Salutations,

Right, 1st world ‘what would you get’ thread on second car for track and road use.

Parameters;
1. £25k and under.
2. Lighter weight rather than a bigger engine.
3. Doesn’t have to be new. Indeed simpler then better to enable tinkering.
4. Not heavily reliant on electronics to make it work.
5. Can be either FWD, RWD or 4WD.
6. Minimumn 1 seat!
7. Extra points for quirkyness – the BTCC Volvo Estate was brilliant.

So, those of us who like powered speed as well, what would you go for?

A Locost Seven would certainly tick the ‘tinkering’ box.

Please keep it on topic.

Should have added – assume 50 / 50 split between track use and road use. Bear in mind it will be driven to the track.

It would also be good to use it for going to things like the Le Mans 24hr etc…

Depends how left field you want to go and how much work you want to put in.

Track day cars are great fun but there is always someone with more money making their car faster. Either joins the arms race abd get something like the Caterham 620 or change the rules.

I am doing a BMW conversion which is well within your budget. Look at the mock up at the bottom of the first page of this thread : http://www.madabout-kitcars.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4253

For the money you are talking you could get the M engined version which would be properly rapid. It would look great and generate far more interest than just another Seven. Spend some of the money on handling improvements and you are laughing. Great for Le Mans too.

Just a thought…

don’t go locost 7 if you have a proper budget. i’m sure there are some good ones out there, but…
you can pick up a great caterham for 15k or so and it sounds like it would tick all the boxes. get intrusion bars on it though…
take a look at blatchat.

Ariel Atom.

Id be tempted by a morgan three wheeler, they look so fun and not ‘tryhard’

the default le mans cars when I went were TVR’s, fine a good one of them?

Nissan 350z? A lot cheaper than £25k, pretty low on electric gadgetry so just and engine, 2 seats and a lovely noise when you stamp on the pedal.

2CV…… no seriously.

what about this thing?
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/ultima/all-models/ultima——1997/1689781

Id be tempted by a morgan three wheeler, they look so fun and not ‘tryhard’

Really? 😯

lotus elise

Must.
Not.
Look.
At.
Blatchat.

nrrgh!

Get a test drive in a Caterham. I absolutely loved mine, which I used as my main car all year round. Mine was a standard tune 1.8 Rover K. It took a very long time before I felt I could use more power. Any Superlight will be bloody exciting I can assure you. An R400 or R500 would be a liability in my opinion.

I wouldn’t bother with an SV – part of the joy is squeezing into it, so unless you’re pretty big the standard shape is best. On the other hand being tall and/or portly will make it extremely difficult even to get in with the hood up. They are ridiculously low – you can put your hand flat on the tarmac without reaching down and they pass straight under most car park barriers. The six speed is essential and huge fun; six speeds in the normal range of four so you can snick up and down the box just for the fun of it.

I really really wish I still had mine!

There’s a reason why 7esque cars are popular on track and that is because they are so well suited to it.
Take any tintop on track and without serious upgrades you could be looking at new tyres and brakes after a day (or less).
With that sort of budget i’d be looking at something like a Caterham R400. But beware…..it’s a slippery slope of upgraditus and before you know it you’ll be wanting more power, more carbon, you’ll “lose” your doors and windscreen etc.
btw i’m biased….

Spa by VX Jon, on Flickr

WCA – Nice

I have a big soft spot for the Phantom Vortex GTR http://www.pistonheads.com/roadtests/doc.asp?c=112&i=5285 but am not sure if it’s still going – although it’s a bit more GT than Sports.

Intusion bars on a Seven (regardless of make) I agree are imperative.

If truth be told, I’d happily get an R8 as, imho, they are lush (yes I said ‘lush’ move on). It’s a bit pricey though and part of me would like to not spend that much.

I would, however, also like something to get my hands dirty. Locost Seven would be my preference for a Seven simply because I’d like to build from scratch.

I had thought of getting a couple of mk1 Golf GTis. One to be totally original and one to be ‘modded’.

Liking the TVR – there’s a nice silver Tuscon for sale down the road at the moment. 350T would be nicer though.

Not bothered about being the fastest it’s about enjoying the drive.

Keep ’em coming. Anyone have an MX-5?

I driven a couple of Caterham Sevens on the track. Yes, awesome. Great picture, really shows the steepness.

Morgan 3-wheeler is cool. I prefer the Plus Four though 😉

Z-cars Mini?

You’d get a well sorted Westfield well inside that budget. Useless as a car to do anything normal in but great fun and opens superb affordable track day options up to you.

