Hypothetical Challenge/Question- Best Track car for $50,000/32,000 GBP

  • Thread starter Thread starter hawkeye122
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Did some Internet CSI, and found that it has happened... while parked. I guess people aren't doing a proper cool down lap (or not available at AutoX stuff).

Back to OP: Corvette. If all you want is 2 seats and a fun time on track, the Vette delivers. But I agree with it's more fun to drive a slow car fast, than a fast car slow. It's true. The Atom was fun on track, but racing in an old 'slow' Porsche is a blast.
 
Get an old Muscle car or something and build the motor. Will run a track all day and is a great pick up for ladies =P

Otherwise C5 'Vette, or Challenger SRT8. Challenger with only slight mods will push 450-500 horse all day long. My uncles stock R/T was only pushing 375 horse. Only upgrades he has is new exhaust and a cold air filter. Now it's pushing 410. They are great to build.
 
Famine
Count them:

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How much are these cars again? I'll take three.
 
slashfan7964
Get an old Muscle car or something and build the motor. Will run a track all day and is a great pick up for ladies =P

Otherwise C5 'Vette, or Challenger SRT8. Challenger with only slight mods will push 450-500 horse all day long. My uncles stock R/T was only pushing 375 horse. Only upgrades he has is new exhaust and a cold air filter. Now it's pushing 410. They are great to build.
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Except new SRT8s cost $44,000 MSRP. That doesn't leave much breathing room for modifications. This is part of the reason I went with either a Camaro or a Mustang before getting the stang. The SS, GT, and SRT8 are competitors but the SRT8 is far more expensive than both of them.
 
Blackbird.
Except new SRT8s cost $44,000 MSRP. That doesn't leave much breathing room for modifications. This is part of the reason I went with either a Camaro or a Mustang before getting the stang. The SS, GT, and SRT8 are competitors but the SRT8 is far more expensive than both of them.
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That last bit of room would pump 850+ horsepower into your car.
 
From 480hp to 850hp for $6000? Does that include a new clutch, replacing the transmission, axles, and rear end for something that will last more than the first track day?

Not to mention driving an 850hp 5000lb sled isn't going to be very confidence inspiring.
 
Not to mention pumping out that much power i'd assume that $6000 would be for a supercharger of some sort. Can the stock internals handle that much power?

Plus I stressed MSRP you might even end up with less money leftover.
 
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I'm looking for a Mostly-track car that could be easily made road legal. A Closed cockpit would be quite nice (No Radicals, Atoms, X-bows, etc)

So it would be too much work to fully strip a 90's BMW 3 series and turn it into a racing car, thats also road legal?
 
If you want an 850 hp track car that's going to be reliable on track for that amount of money, you'll need at the very least a mailaise-era muscle car (too old to be expensive, too undesirable to be a classic) and about $40k worth of modifications... including but not limited to a fully-built crate engine.

A good way to find a cheap racer is to look through the classifieds in magazines like Grassroots Motorsports for used racing cars. (There's a UK mag that's focused entirely on track cars that also has a good classifieds section, but for the life of me, I can't recall the title)

An eight year old used touring car, for example, might cost you around $20k with spares. That'll be a 200-300 hp car that's qualified for professional competition with an integrated cage, a fully-built engine, a fully-adjustable suspension and nothing else. That leaves you enough money for racing and expenses (like new engines... some sites sell spare engines for touring cars).
 
An old Porsche, 911 or something more interesting like a 928 or 968. Or a 944 turbo, a really nice one, with a few mods and you would still have some change left.

There was a time when you would get several Ferraris for that kind of money, perhaps a 348, but I think prices have gone up. I even remember Testarossas for that sort of money. Mondials and the older 308 GT4 are quirky but not so great.

Or an Impreza WRX STi? The "bug eye" ones seem to be the least popular but you would get major bang for your buck.
 
hawkeye122
I'm looking for a Mostly-track car that could be easily made road legal. A Closed cockpit would be quite nice (No Radicals, Atoms, X-bows, etc)

So it would be too much work to fully strip a 90's BMW 3 series and turn it into a racing car, thats also road legal?
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If it's to be a daily driver as well as a track-day car, you're not going to want to make any saloon/coupe too track orientated. A heavier car will likely need to be very stiff to make a decent track car. That doesn't make for an enjoyable daily driver. Atoms, Elises, Sevens etc are usually quite softly sprung and compliant over poor quality roads. They're so light they just don't need stiff suspension to keep chassis movement in check, that why they actually make useable dailys.

I don't know if you're US or UK based, so it's a bit hard to give suggestions. If you must have a closed cockpit, Porsche 944's and the later 968 have great a chassis for track and road. M3's do too.

I'd spend half the money on a car, run it for a couple of track-days, and save the rest for modifications as and when you decide what direction you want to go with it. ie better handling or better performance.
 
Definitely not a Camry:dopey:

Depends where you are buying the car.

£32k does not get much in the UK.

$50k gets you much more in the USA.

In the UK, prolly some hot hatch with the spare cash going into tyres etc for track days.

In the US, get 2 cars.
 
Question to the OP: Do you want a "Track Car" that you'll be using at open track days, driving events, HPDE and PDX? Or do you want a "Race Car" that you'll use for wheel-to-wheel competitive racing?
 
Buy a cheap used BMW, say a E36 - BMW 325i, use that as you're track car, modify it - and you'll have plenty of money left over for parts, spares/repairs, etc, or even another car!

The car in the UK is about £2,000 for a good condition one, moderately cheap, but you struggle to get a low mileage one.

Average miles on them that i have found, is about 130,000 miles - as I have been considering one too, but don't have the budget to replace and old broken down bits the car may need unfortunately.

Strip the car out, buy parts that needs replaced, grippy tyres, big brakes and you'll have a brilliant track car.

With the rest of the money buy another second hand daily cruiser/driver as I don't think either that you should have a car that serves as both purposes as it will require a LOT of maintenance and cause problems if you only have one car.

The Mazda MX5/Miata, and Honda Integra Type R are good options too.
 
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For 50 grand, there is absolutely no reason not to get the right tool for the right job and get two separate cars.

Tracking a street car is a compromise that makes less sense the longer you do it. Most street cars can't handle the stress of sustained track use and cars that are made good for the track are usually a pain to live with on the street.

If you live in a place and have the lifestyle and disposition to drive around with 5 pt. harness, metal bushings, 1200 lb. springs, no A/C or interior and a set of slicks that cost twice as much as your TV, then more power to you. But most of us would prefer to get on with our lives in, you know, a real car.

Plus, you have to ask yourself if you're ready to ball up your shiny $50k car if something goes wrong. Track days are generally very safe, but if bad stuff happens to you on the track, your regular insurance company isn't going to a bit of help. So unless you are ready to pay an extra several hundred bucks on track insurance (on top of fees, gas, food and lodging), a dedicated, inexpensive track car is the way to go.

My picks? A decent C5 Vette for around ~15k. Tires, brakes, suspension, seat(s) and you are good to go. Later you can pull the interior, add some power, add a half or full cage and make any changes that are needed. Figure roughly 8-10 grand to do all that. That is a lot of fast for not that much money and should be enough hardware to keep most people entertained from novice to advanced run groups.

With the leftover money, I'd get a 2-3 year old E90 BMW 328i and leave it bone stock to go to work, shuttle kids, shop for groceries and take the wifey to dinner in.


M
 

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