Recommend me a cheap track day car

[Stants]

I've had to sell my subaru as the misses couldn't get insured and needs to learn to drive so ended up with a focus in the hope that she'll finally pass her test,

I'm missing the fun that comes with driving and have been wanting to get into track days properly so between me and a mate were looking at buying something fairly cheap and attending a few in the coming year,

It's going to have to be road legal as I don't have a tow car,

Do I buy a ready to go car for a little extra or pick up a 'project' and create something of my own?
I'm fairly Competent with wielding a set of spanners and what not,


I'm posting this in the hope that people can recommend a base car and or advice/ pointers in which direction to go.

So far we've thought about

Saxo's & Corsa's cheap fwd cars fairly easy to work on and shouldn't be too heavy on consumables, not very powerful unless we went down the engine swap route but thats sort of defeats the object

Mx5 (had them in the past) so know way around them and possibly the easiest way to get into rwd without going backwards after an un successful dab of oppo in the wet, but may be lacking on power ?

Cheapish bm 318's or a 328 but that may be out of budget and I suspect parts are a little pricy,

So realistically were looking for something that's fun to drive, cheap enough that if it gets binned or blows up it's no great loss and due to us being complete novices at track driving
Something that won't kill us and is fairly forgiving to a couple of hamfisted novices

[HedgeyGedgey]

I'll be on the lookout for something similar next year. I've pretty much narrowed it down to a saxo vts, unfortunately they're going up in value but from what i hear they're quite good fun to drive and cost next to nothing to run even as a track car. I'm not a fan of the mx5, they have too much of a hair dressy and "camp" image. But they must be fun if everyone on here recommends them

[Ahbefive]

Megane 225 of Clio 172. Always loads on track days, forgiving handling and good out of the box.

[1173russ]

E36 323 might be close to your budget?

[1173russ]

Looks a bit better with 17's on,

[mikey P 500]

Mx5 or mk3 mr2, can't beat either for cheap track cars in my opinion (but I would value rwd on track more than other fwd options).

[HustleRussell]

HedgeyGedgey said:

I'll be on the lookout for something similar next year. I've pretty much narrowed it down to a saxo vts, unfortunately they're going up in value but from what i hear they're quite good fun to drive and cost next to nothing to run even as a track car. I'm not a fan of the mx5, they have too much of a hair dressy and "camp" image. But they must be fun if everyone on here recommends them

Will never understand people who give a stuff about 'image', especially with reference to track cars. If you do care about image, in what way does the Citroen Saxo better represent you? Camp people and hairdressers can drive those too you know?

[MorganP104]

HustleRussell said:

HedgeyGedgey said:

I'll be on the lookout for something similar next year. I've pretty much narrowed it down to a saxo vts, unfortunately they're going up in value but from what i hear they're quite good fun to drive and cost next to nothing to run even as a track car. I'm not a fan of the mx5, they have too much of a hair dressy and "camp" image. But they must be fun if everyone on here recommends them

Will never understand people who give a stuff about 'image', especially with reference to track cars. If you do care about image, in what way does the Citroen Saxo better represent you? Camp people and hairdressers can drive those too you know?

Not that I'm terribly worried about what people think of the car I drive, but I reckon I'd be more embarrassed to be seen in a Saxo than an MX-5.

[ZX10R NIN]

Firstly there's no such thing as a cheap trackday anything you can have a cheap initial purchase but once the bug bites.

But assuming you have a lowish budget go for things that aren't the norm but able to be upgraded, in that sense look for an Astra with the 2.0/2.2 engine, that would give you 140-170bhp & that would leave you to aim your finances at the chassis, if you get the later model you can buy VXR parts.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Or one with the 2.0T engine

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MK4-ASTRA-SAAB-TURBO-PX...

[Ahbefive]

mikey P 500 said:

Mx5 or mk3 mr2, can't beat either for cheap track cars in my opinion (but I would value rwd on track more than other fwd options).

RWD may be preferable (although much less forgiving especially for a novice) but it's no fun being overtaken allday either. Clios and Meganes manage to keep up with fast cars and get past all the slow ones.

[HedgeyGedgey]

MorganP104 said:

Not that I'm terribly worried about what people think of the car I drive, but I reckon I'd be more embarrassed to be seen in a Saxo than an MX-5.

As a young lad, trust me saxos are actually quite cool. Theyre incredibly chavvy yes, but because of that theyre cool. Same with Hondas with jap can exhausts, cant pull the skin off a rice pudding yet are actually so uncool theyre cool. No one can understand why some cars are cool, but saxos are cool and mx5's really arent

[mybrainhurts]

HedgeyGedgey said:

MorganP104 said:

Not that I'm terribly worried about what people think of the car I drive, but I reckon I'd be more embarrassed to be seen in a Saxo than an MX-5.

