Track Day Car Advice

[Potatoes]

I've owned a VX220 and currently own a 182. I'd vouch for both and suggest you also think about the Megane.

For me, I loved the VX and it felt like a racing car but I never really pushed it as I was always nervous about loosing traction and heading into the barriers. I'll admit I'm not the best driver on circuit and was always nervous about this.

The Clio is cheap as hell and easy to work on/cheap to repair, being FWD it inspires a lot more confidence in me. I was actually surprised at how able it is on track having come directly from driving a VX220. The Clio community is huge too which makes life easier when troubleshooting or looking for inspiration.

Both great cars, the VX feels like a racing car but the 182 will leave room in the budget for track focused mods

[iguana]

C70R said:

No idea why the E46 is mentioned so frequently in trackday threads. While the M3 is a very special car indeed, the rest of the range are pretty underwhelming when pushed to their limit. After all, it's just a 1.5 tonne saloon with 200-odd bhp.
(I should know, I've got one)

Yeh but you don't have a track one with 300 odd kg chucked out, a cage bunged in, tad more grunt & proper suspension, proper brakes, bracing, slack bushes binned & tight ones in, sticky rubber, shorter rack & a decent slipper at the dancing end plus bung on some aero, a very differnt kettle of Aardvarks then. Ok it's not driving nirvana but = a long way from the limp understeering things they are as stock.


To be fair I'm really saying ref 36 not 46, but other than the extra grunt (I'm not aware of easy gains for 46 328 & 330 like on e36 328s) same applys.

I realise in track terms your experience is somewhat that of a virgin reading the karma sutra, but you are quite off the mark on a few track aspects, proper built & sorted track cars are a long way from the road cars they started life as, look at Niges Golf threads, a standard Mk2 Golf CL isn't quite a rival for a 500bhp Porsche GT3 is it.

[Zoobeef]

Vx220, job jobbed.

[V800MJH]

Clio 172 Cup. Literally no better bang for the buck.

A few decent mods will see you holding off most other cars on a track day.

If you have money to burn buy a boosted one. Nothing will touch you then.

Edited by V800MJH on Thursday 27th October 08:34

[C70R]

iguana said:

C70R said:

No idea why the E46 is mentioned so frequently in trackday threads. While the M3 is a very special car indeed, the rest of the range are pretty underwhelming when pushed to their limit. After all, it's just a 1.5 tonne saloon with 200-odd bhp.
(I should know, I've got one)

Yeh but you don't have a track one with 300 odd kg chucked out, a cage bunged in, tad more grunt & proper suspension, proper brakes, bracing, slack bushes binned & tight ones in, sticky rubber, shorter rack & a decent slipper at the dancing end plus bung on some aero, a very differnt kettle of Aardvarks then. Ok it's not driving nirvana but = a long way from the limp understeering things they are as stock.


To be fair I'm really saying ref 36 not 46, but other than the extra grunt (I'm not aware of easy gains for 46 328 & 330 like on e36 328s) same applys.

I realise in track terms your experience is somewhat that of a virgin reading the karma sutra, but you are quite off the mark on a few track aspects, proper built & sorted track cars are a long way from the road cars they started life as, look at Niges Golf threads, a standard Mk2 Golf CL isn't quite a rival for a 500bhp Porsche GT3 is it.

I've read this a couple of times, and I'm not quite sure what point you're trying to make about the E46...

With reference to the heavily-modified [insert ordinary-sounding road car] on track comments, I absolutely get where you're coming from. However, I'd be more inclined to spend the money in one hit on something like a Seven clone or Elise/VX220, and get the same level of performance without the hassle factor.
I guess for some it's about the experience and for others it's about the journey - horses for courses.