Last year I sold my LS swapped 951 and bought an E36 M3 for my mostly track car. Car is setup as a track car with fixed back seats, harnesses, rollbar, stiff coilovers, etc, gutted from the front seats back.

It's a great track car, very durable and fun. It does have AC and a stereo in it, as well as a license plate so I do take it to Cars N Coffee, etc.

However, I don't use it that much. I have two kids now and I'm lucky to hit the track 4-6 days a season now and I trailer it to the track. So maybe I'm getting the car out for 14 days out of a 365 day year. Most of the time it sits on my 4 post lift at home. Hagerty frowns on me using it to get to work and its much easier to hop on my motorcycle or just take my DD than get the thing off the lift.

Lately I've been thinking maybe at this point I need to flip flop the priorities here and get a car that's more street/track vs track/street.

Like sell the M3 and the trailer and buy a Porsche 996 Turbo. It'll do the street driving much better than the M3, will fit my kids in the back, is a durable/reliable car and won't depreciate. It may even appreciate a little. Maybe.

For the handful of days I hit the track, it'll do ok. Definitely run through more consumables than the M3 and won't be as safe but it'll work ok with a set of track pads/tires.

Thoughts?

I like it. I built my NA Miata into a fairly hardcore track/street car. Then I discovered that 700 lb. springs aren't quite as much fun as I thought they'd be on the street. I'm thinking a street/track 240z is the way to go for me. But if I had a Porsche wallet, I'd be all over your plan.

Well, I figure I can get at least $20k out of the M3 and the trailer. I should be able to find a higher mileage, driver quality 996T for about twice that.

So, yeah, more money in but I can use it almost the entire year here and those have pretty much bottomed out on the depreciation curve...

I don't really 'get' streetable track cars or track day specials. If I'm spending enough time at the track to make it worth owning a car dedicated to doing so, it's going to be a proper racecar built to a specific competition spec. Otherwise, I'd much rather have something that's more of a trackable street car.

Why not make the M3 a street car again? Pull the roll bar, put a stock interior back in it, maybe get slightly softer springs for the coil overs. Go back to regular insurance. It seems like it would still be 90% of what it was as a track car, but be more usable on the street.

Ian, I'd still want it to stay with Hagerty insurance wise, I have a stated value policy with them that really reflects the market value vs what NADA says. NADA says its worth a third of what I could sell it for.

I do have all the interior bits and could easily put it mostly back to stock. I didn't really think about that as my entire point of having it was to have a proper track safety system in it. Hmmm, that is an option...

The advantage of having a dedicated track car is -- full race cage. Crashes don't happen all that often at lapping days around here, but they do happen. It's hard for me to rationalize a dedicated, caged car for a few events per season. Building a hardcore track Miata and then street driving it was a great lesson in spending money to make myself miserable better.

Yup, that's where I'm at Luxinterior. It just doesn't make sense to have a mostly dedicated track car for 4-6 days a year...

I had my track Civic. I hated it anywhere that wasn't on track. It sat. That made me hate it more. My next car will be heavily tilted toward street driving.

Don't you already have two of those already? The CTS-V and the 964? I was looking at 964's a bit ago, hard to believe but you can buy a 993 C2 for less than a 964 C2 now!

docwyte wrote: Like sell the M3 and the trailer and buy a Porsche 996 Turbo. ... It may even appreciate a little. Maybe. Thoughts?

Part of the fun is the thrill of the hunt. There are still excellent deals to be had on 996 Turbos if you watch constantly and are ready to pounce.

I had a buddy buy one 2 years ago. It got traded in at a Ford dealership on a new F150. One owner, <50k, all records. It got listed at $26k. Told my buddy to pounce and he went directly there with a check, but they dealership said they had a buyer at $35k if he wanted to pass and split the difference.

996 Turbos WILL go up in value. Life is short: if you don't enjoy the M3, get a different car.

In reply to docwyte:

I've been banned from anything other than light autocross with the 964.
My stupid pedal to the floor autocross and theoretical track stuff is what the V is currently used for, but deucekid#1 is about to start autocross with me and I'm not 100% certain 556hp is really the proper way to introduce a 15 year old to the sport. I also want something a bit more disposable for the track.

Well, that's because the 964 isn't yours, its hers! LOL!

Yeah, I suppose a miata with a rollbar works pretty well as an auto-x/track car as long as you don't go overboard on the spring rates.

I also wanted something more disposable as a track car, hence the M3 vs just buying the 996 turbo from the get go.

I suppose I just thought I'd be using the M3 more, it just doesn't make sense to have it mostly sit there.

Ideally that's what I'd do, but there are a few impediments to that.

1 When I told my wife I wanted a 996 Turbo, she said "No problem, go for it! What car are you selling?" My response that I wanted to add, not replace wasn't well taken.

