Vote on track club's next car
A Caterham CSR260 or a Porsche 968? You decide
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 Caterham CSR 260  Porsche 968 Clubsport Lower image courtesy Porsche 968UK |
Track car hire specialist track-club is asking its members to choose which car it should add to its fleet. The choice is between a Caterham CSR260 and an MO30 spec Porsche 968 Club Sport.
Apples and oranges?
It looks a bit odd, reckoned the club, pitching a new, £36k Caterham against an old Porsche with a price tag of under half that of the Caterham but there's method behind the apparent madness.
The club's reasoning is based on the whole life cost of the investment and the likely level of use. The Caterham will be a far cheaper car to run and to repair in the event of an on-track incident. It's also likely to get used more, so the comparison is a lot closer than it might at first appear.
The club's existing Caterham is also its most popular car, with the E30 BMW M3 track classic sitting further down the list. This, said the club, could be due to seasonal factors, and expects its tin-tops -- M3, Clio V6, Peugeot 205S16 and Lotus Exige -- to be more popular over the winter track day season. Both the 968 and CSR would be group one cars but would require fewer points than the club's Radical SR3 Supersport.
Consultation
The club said its policy is to consult members before adding to the fleet, and the Porsche 968 and Caterham CSR have been derived from a shortlist drawn up following informal consultation with members.
"We attend a lot of track days ourselves and chat to members and prospective members about the sort of things that they would like to see in the fleet, we then look at the numbers, availability and performance and draw up what’s feasible before putting it to the vote", said club director Max Stringer. "Other cars that were considered this time around were the Lotus 240R (but we were too slow – they were all sold), the Mitsubishi Evo VI and VIII, a track-prepared Boxster and a Westfield S2000."
Members are now discussing the choice on its PistonHeads-hosted forum (see link below), and a vote will be taken shortly with the car expected to be in use before the end of August.
Members needed
Track-club is still signing up members and, with the track day season now approaching its busy period, the team will be available at all Gold Track events and RMA Circuit Club track days to promote the club.
Further details of the fleet of cars available to track-club members with daily hire working out as low as £70 per day based on joint membership.
The track-club shop is also now open allowing clients to book track-academy course, sign up for membership or book daily car hire all on line. Also available is a range of driving books and circuit guides.
Links
Stephen
www.track-club.com
Decisions.......decisions.....is there anyone on here with a CSR yet? What's your opinion? Perhaps I should be asking this on the Caterham forum...
That said the club does so much constant maintenance that I doubt anything would get to look tired, the only car in the fleet that is a bit tired is the 205 and I think they came out the factory lookign tired! The Caterham is apparently the most popular car in the clubs fleet but you wouldn't know it from the condition of the car so I guess it's just down to how they are looked after. I think my vote stays with the 'kit car' but I'll be pushing for a 968 next season.
T
Pawsher said:
I put it to you a kit car one of which I have listed in classifieds for sale or 968cs of which as you see from my cars in my profile I own 2 of. Ask most ARDS instructors their choice ask the likes of Calum Lockie or the technical Designer of Ascari and they will all say 968cs, as for the M030 its old from the 90's a bit of Eibach/Bilstien works wonders under them, after 12 months track use compare the 2 cars side by side and I bet the Caterham looks dog tired.
I think M030 is not just shocks it also includes a LSD and possibly better brakes. M030 equipped CS are pretty rare. Also the LSD on earlier cars is different to the torsen set up on later cars
Ben
peter pan said:
Another aspect which may colour the choice of car are the consumables, such as brake pads, tyres and clutches. An acquaintance who uses his carrera on track days told me he lunches a set of tyres and brake pads on each outing and believe me they are not cheap.(and still feels that he not going as quick as he would like to!).
Thankfully, track-club members don't have to worry too much about consumables because we don't have to maintain the cars. But, the total cost of the car is factored into the number of points required to hire the car. So I guess the cost of the consumables is included, even of the hassle sourcing and fitting them is alleviated.
I'd imagine that spares and parts for the Caterham are less expensive, and the car itself requires fewer consumables.
Glad we dodged the Boxster, though. That would have been a disaster!
Neil
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