Cheap Track Day Car
- Thread starter savagesam117
- Start date
Debatable. There's no point having great brakes and **** tyres, it's the tyres that are the most important factor in stopping a car not the brakes. The greater the grip of the tyre the better the braking and general handling performance will be.
Downside to that is the brakes will generate more heat so need to up to the job of dealing with it.
You are right though, fading brakes are the worst thing to have on trackdays but personally, I'd be investing in decent tyres too. Nothing worse than following someone who's constantly under-steering or over-steering on a trackday, generally an accident waiting to happen.
For 1 stop sure that's true enough but for repeated full effort braking like on a trackday you couldn't be more wrong. I would expect better from someone who supposedly is experienced?
Just about any road car will overheat the brakes severely within a handful of laps on track, even performance type cars. A good set of pads made for high temperature, high quality fluid and some ducting will go an awful long way.
I like using high grip tyres, I guess everybody does hence the large majority of track day drivers use semi slicks. You don't need that though, and if a car is constantly showing under or oversteer than it has nothing to do with the tyres and everything to do with the driver.
I can easily kill the brakes on my Passat with a vigorous drive home over 7 miles, let alone a few laps on a track.
Not sure you read my entire post. I'm not debating that road spec brakes aren't up to the job on track, we all know that in most cases they are not, although a simply pad, fluid and hose upgrade on many set-ups can greatly improve fade and how quickly it kicks in.
My point is that is that if you have a a set of brakes that are spec'd to last on track, they are largely wasted without a good tyre to compliment them as it's the tyre that's arguably the most important part of the braking system.
- Joined
- 18 Mar 2012
- Posts
- 5,492
- Location
- Eastbourne
Looks like it's either down to a Clio or an MX5.
I done a track day on a set of rainsport 3's and fast road pads, admittedly I did put decent brake fluid in and I never got fade and I was pushing the car. I ran out of driver skill before my tyres or brakes were going to fail.
I'll let him get his search on. Thanks guys!
I done a track day on a set of rainsport 3's and fast road pads, admittedly I did put decent brake fluid in and I never got fade and I was pushing the car. I ran out of driver skill before my tyres or brakes were going to fail.
I'll let him get his search on. Thanks guys!
Eh? I'm not contesting that.
All I'm saying is that if you want to track a car and invest in upgrading parts of the braking system to cope with track use, you'd be well advised to move to a better tyre suited for track as well if you can. Then, all the key elements of the braking system have been upgraded to suit purpose. May as well make the most of the money you'll be spending, particularly for the likes of Clio's and MX5's where road legal track tyres are readily available at reasonable prices.
Soldato
- Joined
- 21 Oct 2003
- Posts
- 13,608
- Location
- Back with a Vengeance.
Clio 182 or Saxo VTS.
People must be keeping hold of VTSs or they have all been written off. Seem to be so few for sale unless I am just being blind.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 22 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 28,782
- Location
- Boston, Lincolnshire
MX-5 will be more fun than a Clio due to being RWD. When you get bored of racing you can do a bit of drifting and some doughnuts
I would also say both an MK2 and MK3 MR2 are also better than the MX5. I have always found the MX5 to be seriously underpowered in standard for track days. Cadwell, Snetterton and Blyton are my local tracks. A MK3 is a lot better chassis than a MX5 and a MK2 is a lot more powerful.
Last edited:
They are starting to appreciate in value quite substantially (relatively speaking), so I'd wager its the latter
Would an E36 330 not be extremely expensive to run, parts and upgrades wise, relative to something like a Puma, Clio, MR2, etc?
You can stick a supercharger in an MX-5 for not a huge amount of money. They aren't slow then
Soldato
- Joined
- 21 Oct 2003
- Posts
- 13,608
- Location
- Back with a Vengeance.
You can stick a supercharger in an MX-5 for not a huge amount of money. They aren't slow then
Given the op's budget is 2k then relatively speaking it would be a huge amount of money.
The mx5 is a great drive, of that there is no doubt.....but that's a comment on its prowess as a road car. For a track toy i'd suggest something a little less compromising and dare I say it a little less well mannered.
Xsara VTS is a great choice, if you can find one.
Saxo VTR/S. Both really good fun although short on legs.
Clio 172/182 as suggested by so many already.
MR2 is a naughty little thing, especially mk2 Rev 1.
Good budget choices IMHO.
Last edited:
Caporegime
- Joined
- 22 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 28,782
- Location
- Boston, Lincolnshire
You can stick a supercharger in an MX-5 for not a huge amount of money. They aren't slow then
You can also stick a 2zz in a Mr2 for not a lot of money as well and have a naturally aspirated 200bhp/tonne car without all the negatives of forced induction plus the car itself is 80kgs lighter and you have a mid engined layout as well.
Also a MK2 MR2 stripped is close to a tonne if you get a tin top. With this you have a 180HP engine as standard.
Last edited: