mpwolf

same car you drove there in. Of course, I'm saying this because there is no way I could afford to buy or store a race car.

NASA racer

street legal if registered as a replicar.

Granted, it's about as practical (and comfortable) as a motorcycle but I assure you that lapping 10 seconds a lap faster than your street car could ever dream of is pretty cool too :-)

AJG

Ditto.

LCP

...people our ages are going to make it a long time. And once I finish modding my S4, I am going to drive it at least 3-4 more years (to get my money's worth out of it) as my daily driver, then I will never modify another car again (unless there's just that one or two items that need tweaking to make a big improvement) and I will work toward buying a race car or turning my S4 into a track car.

NASA racer

You need a ride home ;-P

Actually, there are enough ways to buy ride-and-drive race or HPDE rides that one can actually have tons of fun on a track with a car they aren't responsible for for very competitive prices to modding a street car so it's tolerable on a track.

I'm doing the entire 8 HPDE 4 sessions in this Caterham for $700 + entry fees.

mpwolf

serve double duty. Besides, it's not like I'm racing the thing. =)

Funkweasel

and the testing. Hence the S4 versus several other "competitors". I just wish the ecu wasn't so friggin' opaque, so I wouldn't be so dependent on our "tuners". I'm not really used to being so damned passive in my modifications, but I still *really* like the S4 and its upgrade paths.

I think its an impressive car for what it can accomplish despite itself.

PhoenixGTS

No kidding. When you could not sell your car for the cost of the mods, that is sad.

NASA racer

after I quit racing, I modded cars for a while but realized that for the street, a car that's comfortable at any speed and well balanced is the ultimate (do a lot of these club drives) and at the end of the day, street cars are fish out of water on race tracks and are actually more expensive (in many ways) to run.

We did 8 enduros (including the 12 hour) in 2001 for $8000 with a $6000 car that I sold for $7500. Not that it's ever "cheap" to go to the track but there are ways to get incredible track experiences FOR less than spending a fortune on a car that's not REALLY up to the demands of the track.

Have you ever tried a 125 shifter kart? Around here there are even "spec" series where you can buy the kart and pay the sanctioning body to prepare it and you just arrive and drive!

This is sort of what we're looking at now (arrive and drives) but I am seriously looking into building one of these Carthams because they can be registered as a replicar so can get to/from the track under their own power.

Check out these videos...the car doesn't have top-end but look how fast it blows by street cars (there's even an RS4 in there) and this guy isn't even that great of a driver!

This guy's site is also the progression of a guy through all sorts of street cars until he finally realizes a track-dedicated car is the way to go (he got rid of a Lotus 340R because it wasn't suited to the track!)<ul><li><a href="http://www.jackals-forge.com/lotus/">http://www.jackals-forge.com/lotus/</a</li></ul>

NASA racer

go to a kart school or something. Everyone who has ever been near a track should see what they're missing before they spend another dime on their car.

With a kart, the storage/transport requirements are MUCH easier (hell, you can rent a U-haul van).