What happens to professional race cars?

[Car Addict]

So with a couple of the ridiculous posts about people looking for barn find e30 m3's for cheap or $800 m3's...good luck with that more likely will find a flying unicorn gang bang while getting struck by lightning while holding a winning lottery ticket.

It did get me thinking, what happened to all the e30 M3 racing machines from that time period, the true one lug, pneumatic jack racing machines? do they just get stripped for parts by the racing companies and then trashed? are they all in museums?

and for that matter what happens to all modern race cars once they are done for the season? go up for auction? if so where are these auctions? do they get parted out like all other cars?

inquiring minds want to know.

-Car addict

[Massimo]

Some are sold off some are stripped for parts some are sent to museums.

If you have the money you can become apart of the Ferrari Corsa Clienti where they keep all there FXX cars ex F1 cars and list of exotic Ferrari that you can drive on a coarse anywhere around the word.

http://jalopnik.com/5824366/inside-ferraris-private-stable-for-the-super-wealthy

[ELVA164]

It may be slightly different these days, but old race cars used to be just about worthless for anything more than their parts. The cars would either be parted out, stored then junked, sold to privateer teams/less financially strong teams for the following season, or in less common cases held onto. I think McLaren may be the only F1 team to have held onto at least one example of each of their cars.

[flyboyx]

i just want to know where to find the flying unicorn gang-bang?

i haven't seen one of those since i was a whipper snapper.

[reelizmpro]

The E30 m3 racecars of the 90's are sort of a pain since most people are buying to restore. It's easier to restore a complete modded street car vs a caged, lexan windowed car that's been gutted. The racecars sell but in the lower 20's to mid 20's. The ex dtm cars have historic significance and those have made their way into collections/museums. There's a few owners on S14.net.

[TimeMachinE30]

How did they get them reelizmpro?

I wondered this same thing... even in the craigslist find thread was the E30 truck made for a topgear episode. Where do these cars go?

[reelizmpro]

Word of mouth, being in circles, having a lot of liquid cash? Perhaps people close to those involved expressed interest and a deal is struck? I know I have had the opportunity to buy a few special cars this way. Sellers hate tire kickers and would rather sell to other collectors.

[mikebloco]

http://www.motorsport-sales.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=308&page=2

Start saving

[kingston]

It is fascinating to see people restore the old DTM E30 M3s to their original glory. A have a couple of bookmarks on my computer at home to build threads for some of the cars.

Sadly, it is surprising how little info there is about where most of the cars ended up :/

[kingston]

Here is something related:

http://bringatrailer.com/2015/07/03/impressive-dtm-tribute-1991-bmw-motorsport-m3-race-car/

[Reichart12]

Ive seen some teams in the Tudor series post adds for their cars. Turner had their e92s for sale and maybe even their z4s now. A few years ago before the Tudor/Continental merger Sahlens was selling their rx8 racecars.

[TobyB]

What usually happens is that the car's either wrecked hard enough to strip and scrap,
or it's 'de- contented' of the truly expensive, re- usable stuff and put back together
in a hurry and sold off to a lower- prep level competitor.

Who races it for a while, and either wrecks it, uses it up (there's a point where a shell's just done)
or parks it out back. It may change hands a few times in this process.

Almost NONE get stored- they get used up. They're tools. Expensive tools.

I got excited about buying a V8 supercar when they changed the spec-
but all those cars went into the feeder Dunlop series.
Where the old cars and the 'new' cars ran alongside each other and got used up.

A recent, used racecar has racing value until it's used up- and then it's usually pretty used up.
And what made it special is long- gone. If it was ever there in the first place...


t

[kickinindian]

http://www.motorsport-sales.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=304&products_id=5722

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[mrcheezle19]

One of Turners e92s is sitting in BMW Murrieta's showroom.

[djjerme]

Toby hit the nail on the head.

When you are racing, you can't be emotionally attached to the car, it's going to get used up. The forces on the car are far different then what any other use of the car is going to exert on it. And even the top level DTM cars, with the best prep still had a lot of "demons" in the cars after they were handed down or retired. Rewatch some of those old DTM videos, and pay attention to some of the hits/damage they incur. Sure, they get the car back on the track with some creative use of a BFH and racer tape, but even after the race, they never make put the car back to 100% original. They do what they need to do to get it ready for the next race..

I've seen some even more recent "Pro" build cars from the Conti series for sale, and they look great from 50 or even 10 feet away. But look closely, and you'll see rumpled sheet metal, brackets and patches, and just general repairs to make the car drive straight on the track.