Finding A Track Day Car To Rock Your World

You’ve seen it done on Top Gear in everything from a death trap BMW M3 to a KTM X-Bow, but one thing is certain: track days are more fun than an all-inclusive stag weekend in Eastern Europe.

But how tooled up do you need to be to make the most out of them? Even if you’ve got the cash to do it you probably wouldn’t want to risk a valuable car on a track potentially filled with people who really don’t care whether they hit you or not. And expensive cars have expensive tyres, clutches, gearboxes and suspension components that, if you break them, will drain your wallet drier than a sand toad’s bum crease.

So, unless your car has seen better days anyway, it makes more sense to go fishing in the classifieds and pick a track day bargain. Better that than slamming your Corsa into the side of an Aston Martin. But while you're browsing for metal, you need to start somewhere and the best place is choosing a kick-ass venue.

Go for the smallest track you can. That’ll mean you can get away with a small, cheap car that you can thrash like it's on fire.  When the track is as tight as a duck’s poo chute, power is irrelevant. Think something like an old Saxo VTR with its feeble eight-valve engine but good handling and three-digit price tag.

The real driving craft you get to learn on track is in cornering. Any idiot can hoof the throttle like a boss and stomp the brake into the carpet. It’s corners that separate the men from the boys and for that you need top-drawer handling. You need a strong gearbox too. Some Peugeot 206s had gearboxes made from butter, so avoid the small petrol engines. Generally, cars with bigger motors are going to be stronger all round.

So go for something like an early Renaultsport Clio 172, or an old Honda Civic Type R. For less than a couple of grand you can have a proper weapon that can keep up with anything else out there on the right track. You can even drive it to and from the event. Provided you don’t end the day on your roof, anyway.