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Recommend me something fun for track days sub £750


djoptix

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MG ZS is a good call, plenty of them still about for cheap. Basically an Integra Type-R with a v6 innit.

Doubt there are any £750 Primera GTs anymore, unless they're a week away from a spectacular MOT corrosion fail.

Maybe a stripped out SW20 MR2? Just avoid the rare 3S-FE 130bhp base model. 

Stripped out 3-series diesel on cherry sounds good. Tricky if you can't trailer it though, they love a spot check at race track entrances.

MX5 is an obvious choice but they are popular for a reason. They did a low power (90ish bhp) mk1 around the p-reg so be careful of them - i think manual windows was one of the tell tale signs? Mk3s are nowhere near as good and were getting as rusty as mk2s, despite being half their age.

Most Rwd cars worth a damn have either been drifted to oblivion, over priced by the same fraternity or are now bona fide classics- not like the old days where you could pick up an XR4i, Manta or S13 200SX and have change from £700.

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I’d assume you’d be trailering it to and from the track. Could be a bit tricky if whatever you buy shits itself spectacularly at an event. I’d also guess that MG ZS is in the dire straights if it’s been on the track and now he’s flogging it for £500. 

Whatever you buy make sure it’s up to the job of being driven hard. So called ‘sporty’ cars like an Astra SRI or whatever won’t last long with abuse. Budget for some sets of track tyres, changing the brakes, wheel bearings, possibly bushes, fluids etc as it’ll need to be top notch to withstand a hammering. Whatever it is will need to be good mechanically, a few full bore take offs will see off a clutch in an old banger. 

Basically what I’m saying is if you spend £750 on a car for this use, expect to spend another £750 getting it ready for some hard use. 

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Cars I have driven on track days:

Saab 99Turbo

Saab 900 Turbo

Saab 9000 Turbo

Volvo 740 Turbo

AC Cobra

Aerial Atom

All have been road cars with zero prep. The Cobra is limited by noise limits and the fear I have of stacking a quarter mil so has only been used once and probably not again on track. The others - brilliant fun. The Atom was a friends, and the least fun. Any body can drive a track orientated car quickly on track. Two hundred quids worth of Volvo, there is a real challenge. Buy a cheap old road car and enjoy it would be my advice, the satisfaction of a quick lap in something unsuitable is incomparable.

Not helping am I? :-)

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Been looking into this a bitmyself. For that budget as has been said MG ZS, Celica (probably a 140), MR2, pug 306/206 gti or puma 1.7 are all good shouts. It's worth spending a bit more and getting something that someone else has spent all the money prepping. Recently saw a fully preped 172, complete with coilovers, cage, bucket seats, carbon fibre door panels, engine mods etc go for not much more than £2500...

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+1 for the ZS although they are getting fragile, mine is awaiting spanner time on a dry weekend.

I did like the idea of a Suzuki Ignis Sport, not a tarmac shredding monster but a light chuckable scrabble wagon that eats wheel bearings, only one on Autotrader but it has purple wheels and a glowing knob, I may have missed that boat.

 

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Many good ideas here chaps, thank you, here's a summary reply to all of them!

  • @robthedonkey the 75 Turbo transplant is a good idea but I suspect too much work with the wiring and all that.
  • @Jazoli bikes are not for me ;)
  • Saxo/Xsara VTS - Saxo not powerful enough and the Xsara - I have wanted one for ages but there aren't any.
  • @sporty-shite (and others) yes, MX5 or 1*2 is are the obvious choices. I probably should get one of those, if one came up then I would be very tempted. Good leftfield choices too though -
  • Cooper S/Audi TT - too heavy
  • RX8 though, yes, that's a good idea, although also surprisingly heavy.
  • @Cavcraft Puma is also a good call.
  • @2MB MR2 is a good suggestion. Also like the idea of a 330d, different is good... but too rich for me I think.
  • @New POD - Omega - no.
  • @jonathan_dyane - Primera GT - 10 years ago maybe. None left now.
  • @clayts450 - the ZS - needs to be road legal. But I WANT IT
  • @gm - FOAD Bini - I was quite disappointed not to win that.
  • @sierraman no, need it road legal. Respectfully disagree about tracking road cars though maybe I was lucky - but with the MGF I twice drove to Blyton (from Bristol) in the morning, did a day of going round and round, then drove home again...
  • @snagglepuss tell me more.

I keep coming back to this Metro idea. Even "lightweight" semi-moderns seem to weight 1200kg plus. A Metro is 850kg or thereabouts. If I could find a 160 engine...

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 11/27/2019 at 5:50 PM, Arthur Foxhake said:

RX8. They are ridiculously cheap, almost disposable and a really good track car as standard.

+1 to this, especially on a trailer. Did 200 miles to a tank to and from the track and around Snetterton, regardless of driving style.

It handles superbly, my only gripe was the gear ratio felt too long for the track.

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Has this little beast not been mentioned yet?

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ST170. These are getting very close to sub-£750 now. Find one with a decent engine and gearbox, strip the interior, roll cage it and enjoy. They stick to tarmac like SHYTE to a blanket, even in road-going guise. Plenty of them driving on YouTube if you want a feel for one.

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There’s no way it could be done for cheap but I’ve always loved the idea of fitting the engine and box from a wrecked clio 182 into an early Volvo 440, stripping it out and sitting it on OZ Super Ts like a touring car that never existed. The fact that the early fwd Volvos used Renault motors leads me to belive it would all just bolt together but this theory is most likely bollocks and in any case it wouldn’t drive as well as a clio but still...

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1.7 Puma would get my vote. For the money you’d have no trouble finding one (not yet anyway, but I see them about to shoot up sharply in price), they’re great fun, fast, handling is terrific and they have an absolute peach of an engine and a phenomenal gearbox. 

Clio 1*2 trumps them around a track, granted, but you'd be rolling a dice at a £750 specimen even making a lap. 

Either that, or the Autoshite staples: 205 or AX. 

 

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