Planning an assualt of the 'Ring..

[J4MES]

..on the cheap. Idea is to buy a cheap, old, light, simple, exploitable car to prep for and drive to the 'Ring, return to UK and sell without making significant losses.

Initial thoughts are 1. It should be a German car (just cos) 2. It should be old, and therefore cheap 3. It needs to be simple, because being old and cheap means we need to be able to fix it if things go wrong 4. It wants to be exploitable (i.e. not a turbo-nutter-b*stard) so we can get our money's worth by taking time to get round, and therefore see lots of exotica overtake us 5. It needs two seats, cos there's two of us and finally 6. A Golf GTi seems to fit the bill.. or have we missed something?

Then it's a case of remove what we can (and store it to put it back in), drive there and enjoy. Clearly we should spend hours on GT4 'learning' the track, have I forgotten anything else?

[joshwa]

GTI Mk2 for cheapness?
How about a Scirocco Scala for added cool

Sounds like a great idea - I'd love to do the trip myself!

[Moby-Dick]

The feedback I have from friends doing the ring is that mo matter how many times your practice on GT4 , the real thing has much more vertical ups and downs than you feel on GT

old but quick Audi ?

[kalniel]

Something that doesn't crash. Crashing is expensive (I hear )

[MrP]

old 325i

[dave87]

Yep, E30 320/325i.

Strip it out if you like, save some weight, or leave it as standard if you want to sell it. Didn't someone on here buy one as a track car?

[MadduckUK]

a black one.. i saw that but cant remember who it was

[99Flake]

What is the budget? How about a 328 (E30)?

[[GSV]Trig]

Whatever it is just dont crash, chip did and it wasnt cheap

[J4MES]

See, we thought of a 3-series (specifically E30) but.. it's a cost/simplicity/fix-it-yourself equation. If something goes wrong with a Bimmer (h/g, diff, etc.) then we'd struggle to get it fixed a. ourselves b. on the cheap and c. fast. So a light fwd german four-pot is the default option to keep costs down... I think. We'll endeavour not to crash, either on the way there or on the 'Ring, cos then we'd have to walk home

Budget it around £1000 - we're going to throw £500 in each, and hopefully make any losses. Golf Drivers (1.6) seem cheap, but may not be up to much - I need to investigate old VAG petrol engines (although iirc an 8v Mk3 GTi is more covetted than a 16v).. Scirocco is a good thought, given the prices on the 'trader.

[[GSV]Trig]

Spend £900 on the car and £100 on new disks pads and brake fluid.

[mycarsavw]

Take discs, pads and maybe even tyres with you too, unless you're towing it. There's a few spares places around the 'ring, but it doesn't hurt to have your own spares.

Mk 2 GTi (8v) are pretty solid. Mk3 will be too heavy.

Strip it of everything, essential stuff needs to be strapped down, flying wheel braces aren't kind.

Depending on when you're planning on going, I may be able to set something up or get some more nutters to come along for the trek.

[Trash Man]

Not sure how hard you are planning on driving the car buy my brother took his Exige there and went through £400 worth of tyres in 3 days. It also broke down twice :/

Sounds like a nice idea though, good luck to you As for car suggestions, Szuki swift 1.3 GTI

[SilentDeath]

sounds fun. I would suggest £200-400 on car, £400 to get brakes/tyres and service items upto standard... £200 for fuel

Sabb 900 turbo (or non turbo if your fussy) gets my vote + rwd

dont get a golf :/


THIS
Find 1997 SAAB 9000 Griffin 2.3 FPT Auto - Full Leather etc on eBay within, Saab, Cars, Cars, Parts Vehicles (end time 23-Nov-07 18:19:45 GMT)
sump off to fix sludge. Even head off, on the cheap would only cost £200 or so. Only its an auto :/ why do turbo autos exist?

[Vimeous]

While you might not be able to fix an E30 pretty much everyone else there will (being German etc)!

Something with big lungs and decent brakes would ideal. If the engine is too small you'll top out on all the straights and you'll need the anchors for the scary bits.

I would have gone for a Polo GT or G40 (preferable) but they'll run out of puff I suspect.

Hmm

Lancia Thema 8.32?

[schmunk]

Sabb 900 turbo (or non turbo if your fussy) gets my vote + rwd

No they're not.

Also, not German.