Bang for your buck in a track car

[fasthonda]

hey again.

darren's right;  if shaving pennies is part of your 'bang for the buck' thought process, you should stay away from a turbo anything.  maintanence and upkeep is always more on a forced induction car....  (but boy are those lil snails fun!     )

as for the question about older japanese 6 cyl cars;  the only one i'd consider would be a late model Supra TT.  it's the best of the genre, and those motors are incredible power houses, and able to make insane power on the stock block/bottom end/head.

they can handle, too, if set up right.  it is true that they are heavy (3500 lbs+) but they can be made to handle, and with all that power and tq, they can fly!

here's leh keen driving a true 'street car' on street tires:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld0yzlYK1ls

i've seen this car in person;  they truly do drive it all over the place (its a GSC car).  and it was run in 1lap, too, i believe.  bad ass car, which would put many big dog P cars to shame (imagine what it could do with some huge sticky hoosiers on it, to put some of that massive power to work!).

only problem right now with a Supra TT is that they go for big $$$;  they are appreciating, and a nice one is not cheap (think $15k+++).

stay away from the third gen RX7 TT;  they are very fragile and break easily (but damn they are fun to drive;  i put one thru it's paces at summit at the national Mazda meet one year).    the 300zx TT are heavy, and require lots and lots of upgrades to be track worthy.  i'm kinda 'meh' about them.   the Mitsu 3000 GT VR4 TT are SUPER heavy (over 4k lbs) and are extremely 'pushy'.  i drove one at WGI;  had fun in it, and with the AWD it was great in the rain.  but so so so heavy, and so hard on the tires and brakes.  and the TT motor is no where as good as the Toyota's.

i'm telling you, the S2000, at 225 whp and 2600 lbs without ballast (with the driver!) would be a real hoot.  go find another of those for under $15k and you are in business!!

todd

PS  my civic turbo, at under 2200 with driver and 320+ whp is insanely fast;  i've always run it with cast off junker tires, and still i can run with the big dawgs in the red group.  with fresh tires and brakes it would run at the 'pointy' end.  and yes, darren is right, fuel is a BITCH to pay for in the honda;  i run C16 ($12 a gal) and it gets about 6 mpg.   when i bring it back out of retirement, it'll be running on E85 ($1.80 a gal!).