Quote:
Originally Posted by mbintx
^ and you'd be wrong. My Miata is perfectly street legal, and I drive it to and from the track. AND I have a DD 135i that I'm not worried about blowing up or balling up on the track...
And if you give me $15k to build a Miata, I'll build one that can hang with a 1M all day, let alone a 135i.
And while it may be an old argument, it was in response to the OP's question about making a track car out of an 135i. Can a 135i do fine for an occasional HPDE event? Sure it can. But I assume a "track car" is something more dedicated and comes with a driver that is more advanced than a semi-annual HPDE visit...
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Look, I've already said this to you, I LOVE Miatas. But you are either way underestimating the 135 or way overestimating your Miata. You own the two, have you had both on the same track on the same tires? Out of the thousands of Miatas I've encountered, I've had ONE Miata be able to hang. That car had a damn lot more than 15k into it. Fully built turbocharged motor, he was also on better tires than I was. A 15k Miata is NOT keeping up w/ a slightly track oriented 135. Is the 135 an ideal track car? Hell no! But you know what, it can put in a hell of a hot lap.
Quote:
Originally Posted by blutattoo
I think the op asked e46 or 135. Didn't really ask about a Miata. Great fun, cheap to run, blah blah blah. You could make the argument that you could run 100 different cars that would be faster and cheaper than a 135 or a miata for that matter.
For 20k you can buy a used open wheel race car that would beat both cars by a mile. Not sure that it merits inclusion just based on it being faster around a track and cheaper.
It may be your amazing driving skills that makes your Miata so fast, but where I race there isn't one out of the hundreds of Miata's including race prepped cars that turn faster lap times than my slightly modified 135 on street tires. As for the e46's I demolish them. E92's if driven by a good driver compete with me, but just barely. I'd argue that the e36 is a better chassis to turn into a track car. But then again the op asked e46/135.
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Great points.