Dedicated Track Cars

[Marlin]

You can stick Karts. I tried, I really did, but I couldn't get into the whole no gears thing. Sent me to sleep. Sure the wheel to wheel racing is good, but meh, the rest of it, I'm not interested.

Besides, you can own a rather decent dedicated track car for what a decent Kart and trailer setup will cost. And running expenses are actually fairly similar if you want to compete for a place in Karts.

Karts are not cars!

[NZM.031]

i have been battling this decison for years... and have finally gone the dedicated track car route... with a numberplate.

if i can get to atleast 5 track days a year... which is about all i can afford.. i can justify having the car sitting in the garage.. id like to have it registered so that i can atleast take it on a SAU cruise, or just around the block, but if not, no biggy.

i have always had a desire to have fully ballistic and ridiculous stuff in my garage.. my last 2 dirt bikes had been modified to racing spec... yet i never raced them, but the sheer excitement of starting them up and hearing them scream was so exhilerating, cracking the throttle and feeling the explosive and almost uncontrollable surge forwards was a feeling unmatched by anything.. but expensive to repair and maintain at such a level. i sold them both to buy the 32.

so with my track car, the plan is to go mental on it.. but keep a sedate power level, focus more on weight reduction and weight placement.. i have fun buying parts.. and enjoy the build process.. thats where the fun will come from.. ill spend more time building it than i will driving it. but im ok with that.. some people pay more for a piece of art that does nothing but hang on a wall.

ive never felt right about taking my good car to a track day, as the closest track was at least 4 hours away.. thats a big tow truck bill, or trailer hire.. plus needing something to tow it there with, so ute hire aswell.. even then you have no idea if you can get it back on the trailer to take it home.

at a small drift day i went to watch, a guy spun, nothing major, but collected the edge of the track going backwards, it ripped his front suspension off.. he had to reverse it back to the pits, then somehow get it to resemble some sort of suspension in order to get it up on a trailer... thats always turned me off.

times have changed and my missus is in her last year of uni and now wants to swap the daily shitter for a nice car... so shes planning to get a wrx... which means we can swap roles... she can pay for the nice car, which frees me up to get something thats only purpose is to fit dirt bikes and tow the track car and i still have a street car to play with and drive.

i have not been to a track day before.. but i cannot drive the car i want to own, the way i want to drive it, on the streets. so therefore i have to go to the track..

[75coupe]

it is a hard decision isnt it & yep being in the hunter valley makes it hard for track days...

Im working towards the trailer now, Ive got the tow car (05 Nav diesel 4wd, yep overkill) now I just need to decide that yes its now a dedicated track car... which has its bonuses, I can run semi's and not have to worry about changing them off for street use, I can run roll cage and not worry about legalities and basically run whatever setup I want...

Ahh but will I get to use it as much as I want considering the money that has been spent (I dont want to break it) and the distance between me and a track, then the associated costs of getting it there and paying for the days...

Maybe we should make our own track, yes I jest...

so that limits you to tracks which are 4hours away which means minimal use of a car you've taken so much effort to modify...

[NZM.031]

well... its not impossible... a race track you will never have.. too many legalities...but a windy hill climb track or something is definatly doable with time effort and money... damn money.. weve all got time and effort... just no moneys.

[ssxRicho]

good to see you are going to track the supra up

PI is in a couple of weeks away with wrx/sau, go into the DT group (Driver Training) and have some fun.

click me you know you want to

also the mx5 car club is going to out on the track, so you can get a good feel for those if you want to get one for the track.

as long as the wheels and going to say on, the car isnt going to leak oil and the brakes work for a couple of laps. you should be fine.

as said, grab some rbf600 fluid and some lucas pads (abs frankston have these, $70), oh the brakes will be really shit in the first session as the bed in.

A1RM dont brake up under heat at track days either, the rotors will brake before the pad....RIP my dba 4000

fixing the car at the track so you can get home is part of the fun , errrrr part of the experience.

- running in n/a mode after the turbo went to heaven at winton

- driving home from sandown with some 'love bites' in the side of the car from tire wall

- puncturing an intercooler at winton, getting it tig'ed up in benalla, going back out on the track and driving home at the end of the day

priceless.

[BezerkR32]

this is so true, a competitive kart with safety gear, parts and putting new tyres on it every third meeting as well as trailer will cost 10K+, they are great fun and a quarter of the price of my 32 but they wont rip skids into 4th....lol.

You can stick Karts. I tried, I really did, but I couldn't get into the whole no gears thing. Sent me to sleep. Sure the wheel to wheel racing is good, but meh, the rest of it, I'm not interested.

Besides, you can own a rather decent dedicated track car for what a decent Kart and trailer setup will cost. And running expenses are actually fairly similar if you want to compete for a place in Karts.

Karts are not cars!

[Sandeep]

i am in a similar situation with the zed. i started off with deca's then did a driver dynamics sandown track day and a winton fun day. also did a driver dynamics drift day just for the hell of it. i think my next event will be sandown sprints in June or winton in july with WRX club. car has had no major issues in 3 years, being a NA means you can drive it hard and you won't generate anywhere near as much heat as a turbo car + I can drive all the way to deca, do deca and drive back with and still have 1/3 tank of fuel left haha. it's ok on petrol for daily driving too.

need to keep it well maintained though. regular oil changes and pull the wheels of or lift it up and get under it and give it a thorough checkover regularly to catch any potential issues early. I think i have probably spent a fair bit to make the car "trackworthy" and reliable enough that i can depend on it as a daily driver, but probably nowhere near the cost of having a second car + trailer. maybe when i get out of uni and get a proper job i will consider that option.

i would recommend you keep a bit of money in an account that is your emergency repair fund incase something does break. i have been doing that since i got the car back in 06, haven't needed to use it yet but good to have it just incase so you can get any issues fixed ASAP. chuck it in a high interest internet banking account and then if you end up not using the money then at least you can use it on your next car or house deposit etc.

