Ideal spec for a road car.

[carphotographer]

Quick question . What is an ideal spec on a road sport 7, the things you may want if you were buying one.
It'll be used for touring and a few track days.
Seats - tillet, leather or cloth
Cage, full, fia, or track, is that what it's called and what's the difference.
Wheels, 13" seems to be the prefered.
Other items like a 12 volt outlet.
Fire extinguisher - and the location - footwell or boot.
Carpets

[Grubbster]

For a mainly road based car I'd do the following -

Decide whether S3 or SV to start with.

Go for something with 140 - 160 bhp

Leather seats (comfortable and wipe dry)

Harnesses rather than seat belts

FIA roll bar (which is now called the trackday roll bar)

Removable Momo wheel

13" wheels with CR500's (or AO21's)

Carpeted interior

Full doors

Full windscreen

Full roof (for really bad weather) and half hood (for the odd shower) and shower cap (for when parked up)

Adjustable platform suspension (to set it up for track or to raise ride height for the road)

12v sockets (one on the dash one in the rear panel for intercom)

Intercom for touring or for trackday instruction (requires in helmet fittings of course)

Wouldn't worry about fire extinguisher

I think that's about it

[Mostro]

Agree with all of the above;

Tilletts are comfortable for the road, and you can get leather inserts for them for a *little* more comfort and insulation.

FIA bar (single diagonal) is much stronger than the basic one (no diagonals), and the Trackday bar with X double diagonals superseded the FIA and is presumably even better.

13-15 inch wheels are all fine, but 13" gives you a wider choice of tyres - debatable priority

I find a 12V socket essential for Satnav which I use to pre-plan routes, and also to ensure phone is charged.

[Grubbster]

If I were to add some 'nice to have's then LSD, big brakes, wide track, better shocks (e.g. Nitrons).

Tillets vs leather seats can divide opinions in the same way as gearbox choices can. You need to try them out to see if they suit, Tillets fit a lot of people very well but for my short and stocky shape they are really uncomfortable.

[carphotographer]

What would the advantage be with the wide track suspension for the road, I appreciate it may knock a second off a lap time whilst racing but what's the difference on the road.

[downsman]

I think normal belts are preferable for road use, I get nothing but complaints from my female passengers about harnesses.

The standard roll cage is pretty strong, much better than it used to be and a lot better than a single hoop design.

14 inch wheels give more ground clearance with 60 profile tyres and good ride, or 13 inch with 70 section.

Standard Roadsport suspension with narrow track and anything over 100bhp is fine for road use.

[Grubbster]

carphotographer said:

What would the advantage be with the wide track suspension for the road, I appreciate it may knock a second off a lap time whilst racing but what's the difference on the road.

Not much difference on the road really, that's why I put it in the nice to have category, I certainly wouldn't worry about not having it. It's hard to explain but it does feel a bit more planted to me - but that could just be down to set up differences when I switched to wide track.

[viper blue]

For road use and occasional track days....

Leather seats. Tillets not as comfortable on long runs. Leather easy to wipe dry.
Roll bar. X double diagonal ideally. Cage more track day with occasional road use.
Wheels 15 inch, due to road use dominance.
Carpets are fine, maybe sound deadening.
Fire extinguisher. Don't worry about plumbing in. Fit one in passenger footwell for track days.
12volt socket, a must. Have two even better still, one for sat nav, one for phone charger.
LSD, nice but don't panic if you don't.
6 speed is nice, but 5 speed is more relaxed on touring in 5th.
Power, well that depends. 150 to 200 is sweet spot.
Engine. Duratec, but then I am biased.
Brakes, always dual pot front, stopping is really important to me.
Half hood is great. Shower cap if parked up.
Windscreen for road use, unless you like the wind, rain, flies, bees, mud and crap in your helmet.
S3 v SV depend on height and bulk.
S3/SV v CSR depends on your wallet.

Bottom line, you can have almost as much fun in a bog standard 1.6 as you can in a CSR, just enjoy it and get out there.

[BritishRacinGrin]

In my opinion the main reason people go widetrack is because they want to, probably because it looks better over any perceived performance increase. A second per lap is probably a bit ambitious, and the narrow track car would probably be faster if it was wet.

Anyway all of that is irrelevant being that it's a road car.

There's a lot of subjectivity. I think my ideal road car would be a fairly plain jane 1400 or 1600 k-series with a modified 5-speed, 13" wheels, cycle wings and s-type seats.

Edited by BritishRacinGrin on Wednesday 19th March 11:52

[Some Gump]

Weather gear
Tillets
Non lowered floor
6 speed
Lsd
Track day roll bar
Wide track
Adjustable platform dampers
Not stack dash
Heater
Adjustable fromt anti roll bar (pref the freestyle blade one)
Fat rear anti roll bar (the 3 position one)
13 inch superlight loys, 6" front, 8" rear if r300 or more
Cr500's
Funky paint iob

The above is perfect, imo