Suitable hack for Club Events, hill climbs. fun

mcscottwgtn, Jan 2, 7:30pm
What would you recommend to enter car club events where you thrash the car and do paddock, cone races, hill climbs and the like. Twin Cam's are sweet. Should turbos be avoided? Seen some of the prices for old Toyota's seem way over the top for an old shagged heap. Was thinking Manual of course and the go fast models of.
Toyota Corolla, or the booted import thing Celica
Mazda 3 (the small one whatever the model is)
Honda Civic.
How much do I need to blow? Or should I just get something imported from Japan as old/cheap as I can get.
Thanks
morrisman1, Jan 2, 7:36pm
What class do you want to compete in? That, and how far you want to take it will be a big factor. Will it potentially be a keeper-car which you will develop over time? Some have more potential to move onwards and upwards without changing the chassis.

More importantly, how much are you willing to spend up front and what would you anticipate your yearly budget to be? Always make sure that you can go to the events you want to compete in. Too many garage queens around because the owners have blown all their money building or repairing high performance cars and have no coin left to drive them in events.
mcscottwgtn, Jan 2, 7:39pm
Good point. Best to be a spectator first. Ask first. Spend second. Thanks
morrisman1, Jan 2, 7:41pm
being a spectator sucks big time! Get into it, but make sure your motorsport is sustainable!
mopeds, Jan 2, 7:41pm
Definately go for performance, Subaru or Mitsi models, turbos are fine
bwg11, Jan 2, 7:53pm
No contest, either MX5 or turbo SW20.
socram, Jan 2, 8:49pm
Do six months or a season as a helper first. You'll get a lot of first hand knowledge, meet some great people, and put something into the sport before you take anything out. We need more volunteers at all levels.
ianab, Jan 2, 8:55pm
I seriously considered keeping my old Toyota Corolla BZ wagon as a club car.

Take off the BZ and -20 decals and it looks like Grandad's wagon, with a 20 valve Blacktop 4A-GE.

Sure it's not as fast as a larger Turbo engine, but you race in the N/A 1600 class, and it's going to be competitive in that. It's a Corolla, so parts are easy to find etc.

If you are getting into motor sport, don't by the most powerful car you can. You end up racing experienced drivers in equally powerful cars, and either loose, or crash. Buy something cheap, reliable and decently quick, and have fun. If you get hooked, you can always sell it to the next newbie and buy something better.

So yeah, 4A-GE powered Corolla, V-Tec Civic or a Mazda 3. All along the same lines. If you go though a fence you can get body panels to fix it. If you blow an engine you can afford a replacement one etc.
tamarillo, Jan 3, 5:42am
Mx5. It's rwd. Light agile easy to play with. Best starter out. Often most fun out even for experienced folk.
mals69, Jan 3, 8:08am
Good point - I looked into e30 racing here in ch-ch - great group
of guys who literally seem like a bunch of mates catching up on a
sunday to have some fun. One driver took me for some hot-laps at the
lunch break.
Was drawn to the e30 racing cause read in their blurb they do not do
trophies and prize giving.

More race parity than other forms that are pure cheque book racing - cannot see the point whatsoever in racing other people's bank accounts. Want to see how I compare as a driver as much as practical to do so.

E30's looks to be the one too if you want to be able to enter as many different classes of racing.

So yeah suss it all out so you do not find yourself being a square peg in a round hole .
stevo2, Jan 3, 3:59pm
Mx5. Lightweight rwd heaps of fun without getting into trouble. They even have their own race class.
timmo1, Jan 4, 6:30am
Mx5s will need a cage fabbed most of the time though, so budget ~$800 extra for that
petermcg, Jan 4, 11:10am
Audi Quattro
kazbanz, Mar 29, 7:34pm
personally I would buy a car already set up ready to go. Lots of money to spend getting it to club level-Money you don't recover so best to let someone else take the loss.