Thinking of buying a track car...

[adrian@vishnu]

Originally Posted by thomas135

You don't happen to be Adrian Vos do you?

If you are, I had one of your chips in my RS Turbo many moons ago...

Sorry for the OT.

What about a 01—02 Sti? They are within budget, parts are cheap and a good platform to modify from. Some reasonable parts from stock.

That is me. Still do those chips occasionally, but mostly BMW stuff now.

Cheers,

Adrian

[quasio]

I'm going to put my hand up for an Rx7 FD. They are an EXTREMELY capable track car. more capable than living in traffic anyway.

they are heading to the ~20 - 25k mark now, plenty of ppl race them, so there's a LOT of parts avail.

But make sure you buy the Type RS. Oil coolers and larger brakes. I did 10 laps easy without a sign of fading/overheating etc on stock brakes and engine temps, and the power/driving balance is just awesome out of the box.. its nearly an MR feel.

now this is the huge "but".. its a pure drivers car, if you suck at driving.. u will suck on the track.. evo's will destroy you out of the box with its computers..

but once you get good and start beating evo's.. you'll be proud as its your own two feet, anyway its a great learning experience.

anyway.. go for a test drive.. u wont be dissapointed.

[BFD99]

You guys suck, I wish i could get an old EVO here in the US, the Evo 7 is my absolute favorite of those cars. USA gets none of the cool cars!

[Stuart@BMRAutowerkes]

Evo has moved to the top of the tree now... not sure whether to go for 7/8/9 though :s.... and there's so many molested examples around, not sure if thats a big deal seeing as the car will be tracked, but it just means sifting through a lot of classifieds.

[woosh]

Stop by Extreme Imports in Burwood when you can, Stu... I've seen two of the vehicles they've brought in for customers (it was ironic that two seperate people buying car parts off me had bought their cars from them) and I was honestly astounded with the condition and cleanliness of both vehicles. If I ever considered buying an import, it'd be through them.

[eric@helix]

[MrBlonde]

Hey Eric, there were only 21 Z3 M Coupes brought in to Australia by BMW.

[Chris.G]

Like Jeef said, either Daiwoo lanos it or Hyundai excel it. They can be Porsche, Ferrari and Lambo eaters!

[sbce90]

Originally Posted by Jeef Beef

You should get a Daewoo Lanos and drop 15k into it.

4second lanos bishes.

[Bobbo]

I went through the same thing as you. I bought an EVO 6. After talking to many mechanics it gives the best bang for buck like others have said. I also wanted to buy a road registered car so I could drive it to the track. . Seemed like I good idea at the time. Now I have a trailer and a car that is still registered but is very unroadworthy. Cage, stiff suspension, no interior, no a/c etc.

You see you start going to the track and its fun but you want to go faster. This equals lots of money on mods and a car that is complete rubbish on the road.

If I had my time again I would buy a road/race only car from Japan and build to my own spec as money allowed and save $10000.00 on purchase price. Or buy a car that somebody else has spent all the cash on. You save heaps this way.

What ever you think you will spend triple it. Tyres alone are $1800 a go and last around 6 days.

I wouldn't be worried about pre modded cars. As long as they are done properly you will be fine.

Anyways good luck.

[Jeef Beef]

Why would you buy an evo for the track and let the car drive for you? Unless you're pushing for the best laptime then I think it's a complete waste.

Get something RWD as well if you want to learn and have some fun while you're at it.

[TimMc]

Originally Posted by Nugget

My friend is doing something similar. He stripped out an E30 but he has put in an M50. Just need to finish it off so I can drive it

IanS, a member of this forum, has put the M50 from his departed E36 into his E30. It's a very quick track & hillclimb car.

[Stuart@BMRAutowerkes]

Originally Posted by jbgti

You see you start going to the track and its fun but you want to go faster. This equals lots of money on mods and a car that is complete rubbish on the road.

If I had my time again I would buy a road/race only car from Japan and build to my own spec as money allowed and save $10000.00 on purchase price. Or buy a car that somebody else has spent all the cash on. You save heaps this way.

What ever you think you will spend triple it. Tyres alone are $1800 a go and last around 6 days.

I wouldn't be worried about pre modded cars. As long as they are done properly you will be fine.

Anyways good luck.

I'm now looking down this path, i.e. find a pre-modded car where all I will need to add is possibly race seats and a rollcage.

I still want it to be road registered though, sure the suspension will be stiff but at least that way it has way more utility than just a track toy that gets used 6 times a year.

Originally Posted by Jeef Beef

Why would you buy an evo for the track and let the car drive for you? Unless you're pushing for the best laptime then I think it's a complete waste.

Get something RWD as well if you want to learn and have some fun while you're at it.