Don’t know how they’d be on a track, not being its primary purpose, but I think the Toyota GT86/Subaru BRZ come in at about £25000, and they get decent write ups.

Def a Caterham.

Easy to maintain and look after yourself, massive following, lots of forums/advice, good spares, Lightweight, RWD Fun.

I had a go on track in a Toyota engined Elise recently, very nice but would probably get a Caterham R300 given the choice

Definitely a Se7en – but I would say that as I built a Locost in 2003 and I’m still driving and tinkering and loving every minute 🙂

Depending on how tall you are Caterhams can be a bit of a squeeze. I took an arial atom around a track once and it was great, went hooning past the supercars etc, but based on looks I’d go for a Caterham.

Aerial Atom – good call. Can add a further purpose for the winter riding gear!

Although posting on STW and running my own business I am not a powerfully built director. 5’8″ but 15-stone.

S1 Elise with a Honda K20 conversion? 800kg, 240bhp @ 9000rpm. Probably enough. Friend of mine is starting to do the kits.

I ran a Wesfield Megabusa on track for about 10years it was brilliant.

I ended up turboing it because of the above “Arms Race” So it ended up 330BHP and 480Kg

It was mental, the pic of Spa really reminded me of the trips we used to do. Met a lot of good friends because of that car 🙂

So yeah unless you want to go wings and slicks a 7 type car is going to give you the best smiles on track if you want to go fast.

Mate who used to run a similar car to me now runs an E36 328 BMW Coupe. Its mostly stripped out and runs coil over shocks etc. He loves it and he can drive it too the track and back. I used to trailer the Westfield as it was god awful on the road 🙂

Don’t know how they’d be on a track, not being its primary purpose, but I think the Toyota GT86/Subaru BRZ come in at about £25000, and they get decent write ups.

I read a review once that said the boot was the exact size of 4 wheels and a trolley jack and was designed that way. I reckon it would be an awesome track car. Won’t be the fastes though if that bothers you.
Have you seen the elk test video? Ace.

I’ve always wanted a caterham though, since I was at school.

I used to trailer the Westfield as it was god awful on the road

Liking the S1 Elise / Honda combo too.

What about some sort of Dutch cargo bike?

I used to track my 1987 944 turbo. Great car but I was too worried about being too hard on it to really give it 100%. And if I did give it 100% is was so fast if I got into trouble it would get very messy and expensive. After a few years I came to the conclusion you’re better off with something cheap so if you stack it you just replace it and you’ve not got much invested in it. So a small hot hatch would be perfect for fun, such as an old Clio Sport, Saxo VXR, something of that ilk. They’re dirt cheap, can be driven to the track (trailering is a pain), reasonably fast but not so that you can’t push them hard (which is where the fun is, rather than a powerfull car that you can’t push to the limit), and handles well. The people put on track aren’t the lawyers in their GT3’s, its the people who bring their old bangers along and thrash the living daylights out of them. They’re faster than the GT3 boys too who tend to tip-toe round for a few laps.

Looking at your requirements then a 7 is a very good choice, if you want a few more creature comforts then Elise. I’ve driven both and whilst the 7 is outstanding fun per £ the Elise will be more practical to the extent you care.

I would have suggested a used Porsche Cayman but for 50% track use you’d probably generate some decent sized maintenance bills. The car works fine with the electronics off 8)

A Subi WRX could be a lot of fun with a few mods and you can put the bike in …

Bike goes in the Black Box.

The Beast is a lot of fun on the track – booked Oulton Park for the 8th of Novemeber today – but in reality it’s got more grip than power so…..

Have considered fitting a 1.4TSi lump to the Beast for a, cheaper tax and b, more power but I digress.

Hhhmmmm Elise.

Weirdly, I had thought of a 944 Turbo.

Bmw m3. The end

Renault Clio With cup chassis
Renault Megane 265 Cup
Focus RS
New Fiesta with Mountune upgrade
Honda S2000
GT86
Z4M
Cayman 3.4s
911 996 Turbo

There’s a lime green Focus RS for sale at one of the local garages 😀

For a lot less than 25k you could have a stunning classic track day mini (go speak to Dave at SH Engineering and get a miglia spec race engine). Still used by one of the instructors at Croft to show the GT3 guys how fast you can actually go.

Or how’s about Rowan Atkinson’s Lancia Delta Integrale 😯

Whatever you get will always be a compromise.

Buy a ‘normal’ car (with towbar), car trailer and a proper track day car – eg ex-racer.

Original Mini. Yeah!

Honda engined Elise, or Ultima GTR sound like good shouts!

Probably get an S2000 with V8 LS1 conversion for under that budget…..