Newbie track car advice

[Fu Man Chu]

Hi, me and a mate are thinking of going halves on a track car. He's a mechanic with access to a trailer so we have storage and transport.
Were thinking a mk1 Mx5/Eunos for around £1000, strip it, 2 seats, upgrade the brakes suspension and fit a cage, say another £500?
Were on a budget so wont be taxing or insuring it.
Any advice?

Cheers

[mrmr96]

Fookin ell, you reckon you'll get seats, suspensions, brakes and a cage for £500? What are these things made of? Loo rolls and duct tape?

[Fu Man Chu]

Hence the ?

Thanks for your help though

[mrmr96]

Oh, ok. Sorry - I didn't realise quite how 'novice' you were to this kind of thing.

If you want new items then my guesstimates are:

Suspension £100 - £800 unfitted (springs to coilovers)
Brakes £200 - £1000 unfitted (pads/disc/fluid to big calipers)
Cage £300 - £1500 fitted (roll bar to full cage)
Seats £0 - £500 pair (stock to pair buckets)
Harnesses £100 - £300 pair (cheapest buckle to alloy fasteners)
Tyres £0 - £100 - £800 (stock to ex BTCC slicks x4 to road legal slicks x4)

You might be better buying a fully built car, or using 2nd hand parts, or not doing some of the mods.

[wackojacko]

MX5 or straight six beemer.


do it shed style.

cut down spring
cut your own perspex windows (for the BM)
strip absolutly everything out of it
induction
de-cat

possible roll bar
buckets and harnesses or just harnesses until budget permits.

[stabbed rat]

wackojacko said:

MX5 or straight six beemer.


do it shed style.

cut down spring
cut your own perspex windows (for the BM)
strip absolutly everything out of it
induction
de-cat

possible roll bar
buckets and harnesses or just harnesses until budget permits.

hmmmm, i recognise that formula! The sideways fella's with the 328i at abingdon! haha

[wackojacko]

stabbed rat said:

The sideways fella's with the 328i at abingdon! haha

It worked aswell !
very amusing quick and cheap.

[stabbed rat]

Agreed, they were the only ones i know of to get black flagged for power sliding.

They got a good deal on the car too, it may have rattled but it had well over the £1000 they paid for it in just bolt on parts!

You can also put ex-BTCC slicks on them, OR just the front if your name is wacko

[wackojacko]

stabbed rat said:

OR just the front if your name is wacko

widest slicks/888's on the front and sttest ditch finder pros on the rear.... those rears they used lasted the whole day ! that's how crap they were

This is my plan....

[stabbed rat]

wackojacko said:

stabbed rat said:

OR just the front if your name is wacko

widest slicks/888's on the front and sttest ditch finder pros on the rear.... those rears they used lasted the whole day ! that's how crap they were

This is my plan....

Lol, im wanting a coupe or saloon 325/328/323 so hopefully (if and when i get it) we can get them out on track together! Might get black flagged if we try tandem drifting though

[wackojacko]

So cheap for what they are, strip it, cut the springs down etc, buy rims with tyres on like them guys did then just buy second hand st tyres off of ebay and fit them to the rims you've already got and repeat the process.

We have a family friend that lets me use his tyre fitting and balancing machine for free so I'm quids in

[stabbed rat]

wackojacko said:

So cheap for what they are, strip it, cut the springs down etc, buy rims with tyres on like them guys did then just buy second hand st tyres off of ebay and fit them to the rims you've already got and repeat the process.

We have a family friend that lets me use his tyre fitting and balancing machine for free so I'm quids in

They said this was something NOT to do lol. I reckon just some non adjustable coilovers or sports suspension would do the trick... No point in spending stupid amounts when the driver (me) will be the weakest link

ETA - can you do the 325i intake mod on both the 323 and 328? and what power would you be looking at from the 323 after the mod?

