Edd, It entirely depends upon the budget, and is as simple as that. You may only be able to afford to track a tatty old Saxo but others will be able to do exactly the same with a new M3/Ferrari/whatever. One of the things that impresses me most about Goodwood Revival each year is that people drive hugely valuable bits of old machinery very hard indeed, and aren't afraid to damage them on the track. Oli.
944S2 Track Car Project - Spa April 2019
- Thread starter edh
- Start date
edh
New member
don't forget about insurance oli - what people are gambling with are the quite substantial excesses rather than the whole value of my car. it would be tough to write off a £2m Ferrari as it would be worth spending £1m to rebuild it.. for my car, insurance is pointless. trackday excesses start at £1k, so wouldn't pay out much more than I'd be able to salvage even if the car was a total loss. I've got about 4.5k in the car. more than its worth for sure, but the money's spent now. if I had to walk away from the car it would hurt a bit, but wouldn't have any impact on my life. as you say, some people have enough money to walk away from a £100k car. I'm always pleased to see sports cars driven as they were intended, rather than crawling round Chelsea or canary wharf.
Insurance is a good point but I suspect that a number of the high-end tracked cars are uninsured for the same reason; if the owner damages it then they will be dipping into their own pocket to rebuild it. I have also wondered about how the high values of historic exotica translate into repair costs; as I understand it, something like an original D-type or GT40 is extremely valuable because of it's identity and history. The cost of repairing it will not be commensurately high as the cost of bashing steel to make new bodywork or custom-making mechanical parts is not that great. This is evidenced by the fact that a D-type 'recreation' can be bought for £40-50k and is practically indistinguishable from a 'real' one. The reason the 'real' one costs several hundred thousand pounds more is due to it's identity and history, and little else.
Now that is entirely so - I agree with you wholeheartedly. Sports cars used as tools for posing in is not something that I have ever liked. Oli.
Copperman05
New member
Yes budget comes into it but I'm not convinced many GT2 owners and the like can really afford to lose their cars, most of the performance car owners I know have been skimping and saving and selling for years to buy their dream car, when they finally do thank god their not to precious to use them as intended and enjoy them in many ways, including on a track. Edd
edh
New member
not true Alasdair...not for these wheels. I weighed a set of cups + tyres (lightest 16's) and they were the same as these 17's. wider 225 rubber on the fronts might make the steering a bit heavier, but my car steers very sweetly. for road use the cups would have the edge, but the 17's would win on track with less understeer.
The cups use 225 rubber on the front, 245 on the rear, 7.5 and 9 inch widths as fitted to later turbos. I have never found a set of 17 inch wheels that are better than the 16s. I have also seen everyone who has had 17s convert back to the standard 16s due to the improved experience, less bump steer, etc. Alasdair
edh
New member
I'm referring to 16" cups (7j/8j) as found on cooking 968's, not the heavy 17" cup 1 and 2's. these are even lighter than the 16" clubsport rims. standard tyres are 205/225 just like 944 d90's the 8j boxster wheel i am using with 225/45 ad08 tyre is slightly lighter than an 8j16" cup with 225/50 sport contact. I have weighed them. I agree with your general comments on 17's - this particular car was a bit nasty on heavy 17" split rims when I bought it. I would put a road car on 16" cups for the purest drive.
appletonn
New member
Someone mention my name?! Funnily enough, I 'might' have been looking at a 'cheap' S2.... *walks off whistling* [ORIGINAL: zcacogpTrust me, I am watching this thread carefully. When you have all decided (sorry, realised!) that the S2 is the superior machine then I will throw off my cloak of invisibility and pounce, like a cat, declaring that I was right all along! Until then, I shall bide my time carefully, in order not to spoil the vital element of surprise ... [ORIGINAL: steve 944t But please stop the outrageous slander about it being better than your turbo - Oli's radar must be out of action for him not to pick up on this []
]
appletonn
New member
ORIGINAL: edhNo such thing as a cheap Porsche, buuttt I've seen an S2 near me for £2250.... Not sure I'm ready for all of that power though, as it's a big jump up from a Turbo, eh Oli?! ...talk to me Nick... [ORIGINAL: appletonn Someone mention my name?! Funnily enough, I 'might' have been looking at a 'cheap' S2.... *walks off whistling* [
Neil Haughey
New member
The insurance thing is a big issue with track driving that many seem to forget about until they are in to deep. I was paying for fully comp race day insurance as I just couldn't stomach a total loss on my race car. The stupid thing is I set the excess too high, didn't claim on it when I did crash but ended up spending up to the excess in the rebuild anyway (£5K) as these things always end up doubling or tripling. My road and track driver cover though is very reasonable, after the 4 freebies are used up its only 0.5% of the value for each day with an excess at ISTR 5% (may have increased a bit but was still small). This makes cars with a value between £10K and £20K very viable for track days with comprehensive cover. Stuff up at the £100K level though will be very expensive to track due to the huge excess and day rate. The peace of mind is well worth it IMHO, just don't want to be taken out by some idiot and left with nothing.
edh
New member
Finally - it's back from the bodyshop..
Will be just under a grand all told. The last job is to replace the top bushes on the rear KW's - the n/s is knocking. This was quite noticeable at Spa after the bump. I'm also going to fit stiffer springs all round before my next trackday. I have a 19mm rear ARB to go on at some point, but I thought I'd do the springs first and see how it goes from there..
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