A fun car - that can also tow?

[DanielJames]

Evening all,

This weekend I had a trackday at Castle Combe - it was excellent, but as per usual, my car developed a fault that if I had not had a trailer, I would have been stranded.

That was borrowed so I think it is time I got my own. I'll be going to Spa in April and the ring there after, ideally I'd like to tow the car there just in case.

What I'm mostly interested to find out, is there a fun tow car? I was thinking maybe an E46 Touring might be up to the job, perhaps a 330i?

I'll only need the trailer between 4-6 times this year, so will probably rent rather than buy. Does anyone have any experience of renting, what sort of costs are involved vs. that of buying a trailer and finding storage for it?

Thanks in advance for any guidance

Dan

[kambites]

You'd need a fairly light track car to be able to tow it with a 3-series. Especially if you only have a category B licence?

[andye30m3]

Whats your budget?

E39 M5 might be worth a look

[R0G]

Towing with a B or B+E licence ?

[R0G]

What actual weight is the track car?

[itz_baseline]

For the trailer I would look at buying a good quality 2nd hand one. They are the type of thing that dont really depreciate much so can sell it on pretty much for what you bought it for a few years later. Assuming storage of it isn't a problem, long term it will be cheaper.

What car are looking to trailer?

[DanielJames]

Hello,

The track car is an Integra Type R DC2 - weight is around 1000kg.

I know I'll need to do the extra test for it as I only got my license in 2009.

[Viperz888]

DanielJames said:

I know I'll need to do the extra test for it as I only got my license in 2009.

Not if the trailer + the Track car combined weigh less than the tow car (and the whole lot are under 3500kg).

[Orangecurry]

Legacy 3.0R Spec.B

[Mr Tidy]

How about a Transit - someone I know had one fitted with a Cosworth engine!!

[kambites]

Viperz888 said:

... (and the whole lot are under 3500kg).

That's a slight over-simplification. See here: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

The combined GVW and MAM need to be under 3500kg. Google implies the gross weight of an E91 330i touring is 2080kg so he'd need a trailer plated at less than 1420kg, which is pushing it to carry a one tonne car (but might be possible).

Much easier just to take the test. It's not hard.

Edited by kambites on Sunday 8th February 21:01

[DanielJames]

I've spent most of my nightshift thinking about this and the car that I keep coming back to is the E46 330i Touring Sport. If I could find one with a 6spd manual that would be perfect, in a nice colour.

Found this on the classifieds, which ticks a lot of boxes, but black on black isn't very desirable for me.

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/b...

[R0G]

Check out the LW-010 in this link = http://www.trailertek.com/2383/car_transporters/li...
MAM 1300
Payload 980 kg

That can be driven on a B licence where the GVW of the towing vehicle is not over 2200kg

[RobM77]

To answer a couple of the OP's questions, I've been looking into towing my track day car lately to get to further afield tracks in greater comfort. Most places that I've looked at seem to be about £55 for two days, or around £35 for one day. The downside with renting for me is that my car is open and I'd really like a covered trailer, but nowhere local to me rent them out.

As above, I'd look at the weights quite closely before committing to a car or trailer. I have a BMW 3 series and after looking into towing advice online, I wouldn't really want to tow more than my 700kg car with an open trailer (standard Brian James one), perhaps at a push with a covered trailer that weighs a bit more. I used to tow a 530kg Caterham on an open trailer without an issue, but once the car/trailer combo gets much more than that you start to breach what most people recommend (75% of max towing weight IIRC).

[kambites]

An E46 330i would certainly do the job, but it wont do it particularly well.

I've towed quite a lot with a manual petrol E36 touring and it never really felt happy doing it. That was a much lighter can that yours too, albeit it with a heavy trailer by modern standards.

[R0G]

RobM77 said:

...... you start to breach what most people recommend (75% of max towing weight IIRC).

No such advice - there is the 85% advice for caravans only

[RobM77]

R0G said:

RobM77 said:

...... you start to breach what most people recommend (75% of max towing weight IIRC).

No such advice - there is the 85% advice for caravans only

Yes, I did read that advice in more than one place on the web . It didn't refer to caravans only, but I'm very relieved if it was bad advice just intended for caravans because I was quite near that limit with what I wanted to tow (described above).

[kambites]

I'd imagine a covered car trailer will behave pretty similarly to a caravan in terms of susceptibility to cross-winds, etc?

[RobM77]

kambites said:

I'd imagine a covered car trailer will behave pretty similarly to a caravan in terms of susceptibility to cross-winds, etc?

I can't find the websites now, but they were just referring to 'towing' without mention of what I wanted to tow. It was somewhere around 75%, so 85% is quite likely. Yes, a covered trailer would be similar to a caravan, although the cross section would be a bit lower of course so picking up less crosswinds.

[kambites]

I think to most people "towing" means a caravan. I doubt it occurs to most people that you could tow a car on a trailer.