2 I don't really have room in my 3 car garage (that already holds three cars, plus a motorcycle, plus all the tools/bikes etc) for a 4 car. None of the aforementioned vehicles are crappy enough for me to want to leave outside.

docwyte wrote: Ian, I'd still want it to stay with Hagerty insurance wise, I have a stated value policy with them that really reflects the market value vs what NADA says. NADA says its worth a third of what I could sell it for. I do have all the interior bits and could easily put it mostly back to stock. I didn't really think about that as my entire point of having it was to have a proper track safety system in it. Hmmm, that is an option...

OK. Understand about the insurance, but if you replace it with a more expensive street car without much in the way of safety equipment, will you really track it much? Or enjoy tracking it?

To me, it sounds like keeping the M3 is the easy-button. It'll still be the expendable car you need, just slightly less focused on track use.

This is precisely where I'm at. I no longer have a track rat, but I want a 1LE Camaro, but it doesn't make sense to drop $40k on a factory built HPDE car, for the few times per year I'd use it.

But I still want it.

docwyte wrote: However, I don't use it that much. I have two kids now and I'm lucky to hit the track 4-6 days a season now and I trailer it to the track. So maybe I'm getting the car out for 14 days out of a 365 day year. Most of the time it sits on my 4 post lift at home. Hagerty frowns on me using it to get to work and its much easier to hop on my motorcycle or just take my DD than get the thing off the lift. ... Thoughts?

So... I arrived where you are for different reasons.

I used to have a BMWCCA CM car. And I got an M3 for instructing / track days. I turned that into a race car too. Because... I like racing? ?

So, now I had 2 race cars. One for endurance stuff (old BMWCCA CM car) with AER and one in IS trim for BMWCCA race weekends. I had no "fun day" car. They were both all business. Like... don't track them unless racing because wear and tear type business. Racing was expensive so I went from 30-60 instructor/fun track days a season to 6 weekends. That made zero sense so I sold one car.

In the meantime I rekindled an old love of motorcycles.

I went riding more often instead of going to the track because it's easy. No towing or anything. It's right there in the garage.

I sold the 2nd race car to a "team" of which I was a member, sold the truck, and trailer to an "up and coming" addict.

I rode more.

The last season, we struggled with car problems. I sat in the pits thinking about riding home and if I left now I had a whole extra day.

I sold my spot on the team. I have not been to the track yet in 2017.

I bought 4 more motorcycles. A scooter project, 2 dirt bikes, and a new S1000XR. For track days...

You see where I'm going with this?

In reply to Huckleberry:

You make poor decisions no matter what but at least motorcycles take up less room?

mazdeuce wrote: In reply to Huckleberry: You make poor decisions no matter what but at least motorcycles take up less room?

I'm not sure I like the way you framed that question

Ian, I suppose it'll bother me to take the M3 on track without all the safety gear installed that I already have for it.

If I pull all that stuff out and have it sitting in my basement it seems dumb to not use it. But then I'm right back where I started, as it doesn't exactly go in quickly.

Why not a 3k dollar track day car so you don't feel bad parking it outside/driving it 14 days a year?

I guess I don't understand how an M3 is better than a ratty SN95 if you want a fun, fast track ride.

I've gone through this a number of times myself. First I way over modified my 2002 Focus SVT when it was new where it had racing suspension and was just miserable to drive on any bad road. So next time I bought a miata and that was my autox/track/weekend occasional only car which was nice but after a while having a car sit in your garage 90% of the time feels a bit like a waste and that was with a car I had spent less than 5k total on. Also driving it to track days a couple times a year was so loud I needed earplugs and was not very comfortable on the highway.

So now I lean towards "trackable street car" for me the focus is on how many different types of events and what events are locally available. If I was towing to the track and had a trailer I was spending weekends at the track then full on race car makes sense. But in the meantime if I hit autocross regularly and a couple HPDE's it makes more sense to have something I can just drive there.

I love the idea of a 996 turbo I want one as well, currently I think its going to be out of budget so I have been thinking of various "CAM" builds. Watching Strano work on/build his 90's camaro again is pretty inspiring

docwyte wrote: Ideally that's what I'd do, but there are a few impediments to that. #1 When I told my wife I wanted a 996 Turbo, she said "No problem, go for it! What car are you selling?" My response that I wanted to add, not replace wasn't well taken. #2 I don't really have room in my 3 car garage (that already holds three cars, plus a motorcycle, plus all the tools/bikes etc) for a 4 car. None of the aforementioned vehicles are crappy enough for me to want to leave outside.

Sounds like its time to upgrade your wife and your house.

Daewoo, because a $3k beater takes at least another $5k to get reliable and durable for track use. Plus the M3 is a much better car and I've already bullet proofed it for track use.

Ricky, doing either would be exceedingly expensive!