As a young lad, trust me saxos are actually quite cool. Theyre incredibly chavvy yes, but because of that theyre cool. Same with Hondas with jap can exhausts, cant pull the skin off a rice pudding yet are actually so uncool theyre cool. No one can understand why some cars are cool, but saxos are cool and mx5's really arent

It's all down to the size of the radiator....

[HustleRussell]

HedgeyGedgey said:

MorganP104 said:

Not that I'm terribly worried about what people think of the car I drive, but I reckon I'd be more embarrassed to be seen in a Saxo than an MX-5.

As a young lad, trust me saxos are actually quite cool. Theyre incredibly chavvy yes, but because of that theyre cool. Same with Hondas with jap can exhausts, cant pull the skin off a rice pudding yet are actually so uncool theyre cool. No one can understand why some cars are cool, but saxos are cool and mx5's really arent

Ah, a young lad and self-appointed arbiter of 'cool'

I don't know nor care much about 'cool', but I do know one thing that is- being secure and comfortable enough in your own skin to live your own life and make your own choices, without being influenced by the perception of others.

Not buying a particular car because you fear that owning that car might make others think you are gay is the attitude of somebody who is either deeply insecure and/or extremely homophobic, for example. Sad.

[HedgeyGedgey]

HustleRussell said:

Ah, a young lad and self-appointed arbiter of 'cool'

I don't know nor care much about 'cool', but I do know one thing that is- being secure and comfortable enough in your own skin to live your own life and make your own choices, without being influenced by the perception of others.

Not buying a particular car because you fear that owning that car might make others think you are gay is the attitude of somebody who is either deeply insecure and/or extremely homophobic, for example. Sad.

You're very touchy, do you drive an mx5?


I'm the least homophobic person, I'm quite camp actually but girls love that i dont see the problem with calling the mx5 a hair dressers car. Because it is. You can even buy stickers on ebay that say they are. Whatever you drive is up to you, if its an mx5 then fine, but the internet and public do laugh at you for choosing it

[HustleRussell]

[Stants]

Cheers for the links I'll have a gander, the bm's don't look to bad,

I appreciate that things will start to get expensive rather quickly & I'm not one of these who expects to get any money back from a purchase of a car, I stuck a total of nearly 7 grand into the 4 years of ownership of the subaru, one of the main reasons I'm not thinking of getting another for track use.

As I'm 'oop north' the circuits i' d like to get to know would be croft & blyton so something with some grunt would be nice, but not essential.

There's plenty of mk1 mx5's for cheap around and once the excess weight has been stripped out should be under a ton so assuming I can get an import with a few more horses will be a fairly reasonable, my last one would slide around in the wet , once provoked which was a nice introduction to the basics of What happens once the rear starts to get out of shape,
I'm not particularly bothered about the 'looks' of the car as long as it will get though a mot who cares if has different couple panels


Anyone driven the 1.8 engined 5 back to back with the 1.6?

[SonicShadow]

Clio 172 / 182. Earlier examples are super cheap these days. They are simple, light (easy on consumables), handle great just as is, and have a good supply of aftermarket bits if you want to go down that route.

The downside is they will bring out the inner yobbo in you with this kind of ASBO behaviour:

[Stants]

😂 all good,

my problem with renault is that everything seemed very expensive to replace or do, the last one i had was before the days of loads of internet specialist companies selling parts, so things have probably changed a fair bit,

Just about the only job I won't do is a cambelt change, mainly due to the Bork factor if it's not right, I really need to look at costings for various manufacturers & weigh up the pros and cons, of each one,

[CABC]

Stants said:

Anyone driven the 1.8 engined 5 back to back with the 1.6?

yes, and on track at same time with others. very similar on track at high revs. 1.8 torque better for road driving maybe.
1.6 can take 200+ hp very easily as internals were rated for 250 or so.
my 1.6 was light and in a good state of tune, lardy cars getting in the way wasn't too much of a problem on most circuits. Oulton and Dony it did suffer. it's now conservatively charged at just under 200, so the bmws are more of a blockage than they once were.
charging a 5 isn't as cheap as some say, once everything considered, but it's cheaper than most projects. parts and support easy.
so, having gone SC, on reflection if doing it again i'd develop a tuned n/a car at around 160hp. that would be enough for a sub-tonne 5 to be an absolute purist's hoot.

[HumanDoing]

I would agree that the 172 would be great. What an amazing car to be able to pick up for about £2,000. Uproarious entertainment.