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Track Car Under £1000?

Conanius said:
clio valver could easily be done for this money, maybe a high mileage honda CRX vtec?, rover bubble, strip it out, with a view to getting a 2.0 turbo engine?
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Putting in a turbo engine will be majorley detrimental to handeling because it is so much heavier.
Rover 200vi though, they are quite quick, disks all around, a set of springs costs less than 70 quid off the bay of E and standard suspension is stiff anyway.
 
Bug One said:
There's a load of 205GTI's on ebay for under a grand. That would be my first idea.

I would avoid turbos, or anything with lots of things to go wrong. I would be looking mainly for lightweight good power to weight and reliability.

How abouts a vtec prelude, stripped out, or a CRX.
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The 205 GTi's seem to have very high mileage though. And a sound example goes for too much money.

Ive just looked at the prelude you posted and its seems a lot straighter than the CRX (which has clocks that display the wrong mileage apparently lol)

[huzeeee] said:
Putting in a turbo engine will be majorley detrimental to handeling because it is so much heavier.
Rover 200vi though, they are quite quick, disks all around, a set of springs costs less than 70 quid off the bay of E and standard suspension is stiff anyway.
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Actually, I looked at the 200vi earlier, but didnt suggest it as i presumed I would get laughed at for suggesting it as a track car.
 
Personally if I was going for a track car it would have to be either:

E30 beemer (318is is apparantly the nicest handling, but the 320/323/325 have decent power and aren't as rare)

Mk1 MR2, very fun car to drive (got one as my main car) and for a grand or less you'll easily, won't be mint, but be good enough,

I would be leaning towards the mr2 though, much more fun to drive than an E30 (not to say the E30 is bad, it's just not as 'go-kart like' :p)
 
^^ Thanks,

Has anyone bought a car off ebay? Im a little weary about doing it because, I just wonder why they havent stuck the car on autotrader, because they all seem to go for less on ebay than they would have by a normal sale. :confused:
 
for better handling than the golf you could go for a VW Corrado.

the 1.8 16v, puts out 143bhp as standard and the car could be stripped right down to loose the weight, ive had 2 valvers for £800 each.

You could even pick of a supercharged corrado (G60) pushing 160BHp as standard and can be modified to 220bhp (however ive never heard anyone getting more than this from the engine). For under a grand you may pick up a mechanically sound one but one that needs some serious TLC rust wise.
 
[huzeeee] said:
Putting in a turbo engine will be majorley detrimental to handeling because it is so much heavier.
Rover 200vi though, they are quite quick, disks all around, a set of springs costs less than 70 quid off the bay of E and standard suspension is stiff anyway.
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So, its has way more power and an LSD. :cool:
 
mr tommo said:
The 205 GTi's seem to have very high mileage though. And a sound example goes for too much money.
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Why would the mileage matter? You're going to wear components out at a hugely accelerated rate on track compared to road use so I'd have thought mileage would be one of the last things on your mind.

If it's the engine that's of concern, you're more likely to kill it with oil starvation and/or overheating which will happen whether it is high or low mileage.
 
MNuTz said:
for better handling than the golf you could go for a VW Corrado.

the 1.8 16v, puts out 143bhp as standard and the car could be stripped right down to loose the weight, ive had 2 valvers for £800 each.

You could even pick of a supercharged corrado (G60) pushing 160BHp as standard and can be modified to 220bhp (however ive never heard anyone getting more than this from the engine). For under a grand you may pick up a mechanically sound one but one that needs some serious TLC rust wise.
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The Corrado is not as good as the Golf for a track car. The 16V rado was apparently crap (had the cat on), and the G60 is deffo a no go. Who wants to be worried about blowing a G-lader up on the track? 16V Golf is where its at - cheap, bulletproof and easy to get the bits for. Also, it can be made into a lot better handling car than the corrado for not a lot of money. IMO, the only 'rado worth having is the VR. :)
 
Barry Smalley said:
The Corrado is not as good as the Golf for a track car. The 16V rado was apparently crap (had the cat on), and the G60 is deffo a no go. Who wants to be worried about blowing a G-lader up on the track? 16V Golf is where its at - cheap, bulletproof and easy to get the bits for. Also, it can be made into a lot better handling car than the corrado for not a lot of money. IMO, the only 'rado worth having is the VR. :)
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Aye, the 16v Corrado feels incredibly flat and muted compared to the Golf.
My mate who is a Golf nut uses his Mothers Corrado is always moaning about it's lack of oomph compared to his Mk2 Golf 16v
 
Hi there

My BMW 525i SE is only worth circa £1000 and I had great fun going round Donnington in it.

I expected it to be slow, handle poorly and probably die.

The results were you don't need a quick car to go quickly round a track and the car handled superb and remain reliable, not bad for a motor with 205,000. :)
 
Saxo VTS

The main bad points of owning one of these doesn't matter as it's for track use. Cheap interior, niggling faults with airbags and abs sensors so just rip all that lot out. Fit a manual rack out of a non power steering ax/saxo/106 and that leaves very little to go wrong maybe the odd knock from the suspension. Otherwise great handling, enough power to have a laugh due to it weighing very little. A great modern alternative to the 205 gti without paying the premium of a 106 just for the badge.

You will have fun in it standard but you can do quite a few things for very little money too. For cheap I'd get a pair of 306 gti-6 283mm front brakes with some track pads. Simple breathing mods will see you with around 135bhp which isn't bad in a high revving, close geared sub 900kg(when stripped) car. Add a lower brace for about 30 quid to sharpen turn in and if you can afford to get a set of stiffer springs with dampers.
 
cymatty said:
Where is AGW with his 200bhp Rover pimping, perfect for track use and quick.
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:D

I thought with a thread of my own for pimping the Rover Turbos, I'd leave this one alone.

Why, do you think they're a decent contender? ;)
 
:D

Tidy handling car with a few mods. Stiffer than a 220 hatchback, and much stiffer than a 220 Coupe.

Shame about the rust on that rear arch though :( That looks very bad.
 
205GTI is lots of fun, and an ideal track car. :) If you do go for a 205GTI, make sure it has a good rear beam, as these can cost £300 to fix when they go wrong.

If you need more power, throw an mi16 engine in there for 160bhp.
 
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