What is your track day car, and why?

[TiM3]

MR2 Roadster with 2ZZ

Pros

Very nimble, lovely steering
Sounds good
Great on the brakes
Spare especially used are dirt cheap
All panels bolt on

Cons

Bit flat unless it's between 6250 and 8250rpm
Mid engined layout makes me nervous in the wet
Image seems to bother some people

All in all it's actually a pretty good track car, surprised I see so few of them..

[motorhole]

TiM3 said:

MR2 Roadster with 2ZZ

Pros

Very nimble, lovely steering
Sounds good
Great on the brakes
Spare especially used are dirt cheap
All panels bolt on

Cons

Bit flat unless it's between 6250 and 8250rpm
Mid engined layout makes me nervous in the wet
Image seems to bother some people

All in all it's actually a pretty good track car, surprised I see so few of them..

Surprises me too. Mk3 MR2s are dirt cheap now and have loads of potential.

[Neal 182]

Ex vw cup caddy
Why looked like fun and is fun chasing fast cars down

[stevesingo]

Not a dedicated track car, but it is the car I track...

E30 M3 Sport Evo (280hp, bigger brakes and uprated suspension)

Pros:
Handles pretty well
Fast enough to keep some of the modern stuff honest
Good talking point (You don't see as many as you used to)

Cons:
Value-If I bent it, it will be very expensive for me.
Value-Wear and tear effects value.

[HughS47]

Mk1 MX-5.

Pros:
Cheap to buy (£1600) with TR lane roll/harness bar, yellow stuff pads and induction kit.
Cheap to modify
Great handling to learn RWD
Good 'my first oil change' car to learn on

Cons:
Slow
Slow = turbo conversion worth more than the car
Over gripped on federal RSR rubber

[AW111]

TiM3 said:

MR2 Roadster with 2ZZ

Pros

Very nimble, lovely steering
Sounds good
Great on the brakes
Spare especially used are dirt cheap
All panels bolt on

Cons

Bit flat unless it's between 6250 and 8250rpm
Mid engined layout makes me nervous in the wet
Image seems to bother some people

All in all it's actually a pretty good track car, surprised I see so few of them..

Nice choice.
I have a mk1 MR2 that's a daily driver but sees the track occasionally.
It's running the engine/gearbox from a JDM Levin : 20 valves & throttle bodies, with a six speed box.

I wrote a longer post earlier, but it seems to have vanished when I posted it.

[Jubal]

TiM3 said:

MR2 Roadster with 2ZZ

Pros

Very nimble, lovely steering
Sounds good
Great on the brakes
Spare especially used are dirt cheap
All panels bolt on

Cons

Bit flat unless it's between 6250 and 8250rpm
Mid engined layout makes me nervous in the wet
Image seems to bother some people

All in all it's actually a pretty good track car, surprised I see so few of them..

I'm not surprised. Consider the expertise to do the engine swap or the expense of paying someone to do it. As standard they are underpowered. I had a turbo'd MK3 which was great on track but needed to be handled with sympathy due to heat and oil temps.

[will121]

Have a mk 3.5 fiesta Si track car stripped out.
Pro's
Looks old and rough
Stripped out and light
173bhp
Runs on slicks coil overs etc
Handles well outruns a lot in the twisty bits
Has Annoyed people getting blue flagged in gtr's and Porsche's
Against
Rust
on 3 rd gearbox

[BullyB]

E36 M3 Evo

Pros:
Relatively cheap
Many, many mods and accessories on the market
quick and great fun

Cons:
addictive
not cheap if addicted

[T0MMY]

TiM3 said:

MR2 Roadster with 2ZZ

Always thought this would be a great choice

Mine:

MNR Vortx R1 5PW

Pros:
By far the lightest, most capable and most involving type of car in my price range (along with various other BECs obviously).
Very cheap on consumables.
Quite challenging to extract its full potential so a real learning curve.

Cons:
Zero weather protection for cold and/or wet trackdays.
Bit more fragile than a typical road car although it's been fundamentally reliable so far.
Miserably uncomfortable to drive home, exhausted, at the end of the day.

[AuralisMatty]

Its the 52 second laps that interest me if you can lap brands in a skyline on road tyres you sir must be a driving god

ORD said:

Must be trolling!

[F1BHP]

CATERHAM 7

The Caterham is by far the most fun on any track day and the running costs are very low.

It is very slow down the straights and driving to and from the track is not really a good option.

AUDI R8 GT V10

Just did my first track day at Donnington on Friday having picked the car up on Wednesday.
If was on regular road tyres but it was fantastic, much better than I thought it would be.

Upside is very well balanced and very fast down the straights.

Downside is very expensive to go without insurance and I assume will be quite costly to run.

[AuralisMatty]

Jap spec impreza sti8

Pros.
Resonably cheap
Good all round package handles well with a few tweaks, has a good amount of power standard and the twin scroll turbo is very responsive
Has quite a few extra bits compared to a UK spec sti

Cons
Heavy and quite juicy
Gearing is a bit short for longer tracks

[T0MMY]

Robert Elise said:

Henry Fiddleton said:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kTbi3ggGog

so, scooby doo clearly can't drive, but no black flag after ignoring a full circuit of blues for 10mins?

God that was infuriating to watch

Reminds me of being stuck behind a pale blue MR2 turbo in my MX5 for 4 looooong laps of Bedford. I should have just slowed down and let him go on his idiotic way but lost my rag a bit and risked a black flag by outbraking him into a corner Not proud of it but I gave him plenty of space and the Marshalls were on my side as he'd been doing it all day!

I was very pleased to see the Javelin instructor at Cadwell last month hammering home the message that whatever you may think, if someone is behind you that wasn't there before, they ARE going faster than you.

[MR2_SC]

PTF said:

Plenty of ex race cars for around £10k

In looking for an ex race Caterham - where's the best place to find ex race cars?

[Fonzey]

2005 Impreza STI

Pros:
At 400bhp, it's a hoot to drive and feels satisfying on boost.
Looks after me in the corners, the way it's now setup I get just enough rotation at the back to start to cancel out the inherent understeer without it getting scary
Comfy enough to and home from track
Good in the wet/damp

Cons:
Expensive to run, use 3 tanks of fuel per track day and chews brakes/tyres
Heavy, so sucks under braking

I'm considering a swap to something like a VX220/Elise. Drop in power in exchange for more involvement.

[jonnyleroux]

MR2_SC said:

In looking for an ex race Caterham - where's the best place to find ex race cars?

• waves*

One of our clients has a nice spec k series superlight fur sale. 6 speed, LSD, superlight cage, big brakes and stack dash for £10k. Old car and cosmetically not great but big spec for the dough.non road legal hence the price.

Jonny
BaT

[F1BHP]

This is a clip from Friday at Donnington. A little frustrating with traffic. A lot of fun.

http://youtu.be/NGb-yW0pR48

[lickatysplit]

Mazda 6 sport gen2
why? its different, its not a regular car even modded let alone tracked here in the UK.

pro's

• its not german ;-)
• easy on fuel
• slightly faster than some mid ranged Coupe's

Cons

• too heavy
• Upgraded parts are hard to come by, and when you do they are normally more expensive than the run of the mill cars
• some parts have been frustrating to fit as some I've custom made as I can't find what I wanted.
• its not german :-(

[g40steve]

2.0 mx5 mk3.5 modified by Roddo.

Pros,
Rwd, good balance, great brakes, surprises many, light on consumables.

Cons,
None really.