Edited by stabbed rat on Sunday 17th April 21:35

[wackojacko]

I'd cut my orginal set down to measure the amount of drop I want and then buy a lowering kit, most lowering kits are based on the cars standard corner weight ( not stripped out )so -40mm would be -25mm (ish) and the spring rate/weight would be wrong for the weight. Then run lowering springs for a while until I get bored and want to spend more money on it though...... their springs seemed to work ok.... looked dodgy as feck though !


Just buy one Ben !...... and hide it somewhere your dad won't notice

[stabbed rat]

wackojacko said:

I'd cut my orginal set down to measure the amount of drop I want and then buy a lowering kit, most lowering kits are based on the cars standard corner weight ( not stripped out )so -40mm would be -25mm (ish) and the spring rate/weight would be wrong for the weight. Then run lowering springs for a while until I get bored and want to spend more money on it though...... their springs seemed to work ok.... looked dodgy as feck though !


Just buy one Ben !...... and hide it somewhere your dad won't notice

good plan actually I can't remember which company it is but one of the manufacturers offer a service where they sell the "package" and sort the correct springs to go with the dampers...

Even better plan! hmmm just a case of where to hide it! lol... I will get back to you when i have got a place to put it and hidden it away


I am thinking a caravan in the middle of the field and drive the car through it, therby creating a makeshift garage that looks like you have been invaded by gyppo's!

[5paul5]

Fu Man Chu said:

Hi, me and a mate are thinking of going halves on a track car. He's a mechanic with access to a trailer so we have storage and transport.
Were thinking a mk1 Mx5/Eunos for around £1000, strip it, 2 seats, upgrade the brakes suspension and fit a cage, say another £500?
Were on a budget so wont be taxing or insuring it.
Any advice?

Cheers

Mines about to go up for sale, mk1 1.6 fully sripped out for track, roll bar, bucket seats, 1.8 brakes with yellowstuff pads, kawasaki green and black paintwork, tax and mot all for £1300

[joe_90]

stabbed rat said:

They said this was something NOT to do lol. I reckon just some non adjustable coilovers or sports suspension would do the trick... No point in spending stupid amounts when the driver (me) will be the weakest link

ETA - can you do the 325i intake mod on both the 323 and 328? and what power would you be looking at from the 323 after the mod?

Edited by stabbed rat on Sunday 17th April 21:35

As above, mine was 500 quid, and the suspension on its own is worth far more.

As for the intake.. i think not.. I think the trick is taking the intake for the 325 and bolting it on the others 323/328.

Here is what we got for 2.4 ish all in (including trailer) http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Edited by joe_90 on Monday 18th April 21:41

[wackojacko]

joe_90 said:

As for the intake.. i think not.. I think the trick is taking the intake for the 325 and bolting it on the others 323/328.

Edited by joe_90 on Monday 18th April 21:41

That's what SR said :S

Swapping manifold is a "mod".

SR they reckon :
323i with M50 and remap = 200bhp
328i with M50 abd remap = 230ish bhp

[stabbed rat]

wackojacko said:

joe_90 said:

As for the intake.. i think not.. I think the trick is taking the intake for the 325 and bolting it on the others 323/328.

Edited by joe_90 on Monday 18th April 21:41

That's what SR said :S

Swapping manifold is a "mod".

SR they reckon :
323i with M50 and remap = 200bhp
328i with M50 abd remap = 230ish bhp

That's what i thought lol

and cheers for the figures As much as the extra 30 bhp would be nice, i wouldn't turn a 323 down if it was a good deal then


ETA- joe_90, car looks good Wanting one quite bad atm!

Edited by stabbed rat on Monday 18th April 22:21

[wackojacko]

323i is cheaper to insure but -30bhp and a lot less torque would make a hell of a difference between the 2, but still 200bhp RWD and a stripped interior at around 1200kgs (ish) is still going to be fun.

[stabbed rat]

well insurance isn't such an issue for me and based on what you just said, i think i will stick out for the 328 then lol

this is of course all hypothetical at the moment as I don't think the caravan hiding place will work long term