£2.5k Budget For A Ring Trip

[CaesarBob]

I'm considering a touring holiday with a quick 'ring trip towards the end of this summer and am looking for something for the trip, obviously one with a roundel would be the preference.

Any interesting suggestions for a suitable chariot on a budget of about £2.5k?

[iceox]

e30?

[pac1982]

Errr an E30??

for 2.5K you could have any number of BMW

If i was gonna do it, i would want to use a car that i wasn't to bothered about writing off, as i would want to try and put a good time in, not just take a sunday drive. For this reason i would probably go for an E36 328.

Buy a coupe quite cheap, spend some of your budget on suspension upgrades, strip the thing out with a couple of buckets and give it some stick

[mabz]

Errr an E30??

for 2.5K you could have any number of BMW

If i was gonna do it, i would want to use a car that i wasn't to bothered about writing off, as i would want to try and put a good time in, not just take a sunday drive. For this reason i would probably go for an E36 328.

Buy a coupe quite cheap, spend some of your budget on suspension upgrades, strip the thing out with a couple of buckets and give it some stick

sounds like a good idea to me

[CaesarBob]

I'm looking for something biased towards comfort for the road trip. And having had only one previous track experience the stripped out racer would be a bit overkill for 1 or 2 laps.

[Blitz]

E34 540i Manual?

[pac1982]

E34 540i Manual?

Thats what i was going to suggest next

[Jhonno]

E36 328i Sport..

[harry_p]

e36 m3

plenty comfy enough for a long trip, and about a million times more fun than a 328 once you get to the ring. ok so theyre not going to be low mileage minters, buy you'll get a decent running 3.0 with plenty of T&T for £2.5k

[pac1982]

e36 m3

plenty comfy enough for a long trip, and about a million times more fun than a 328 once you get to the ring. ok so theyre not going to be low mileage minters, buy you'll get a decent running 3.0 with plenty of T&T for £2.5k

I wouldn't fancy taking a 2.5k m3 to the ring chances are it wouldn't make it back

[harry_p]

i must be imagining the 4k miles i've done in my cheap e36 evo over the past 3 months without it blowing itself into a million pieces

[Ant]

540 would eat the £2.5K on fuel getting there...

How goes Bob ??

[xavi1980]

e36 328i sport with that money

[Falkster]

E36 M3, drive there, cane the nads off it around the ring and nurse it home to frag it!

[CaesarBob]

Hmmm, interested in the E36 M3 idea. Hadn't really thought about them as i'd assume anything at the bottom end of the market would be a bit ropey. Worthy of consideration then, but i'd think a 328i Sport might be easier to fix as parts are more available?

540 would eat the £2.5K on fuel getting there...

How goes Bob ??

I'm good Ant, miss the old E30 but still check in on the zone to see whats happening.

As for the 540i, need to consider the fuel costs for a 2k mile road trip sadly, but the noise would be good!

[Ant]

328 is the one bargain BMW left it seems, plenty about too.

Kos was selling tidy looking one, plenty on the trader too.

[oldroydsr4]

Yep, 328i , don't bother with the sport as they command a premium over a standard 328.

Replace the waterpump, give it a service, stripp it out, couple of bucket seats and have some fun. The level to which you strip it us dependant on how many Laps you do, if your just going to do 5 laps I would just take the rear seats out and put a bucket seat instead of the drivers.

Also - I wouldnt even have writing the car off in your mind , the Armco is far from cheap, iv heard rumours that the biggest armco bill was approaching 25k.

[anothere21323i]

Also - I would even have writing the car off in your mind , the Armco is far from cheap, iv heard rumours that the biggest armco bill was approaching 25k.[/quote]

One piece of Armco is €4k, there are 2 pieces per section. So if you only hit it in one place you're looking at €8k, potentially €16k at the join of 2 sections.

Bear in mind you are liable to pay for track closure time (this includes each lap paid for by other users that they don't get to do because it's shut, and that's €22 per 30 seconds at busy times) as well as track cleaning and recovery of the car.

Add to this that the German Police are, quite rightly, getting pretty annoyed with people turning up in utter sh*tters and throwing them round the track at the same time as some properly prepared cars, let alone caning around the local roads like nutters. They are now targetting foreign registered cars.

So, not wanting to be negative or anything, be careful!

[pac1982]

Also - I would even have writing the car off in your mind , the Armco is far from cheap, iv heard rumours that the biggest armco bill was approaching 25k.

One piece of Armco is €4k, there are 2 pieces per section. So if you only hit it in one place you're looking at €8k, potentially €16k at the join of 2 sections.

Bear in mind you are liable to pay for track closure time (this includes each lap paid for by other users that they don't get to do because it's shut, and that's €22 per 30 seconds at busy times) as well as track cleaning and recovery of the car.

Add to this that the German Police are, quite rightly, getting pretty annoyed with people turning up in utter sh*tters and throwing them round the track at the same time as some properly prepared cars, let alone caning around the local roads like nutters. They are now targetting foreign registered cars.

So, not wanting to be negative or anything, be careful!

So whats stopping you from crashing your car in the the armco, deciding its not worth trying to salvage whats left of your car and legging it back to blighty without paying the armco bill??

[psychochild187]

Also - I would even have writing the car off in your mind , the Armco is far from cheap, iv heard rumours that the biggest armco bill was approaching 25k.

One piece of Armco is €4k, there are 2 pieces per section. So if you only hit it in one place you're looking at €8k, potentially €16k at the join of 2 sections.
quote]

wrong . the track closure is per half hour regardless of how many potentiol laps could have been done .
and how wet or dry it is.
and armco is in the year 2008 67 euro a post and barrier at 34 per meter i think .

plus many other charges and the cost of car recovery is another 220 euro.

the reason you get big bills is track closur by oil spil on fast bits of track where the car has pinballed down the track

[Jhonno]

Unless the prices have shot up, armco isn't that expensive..

Karan had a large off a year ago and had a £1700 bill, Oguz on here similar

[bigdoe]

540 would eat the £2.5K on fuel getting there...

that`s oh so true Ant, great cars.

great at raping your wallet


quote fixed,Ant

[Jon_Bmw]

I bet a 6 speed would be no worse than a 325i at 85/90mph. Probably better.

[anothere21323i]

Also - I would even have writing the car off in your mind , the Armco is far from cheap, iv heard rumours that the biggest armco bill was approaching 25k.

One piece of Armco is €4k, there are 2 pieces per section. So if you only hit it in one place you're looking at €8k, potentially €16k at the join of 2 sections.

Bear in mind you are liable to pay for track closure time (this includes each lap paid for by other users that they don't get to do because it's shut, and that's €22 per 30 seconds at busy times) as well as track cleaning and recovery of the car.

Add to this that the German Police are, quite rightly, getting pretty annoyed with people turning up in utter sh*tters and throwing them round the track at the same time as some properly prepared cars, let alone caning around the local roads like nutters. They are now targetting foreign registered cars.

So, not wanting to be negative or anything, be careful!

So whats stopping you from crashing your car in the the armco, deciding its not worth trying to salvage whats left of your car and legging it back to blighty without paying the armco bill??

German prison! You wouldn't even get off the track!

[CaesarBob]

Thanks for the inputs. Think i'm gonna look into the 328i (Sport?) options and go kick a few tyres.

Assuming these stories of large bills for armco & german prison don't put me of the 'ring completely.

[Kos]

328 is the one bargain BMW left it seems, plenty about too.

Kos was selling tidy looking one, plenty on the trader too.

a deposit has been taken so i cant see them backing out, at the price i was selling mine and the condition its in it wasnt goint hang about