[femno]

Well the fact that you have the NA supra that youre not happy with kinda makes things a bit more long winded in your case, but oh well.

You need to firstly buy a cheap run about daily, such as the R31. Nothing wrong with those. Even a corolla or something. I have a Holden VS ute for a daily.

Then buy your dream / ideal track-street car, go about modding it and whatever you want to do with it. Keep it registered though. Drive it on cruises and occasionally on the street, but risk being pinged. You can then drive to track days and what have you. The only thing with this idea is that if you break something at the track, you have to be prepared.

Sure you pay 2 regos this way BUT you dont have the headache of trailers and tow cars.

Ive done this for the last 4 years, and *touch wood* haven't ever had to tow the car home and overall has been minimal fuss. Again its about having spares and tools to be able to limp the car home. Also driving within limits and not being stupid.

Russell once hit a wall during drifting at Winton and smashed the whole front of the car inc IC etc. With some spares and tools we managed to get the car going NA (bypassed IC). Simple stuff like that.

[NZM.031]

and doing track days with your current car, you know what to upgrade for next time.. each time you go out, will be better than last time... and then you can pick up something else to improve...

when you go the dedicated track car route though... well... the options are endless... but the wallet isnt... in all honesty im only going that way because i have the tools, and the time, and my own garage... and i love the build part of it... but because its not a streeter means im going to alot of effort to do things right.. make things light.. etc etc.. which is possibly all unneccessary and a waste of time but in your head... you think, your not going to go to all this effort and keep the standard pedals.. or this.. or that.. so costs go up... time goes up.. and results may not equal the time and money spent..

im rewiring the whole car purely for the novelty of it.. having the toggle switches etc.. for what ill use it for, there is no need to go to that extent... but i like doing it.

[NickR33]

You'll be amazed at what you can break and still limp home

I've driven home from Shepperton with no clutch... also driven from shep with no blades left on my compressor wheel... Driven home from Sandown with a completely destroyed turbo (in the left hand lane at 40km/h with the turbo chewing the housing to bits hehe)

But that said I've also been towed a couple of times... not even I will drive a car home with a big end knock lol

something to be said for having your own trailer and tow car, provided you have the room at home

also something to be said for not driving like your hair is on fire and breaking stuff... I've never managed that unfortunately, hence why I'm currently banned from motorsport

[fatz]

just do it

and yes 31 pull the beeratches

[benm]

In the 12mths that i've had my little car i've done 4 trackdays and 1 skidpan day. My expenses have been (approx)

Entry Fee's: ~$950

Tyres: $280 (6 tyres)

Fuel: ~$160 (~110 Litres)

Oil: $40 (5L and used 200ml)

= ~$1430yr

= ~$28wk

Obviously that doesn't include the $30k purchase, the $45k tow car and the $3k trailer

[BezerkR32]

your fuel consumption makes me sick

In the 12mths that i've had my little car i've done 4 trackdays and 1 skidpan day. My expenses have been (approx)

Entry Fee's: ~$950

Tyres: $280 (6 tyres)

Fuel: ~$160 (~110 Litres)

Oil: $40 (5L and used 200ml)

= ~$1430yr

= ~$28wk

Obviously that doesn't include the $30k purchase, the $45k tow car and the $3k trailer

[jazzy_j]

In the 12mths that i've had my little car i've done 4 trackdays and 1 skidpan day. My expenses have been (approx)

Entry Fee's: ~$950

Tyres: $280 (6 tyres)

Fuel: ~$160 (~110 Litres)

Oil: $40 (5L and used 200ml)

= ~$1430yr

= ~$28wk

Obviously that doesn't include the $30k purchase, the $45k tow car and the $3k trailer

your fuel consumption makes me sick

I'm with Stuart. I've spent more than that on fuel in one track day.

[benm]

I'd rather have better lap times than good fuel consumption any day...

[evil_weevil]

just saw this thread (was away o/s for 3 weeks lol)

ok, so just read first page so sorry if I have missed posts, a few scotch and cokes and cbf reading much now hehehehe

when I first bought my r33, it was 100% standard. I did a couple of track days in it, modded it, did more, modded it, did more!

I got to a point where it was nicely modded and I didnt want to leave it anywhere. it was my only car. I bought an r31 for 2k and kept the r33 in the garage. drove it on weekends. felt good.

by this time I had a fair amount of track time under my belt and wanted to get into more supersprints and eventually racing. i weighed it up, the r33 was just too costly to mod more and go quicker, so I sold it!

bought the mx5.

as others have said, they are lighter and underpowered and will teach you more.

the mx5 is registered, but also aasa and cams log booked. theres an mx5 racing series. fairly light which means a commodore v6 can tow it

cheap on tyres, fuel, spares, everything.

2009 I did 14 or so trackdays. my last race meet at OP GP I killed cyl 4.

I have a blueblird as my daily and within a month or two will be buying a VX berlina, so that will be the tow car to wakefield and maybe interstate rounds.

my advice now, do more track days in your n/a supra. Harry said to upgrade pads and suspension. TBH thats all you need to do to get out there! (and make sure the car is safe)

do that for a while and see where you want to go and race,

Cheers!