Buying a track day car

[Wild Ride]

Having gone both routes when buying e30's both sub $1000 and top dollar. I thought I might weigh in.

One option if you are tearing everything apart anyways: Buy a non runner i car for $500 with a decent interior, original paint (no accidents) and compression from someone who can prove they actually flushed the coolant, oil and brakes regularly. Part the interior to recoup on the initial investment. Then take everything apart and do all the wear items consumables, motor mounts bushings, hoses, head gasket, suspension, brakes, brake lines etc because you will eventually break every 20+ year old wear item on the car. Spend 3-7k plus and 100+ hours making it fully track worthy and hate the previous owner for all the corners they cut. At best it will be a 3k car when you are done that will take time and re-engineering to be fully reliable and consistent.

Option two buy a real sorted track prepped car (not a beater with a roller job) that someone has invested 20-30k into and is selling for 5-10k. Go to track event fully prepared and have fun. You will love the previous owner for spending all of his blood, sweat and money so you could enjoy the turnkey fruits of his labor at pennies on the dollar.

[andrewm]

What I'd be interested to know, since I'm jumping into this thread after it was started - how nice of a car would you guys look for? I mean, obviously I'm trying to avoid rust, but how well maintained? My personal taste would be to find a clean body, but that needs a lot of work. I'm okay with replacing wheel bearings, etc just so I know it's done.

Would it be better to get a car that doesnt need the immediate maintenance? Or would you still do them anyways?

[JRKOUPE]

all good info here.......

what else do you want to know?....

just get the friggin car you prefer?!........convert, sedan, gti..... etcetcetc...

everything else you know. What more thoughts are there?......

find a solid car for 15oo......freshen and prep it....go race.

if u get an e30 let us know, we can help a lot!!! ..if not ...good luck.

[bowtie2bimmer]

^ exactly.

We know bushings and worm parts need to be replaced. Thats not part of the 1500. But like he said no a/c down here kills the price on any car so its not too bad to find a car. We've also been lookign for miatas, mk1 mr2's. etc.

[andrewm]

A lot of people are questioning the act of the cheaper car? Because I'm a maintenance whore. If I am buying the car to race, I'm going to rebuild the suspension, shifter bushings, repack bearings, brakes, etc.

I dont care about the paint, or a lot about the interior. Finding a car with bad paint, a little suspension play and no AC in FL - that car isnt gonna be more than $1500. Even if the car is a $3,000 car - I'm probably gonna drop the subframe, put poly bushings in etc. So why pay for the nicer car if I'm gonna replace all the parts anyways.

It can be advantageous to buy a built car if that's what you're looking for. But we're entry level, it seems like getting our feet wet makes sense...then again, I suppose there are times you run before you walk.

Thoughts?

[jlevie]

Appearance and interior isn't very important in a track car, but mechanical condition is. Track use puts a lot of stress on the drive train and suspension and those need to be in like new condition. Unless you buy an ex-race car you should plan on a complete rebuild of at least the suspension & cooling system. That alone will run several thou over and above the cost of the car.

[j0oftheworld]

Mine was built..
M50 tuned, G250, 4point, susp, wheels/tires, brakes, interior race parts etc.. all for what a halfway decent E30 is costing these days. My friend and I drove double duty for the first year and it never skipped a beat. I literally added race brake pads for the first event.
Now that she's proven herself to me, she's getting the royal "because racecar" treatment. Stay tuned! :p



Sig pic is from very 1st event..

[craiggroves91]

e36 m3 FTW!

[2mAn]

^^^ not enough 3 wheel motion, but i still approve

[cagedbunny]

The thing is i'm not looking to "build" anything. Just a car I beat on at the track. It can be a jalopi, as long as it runs and drives ok

You're not likely to find a cheap jalopy of a car that's;

1. not a project and
2. going to pass tech.

Cheap cars usually need mechanical work, especially when they're 20+ years old. Worn control arms and bushings, crap brakes, etc do not make for a safe and reliable way to track your vehicle. Get a third party in on the action to up the budget, or expand your search to cars other than E30's. Like previously mentioned, an ex-IT car can be cheap, come with tons of spares, and provide many events worth of use and abuse for you and your buddies.

A few years back, I bought a semi-beat ex ITB Rabbit GTI for dirt with a fresh motor. Drove it around for fun, auto-x'd it at the local 24 hour event, and made a profit off it when I sold it. Hard to go wrong for the small investment.



Good times.. :)

[bowtie2bimmer]

The thing is i'm not looking to "build" anything. Just a car I beat on at the track. It can be a jalopi, as long as it runs and drives ok

[2mAn]

$1500 isnt much of a budget. im building an '80 rabbit with a simple 1.6L motor and it will easily clear $2500

[bowtie2bimmer]

for now we are looking for a solid drivable e30. It can have torn seats and a dent in the rear. No worries. Paint don't matter either. As long as it runs/drives we'll be ok.

For now its just autox so i dont think i can gut the car for stock/stx

[JRKOUPE]

ok...so you know u want an e 30..

thats good.

So did I......like 6 yrs ago, and found a very nice solid 1 owner car...and it was over $4k...but that was fine w/ me. I turned her into a street legal track day/DE car.

$1500 may limit u a bit as you will see alot of POS for sure. I wanted nice exterior and never hit... well taken care of etc...

I dont like tracking ugly cars....and didnt want a dented, needing paint monstrosity
deicide what matters most to you...exterior?...interior?..a beater?....

youll end up replacing most/all wear items....

youll end up getting track seats or even gutting her....

also keep in mind that older M3's( e36) are very affordable nowadays.......not 1500, but 6 or 7k and you have at least 240 hp w/ a nice platform.....

oh..i just read u r open to other cars......

[bowtie2bimmer]

Its a shared venture between me and a friend (Andrewm on here)

We both have e30's as daily's and thought it'd be cool to have an e30 track day car. While i have driven around a track my experience is very limited. As his Andrews.

We had a e model lined up for 800 but the guy blew the engine (head gasket, engine full of water) before we picked it up. We offered to still but it then didn't wanna lower the price. F that.

So still looking. I'm not sure I can track day my e30 cause its a cabrio (without cage) and not sure I want to cause it is my daily. I'd like to run it once though ;)

We are open to other cars just wanna keep it under 1500