If you're looking for somet cheap but quick get a Zsara VTS/VTR (which ever has the 2.0 16v engine 167bhp and 7200rpm limit) its basically a cheaper version of a 306Gti6 but is unlikely to have been abused as much and is exactly the same geometry and handling wise.

I would do this (and have)

Buy a car - small hot hatch type car - nothing fancy or complicated remember the key word CHEAP and follow it with RELIABLE and then add in FUN

MOT to ensure safety

Tax to drive it on the road - you will want to road test it prior to and after any track days to ensure its ok for a full day and bed in brakes and check any repairs you carry out after track day breakages.

Limited mileage track day insurance from Comp Car Insurance to drive on the road.

Oil cooler c£200 quid to make sure the engine stays in one piece.

The BEST brake pads you can buy
Braided hoses
2nd set of wheels with slicks or semi slick tyres

Change all fluids and give the car a once over and service.

Attend track day.

I have done this a few times now with a 205 Gti Mi16 and also a Clio 172 - which was awesome - drove it to Donno from Brum, abused it all day and drove it home (twice) + 15k road miles in the same year.

No point in doing anything silly.

The car needs to remain cool on track and stop properly. The rest is immaterial until you know you can afford it, do it regularly and most of all enjoy it.

Remember with your 'track car' its likely to be already well into its life so expecting it to stand up to an average of 6x20min sessions of absolute hammer is asking a lot.

There is simply nothing to compare to the abuse in road conditions as you will always have to slow for junctions and corners - as an example in the 15k miles I did in my clio on the road I never once got the PAS fluid to spill out of the reservoir or overheat - 2 sessions on track and it did.

DO NOT BUY AN OLD PIECE OF SHIT AND GO TO A TRACK DAY - IF YOU DONT GET BLACK FLAGGED FOR DRIVING A NAIL YOU'RE LIKELY TO PISS OTHERS OFF IF YOU STOP A SESSION IF YOUR CAR IS UNRELIABLE.


Hope this helps

Jake