Weekend / Track car

[Neil - TXJ]

Another theoretical question as can't see this happening anytime soon!

With a budget of between £5k to £10k what would you purchase as a weekend fun car and occasional track car. Would need to be reasonably economical to run and comfortable enough to make long journeys.

My thoughts were:
R53 MCS with cash left to modify - was there a JCW R53?
GP - like this idea as my mechanical knowledge is very low so running a standard GP looks attractive bit looks like most GPS get modded!
R56 MCS - not sure if a JCW would be in budget

What do you think and what about non Mini - always fancied a VX220

Thanks.

[Eddie_JCW]

Well, you have the SD which is pretty capable for our runs and it looks great, so if I were in your shoes I'd go for a nice GP or something non MINI. Getting in and out of a vx220 is interesting but it's really just a Lotus Elise with a different body and I'm sure the engine's different too, so it's got to be really fun to drive.

I've had a serious think and I'm planning on doing my bike test and getting a BMW bike (probably one of those tall adventure style bikes you tend to see the foreigners on). The reason being, the mileage I'm doing and amount of fuel I'm going through, if I don't I'll be the sole person responsible for the world having no crude oil left, but I am doing us all a favour by warming the country up a bit :lol: . Not only that, I like a challenge and I want to cut that fuel bill down a fair bit.

[Mon the fish]

If you're tracking it, a GP is a waste of money. Cheaper to modify a stock R53 for the track.

Other options:
E46 M3
Elise
996

Pretty much anything rear drive and light-ish

[ianking]

Friend is selling a 99 T Z3M which would make a fun track car. This actual car was a track toy anyway. Has had upgraded Porsche 911 brakes fitted.

[badwolf340]

Had a vx220 /vx220turbo and vx220 vxr great cars easy to mod and much better than the lotus they were built beside,easy car to track for not much.loads of cars (cheap) that you also could consider

[Neil - TXJ]

Thanks for the response guys. Nothing will happen in short term but can see when I swap the SD going for a cheaper commuter and then a 'fun' car that I would be comfortable putting on a track

[EcosseGP]

Why not just get a GP and that way you can have it as your commuter and track car.

[Neil - TXJ]

Why not just get a GP and that way you can have it as your commuter and track car.

Hi Davy. Ido about 20k a year so don't think ruining a GP a viable option!

[Mon the fish]

I did 20k a year for the first 3 years I had my R53, they're not as bad as some people would make out. I get 36mpg easily out of mine just cruising, less obviously when the foot goes down

[jdl_1967]

I seem to remember Jason Plato on an old episode of 5th Gear saying he preferred driving the R53 to an Elise.

I agree with the above too regarding MPG, mine has averaged almost 40mpg over the last couple of thousand miles since I reset my onboard computer. A figure that is borne out by manually working it out too.