trackday car
Looking to Buy a Race Car?
Race Cars For Sale
Looking for a car to compete in can be an ardous task, we hope that our page here will develop into a page where you will be able to find all of the resources that you will need when you are looking for a race car this is for sale.
Some of my thoughts about Buying a Race Car
The main thing to consider when you are looking is that different people will advertise their race cars in different places. If you are looking for a classic race car then the likelihood is that you won’t find it in a sports car or modern motorsport publication (either online or offline). If you are looking for a specialist vehicle, you are best looking towards a specialist publication – eg. Porsche Race cars aren’t going to be advertised in performance BMW are they, so why would a specific race car be marketed on a general motorsports site?
A good offline publication to look at for Fast Road and Trackday cars would be something like TRC, they have a few pages of classifieds or PistonHeads which I mention later in the article. – Track and Race Cars Magazine
I would recomend that when looking to buy a race car that you research the kind of specification that you feel that you will need to have to compete at the level that you want to compete at. For example if you are looking to compete at the top level of any championship, in my opinion, you are going to need to do one of two things:
a) Build a car from scratch that is as good as or better specification than the race cars that are leading the championship
b) Build a similar spec race car to cars that are competing well and drive considerably better than those leading the championship currently
In championships where the car is a standard (Eg. Clio Cup UK) then you will probably need to consider the following: a new shell is going to be paramount if you are planting it at the front of the grid – I was told that with the old clio cup cars that a new shell was worth 2/10ths around Brands Hatch? If you are going down this route, then it is probably more sensible to consider buying a new car over a second hand vehicle… as the costs of migrating the setup into a new shell are going to be pretty prohibative.
Where to Look to Buy a Race Car?
RaceCarsForSale – A Leading International Site for selling Race Cars
Raced and Rallied – A well known online portal for buying and selling race cars throughout Europe.
eRacingCars – A well respected site with all scales of cars advertised online. I like it more than most.
Race Cars Direct – A personal favourite of mine, it attracts more of the big money race cars (GT3/LMS), but there are plenty of good deals to be had.
Motorsport Ads – Another good site for race cars in the UK & abroad. Also powers the motorsport classifieds on Crash.net
Pistonheads – Pistonheads is one of those sites that always throws up some oddities, supercars and hatchbacks side by site. Its always worth a gander.
FastRoadandTrack – One that I have seen about, but never really used.
750MC – 750 Motorclub Race Car Classifieds.
The list isn’t by any means intended to be exhaustive, but I will add to it when I get time – its intended to be a gesture in the right direction for those of you looking for race cars.
Always a Hooligan,
/y0z
Tooling Up #1 – You & The Car
‘Tooling Up’
As every father tells his son at some point – you need the right tool to do any job well.
As with the sentiment above – this is the same with going on track with your car. You will find a plethora of hardcore track vehicles and some track orientated road cars from a number of European and Japanese manufacturers and a few from the US, however American machinery normally doesn’t have the same desire to go around corners as vehicles produced by the rest of the world. [the recent exception to the rule]
It would be very easy for me to recommend that everyone goes out and buys a BMW M3 CSL or an Ariel Atom it however would not be within the spirit of what I am trying to achieve here. These two cars are now affordable for a lot of people but – running them as a track car could be almost impossible due to the enormous costs of the components and servicing.
What we are going to be looking as an example vehicle throughout this guide is the Clio 172 Cup. It was first produced in 2002 by RenaultSport as a light-weight road car to the Clio 172. There have been plenty of other vehicles produced by other manufacturers on this principle, from Porsche and their GT3 RS to the Peugeot 306 Rallye and the “commonly” referred to BMW M3 CSL (Coupe Super Light).
Using Your Everyday Road Car As A Trackcar?
Everyday I receive phone calls from people looking for components for their everyday road car to make them “go faster” or to improve some specific element of the cars performance. Most people who attend trackdays are not incredibly rich, they are just the same as you and I – They love cars, they love driving and they are attempting to participate in a form of racing. Now let me clarify this… Trackdays are not racing – it is not competitive motorsport, however for a lot of people this is the closest that they will ever get to “racing” as the costs will be prohibitive for them to enter a small championship or event. They will spend years and thousands of pounds modifying their vehicle to get it to perform exactly how they want it to, and then, they will thrash their pride and joy around circuits up and down the country.
There are limits to modifying your everyday car and those limits are normally relating to levels of comfort. Noise, ride quality and ride comfort and what you and your passengers are able to tolerate on a daily basis are the significant factors in this comfort factor.
As someone considering embarking on taking part in Trackdays you should consider the following things before you purchase your vehicle:
Am I going to buy a standard vehicle and modify it, or am I going to purchase a vehicle that has already had some work undertaken?
A vehicle that has already had some work undertaken is likely to be cheaper than a standard showroom condition vehicle – modifications do not add value in many cases. This is also important for you to remember when you are modifying your own vehicles.
What is your budget for the initial purchase and getting the vehicle to the condition that you want it to be in before you would be happy taking it on track
Working out what you total budget is before you start is critical – If you spend £10,000 on a car and then need to spend another £1000 on servicing then you are 10% over budget – you should be bang on budget when you make that initial payment.
How many trackdays a year do you intend to do?
If you are only going to do one trackday a year – would you be better advised to hire a trackcar for the days that you are going to be out on track and having a standard road car for your normal day to day driving?
How much are you consumable items going to cost you and will it let you maximise the use of the car?
Before you purchase your vehicle, you should establish the cost of the following items which could be considered “consumables”: Engine Oil, Oil Filters, Wheel Bearings, Brake Discs, Brake Pads, Brake Fluid and obviously Tyres. For example if you purchase an M3 CSL the running costs might be so high that you could only do one trackday every three months, however, in a Citroen Saxo it might mean that you could do one trackday every three weeks due to the lower (track)daily running costs.
Is it going to be cheaper for you just to buy a second hand race car?
The answer is going to be vague – MAYBE… It depends on the condition of the car that you could get for your budget. I will be posting up some guides as to what you should consider for a variety of budgets – both new and used in the coming weeks.
Some sites that will be useful for your search for a vehicle:
AutoTrader.co.uk
PistonHeads Classifieds
RaceCarsDirect.com
NorthLoop.co.uk Cars For Sale
ClioSport.net Cars For Sale
RenaultSport Important Websites:
United Kingdom
RenaultSport UK
ClioSport.net
MeganeSport.net
ClioTrophy.co.uk
V6Clio.net
France
Clio RS Concept (FR)
RS Team (FR)
YozzaSport Suppliers