Evo just seems like such a well sorted car, sure it's a very 'flattering car' but from a bang for buck perspective it really shines. Plus I quite like the shape
Even though it'll be a fast car out of the box, it'll still give me room to improve as I can see how my laptimes go after each session... i.e. it'll be the same baseline and I will be able to measure my improvements as skill increases.
If I want a RWD later on then can always look into that after but yeh right now Evo is top of the tree.

[woosh]

Originally Posted by bmroxm5

Evo just seems like such a well sorted car, sure it's a very 'flattering car' but from a bang for buck perspective it really shines. Plus I quite like the shape
Even though it'll be a fast car out of the box, it'll still give me room to improve as I can see how my laptimes go after each session... i.e. it'll be the same baseline and I will be able to measure my improvements as skill increases.
If I want a RWD later on then can always look into that after but yeh right now Evo is top of the tree.

Are you prepared to drop 5--8k into engine mods to make it faster? At 200atwkw mark (2-3k in mods) they're not as fun... not my own experience, but what I've heard from people/friends that have owned Evo's.

[flinchy]

Originally Posted by gazz

- A racing class where there are plenty of participants -

I've been out of racing for a long time so I don't know what classes there are now.

If the car is just for fun then class racing isn't a factor.

excel cup, it's the only true answer.

Originally Posted by skycat

That is fine BUT you cant have a road car with rego and have all the mods that a real track day car should have, you will have a defect list as long as your arm with in 1 month, The way to do it is purchase an old 4x4 ie Toyota Hilux a trailer and then you can have a ball. Do it the rite way or dont do it as it will allways be half done and cost heaps. been there done that
So you want a $20,000 race car Sorry stu its to hard the EVO will cost $18000, cage $2000, seat $1200, wheels $1000, tyres $2000, shocks $1500,
brakes $1000, and all the other stuff $5000 on a good day and it goes on and on you will spend around $40,000 inc the car in the first year and $20,000 the next
and so on.
Just spend $10,000 on your 135 and have some fun
I am happy to help with whatever you want to do
We have a nice race trailer that we lend out to many customers who do track days if you need one
peter @ Advan

start with sprints rather than races, much easier for a beginner, no risk of other cars. minus the cages, no need to spend $1200 on a seat, the recaros will do fine for now, same with $2k tyres, you can get awesome street tyres (max for most street legal classes) for <<<<$300 a corner, $1500 suspension would be MINIMUM though (bc racing gold series) would still prefer better. brakes you can get pretty damn cheap for an evo, but realistically slotted/drilled rotors and good pads will be <<<$1k.

but really, the first 6 months of racing, basic suspension stuff (brakes, sway bars, chassis bracing... and the car will be WELL past the limit of the driver) and even after that, an E85 tune for 250AWKW is <$1k. for more secondsies.

[Stuart@BMRAutowerkes]

Originally Posted by woosh

Are you prepared to drop 5--8k into engine mods to make it faster? At 200atwkw mark (2-3k in mods) they're not as fun... not my own experience, but what I've heard from people/friends that have owned Evo's.

not all about straight line speed, would much rather spend the money on handling mods.

but still, many of the evos I'm looking at are already modded to 200kw+ atw.

[vans]

MINI JCW?

[Stuart@BMRAutowerkes]

Originally Posted by vans

MINI JCW?

bit exxy

[AussieRacer]

Originally Posted by TimMc

They're old, but most of the quickest cars at our BMW club track days are stripped out 2 door E30s with modded versions of the M20 12 valve straight six. Once stripped out they're light. With a good set of springs & shocks they handle. With a good set of pads they stop. Parts are relatively cheap (from o/s...) & still abundant. They often come up for sale as there are so many around still. They're not super powerful but you can bolt in most of the newer 24V sixes including M3 donks. LS1s even fit in without much hassle. I'm sorry I sold my last one.

Best advice here. Quick, reliable, cheap to service and plenty of experts around (real and virtual) to help as it is probably the most modded BMW around. The other huge advantage is the type of events E30s can be used at: racing, targa, hillclimb, etc...

Any cage with weld-in door bars is unregisterable in Australia. However any car older than 25years (e.g. early-model E30s) can be driven on the road with Club Registration, for which the car's mods are all perfectly legal.

[AussieRacer]

Originally Posted by skycat

+1
+1
+1
+1
You cant build a race car for $20,000 if you do it will be a pile of crap
ie a $10 car

That is BS. It may not be a quickest or best built, but a $20k race car is not a pile of crap.

[1q2w3e4r]

Originally Posted by AussieRacer

That is BS. It may not be a quickest or best built, but a $20k race car is not a pile of crap.

- Cheap
- Fast
- Reliable

Pick 2

[Stuart@BMRAutowerkes]

Im checking out an Evo 7 RS this weekend... has some power mods already and coilovers, so should be a good start.