Not keen on using my car on the track

[Vanne]

Awesome thread..

[brillomaster]

oh yeah any car is fun on track... I started out with an E36 328i that I bought for £410 off ebay. it was awesome fun, 190bhp is more than enough to swap ends in the wet if you're not careful, and the engine sounded great at maximum attack. with decent brakes and tyres it put shame to considerably more expensive machinery as well, but that may have been because we drove it like we stole it.

That lasted 12 trackdays before it had a slight meeting with a wall at rockingham, and we sold it on.

if you want do trackdays but don't want to risk your expensive car, I'd heartily recommend a track beater car if you can afford it - a £1500 2.5i will still be great fun on track.

[Haggisman]

I’m not a fan of hooning it on the open road, yes I appreciate those in the discussion would use sensible judgment about the time and place to open the throttle. I neither have the skill or desire to do that hence my thoughts on a second “cheaper” car. An interesting point raised was that of not needing a super powerful car to have fun so a 2.5 may even be an option.
Don’t get me wrong I do drive my M spiritedly on occasion but I feel as though the car really needs to be well above 5000rpm to get the most from it - not the area you sit in on the open road. Also when it comes to my cars I do tend to mollycoddle them. I’ve done everything to my car including the rod bearings to make her “right” so she can be enjoyed with peace of mind and with nothing but oil changes being carried out twice yearly regardless of mileage.
If I was to bin my M on the track I’d be gutted however, a £1500 2.5 would be much easier to stomach plus as a mechanic, I can fix most issues with the car and the M54 engine. I don’t have the money to put in to a Caterham or the like so for me I’d drive to the track, have fun and hopefully drive home.

I did exactly that in my 911 RS, drove to the track, did a sprint and drove home (luckily for me).Really just cost me normal consumables and more regular fluid changes. When it became too valuable I bought a much cheaper car to do the same and really improved my driving as I didn’t need the same restraint. By then I was bitten by the race bug and the law of diminishing returns on my wallet.

[Haggisman]

oh yeah any car is fun on track... I started out with an E36 328i that I bought for £410 off ebay. it was awesome fun, 190bhp is more than enough to swap ends in the wet if you're not careful, and the engine sounded great at maximum attack. with decent brakes and tyres it put shame to considerably more expensive machinery as well, but that may have been because we drove it like we stole it.

That lasted 12 trackdays before it had a slight meeting with a wall at rockingham, and we sold it on.

if you want do trackdays but don't want to risk your expensive car, I'd heartily recommend a track beater car if you can afford it - a £1500 2.5i will still be great fun on track.

Great engine ithat 2.5. Not much difference between the 2.5 and 2.8 E36 powerwise, the 2.8 benefited from a 2.5 inlet manifold.
One of the best cars for track work if you can get one at the right price, seem to go on forever. Quite a few guy’s over here have them, tyres, brakes and possibly suspension and you’re good to go.

[Simon 3.2M]

Bet you’re glad you asked eh, Simon?

Indeed!!! However, I did an open wheeled track day for my 50th last week - now I Definately have the bug!!!

[RedUn]