Your quest is universal. Everyone is looking for the
cheapest and best combination car. Everyone hopes they
have discovered it. This means you probably ought to
follow what others are doing if you really want cheap.
If on the other hand you want different more than
cheap, go ahead and chase the turbo car/exotic car
dream....
Everything is above your desired budget. Especially
that MR2 turbo. But so what? We are here to have fun
so whatever it costs..... 8-)
Track preparation for roadracing includes a cage
[$1500], fancy seat [$500], suspension package [$2000
installed and aligned], wheels and tires [$1200], all
new brake system [$1000], full major tuneup like
timing belts etc. [$500+], and the purchase of the car
{$??}. A cheap starter car will likely need a fresh
engine and/or transmission and will no longer be
cheap. The only way to get in there at $5000 is to buy
a three year old veteran car from someone with a new
car or passion. This will still likely be not your
dream car. The specific numbers here will vary all
over the place, the point is $5000 ain't likely
enough. Oh, I started with that same number in an
already owned RX7 with a fresh motor so I speak with
straight tongue. The car is beautiful, great fun, but
way over budget.
RX7s are the cheapest car today. They are rwd, have
very durable engines in a roadrace application, and
handle like pigs. You must have a local guru to keep
the odd things together though. They are fading from
availability and will not be the cheap darling in
another five years.
Miatas are the coming thing. They are great handling
cars that use about 1/4 as much tire and brake as an
RX7 going the same speed. They are the most graceful
of affordable rides and the prices are lower than you
suspect.
Fifteen year old Honda Civics and twenty year old VW
GTis are the cheapest seats on the track, they just
don't ring true as sports cars for lots of folks. The
GTi is the best cheap seat out there still. The CRX is
way cool but kinda expensive to live with.
Toyotas are Rodney Dangerfields. They just don't get
no respect. They are generally heavy. Heavy is durable
but slow. There are no covens of support and spare
parts at the track. You are on your own with them.
Early Corollas and MR2s have been shown to work, but
Celicas seem just too heavy and the late model stuff
too fragile.
You mention 240Zs as slow. The truth is they are one
of the fastest IT class cars out there. They have a
lot more trouble with brakes than speed. They may be
cheap to buy but are expensive to build and run. Fast
class cars are like that.
The two biggest considerations once you get into
roadracing are tire use and car durability. Tires last
about two weekends on an RX7. That's about $300 a
weekend. Similar story with brakes, and not just the
pads. This is typical for all roadrace cars. Entry
type costs are about the same. It gets up to and above
$1000 a weekend pretty fast, that doesn't leave much
for fooling around developing a weird car. The fixed
overhead is too high to make any real savings. Speed
is rather insignificant as the class rules keep
everyone at parity, but faster class cars always cost
more than slower class popular cars. Roadracing is an
addiction and seat time is far more an issue than
speed. Few can really afford V8s or turbos so those
cars do not develop enough interest to have a class,
at least for entry type people who ask these
questions. Everyone wants to go faster. Everyone is
spending too much already.
For street car track days the rules are a bit
different. You run what you've got. To "progress" to
roadracing, look around at what others have and how
successful they are with it, find out what really good
support there is locally for whatever you are
interested in, and go with a plan neither you nor I
are likely to predict from this point. You will not
likely roadrace the car you start out in school with.
Volunteering as a corner worker for a year is a great
way to see what is working and how the game plays
without spending a ton on sommething that won't work.
You also can get some deep deals on cars you know the
history on at the end of the season, just because you
are there.
=====
Dennis Hale
Yahoo! Auctions - Buy the things you want at great prices.
http://auctions.yahoo.com/
|