Would you really be happy leaving the GTR about if it was your daily driver though Mark? I did consider one but after the mildly dissapointing drive and the drama that surrounds it I wouldn't like to leave it in the back streets of stoke. The M3 on the other hand to the uninitiated could be any other 3 series and only feel a slight pang in leaving it in dodgy streets, rather than a full on panic attack

 

Agreed, Mike. It would be prob be a garage queen and stay back here at home in the warmth of the garage, for weekend use. The issue is where I stay during the week is outdoor private parking and there are all sorts of vans parking in the sapce next to me during the day It's such a big beast that it would inevitably pick up a few nocks. I'm trying to not to panic as much. Moving soon though, and decent parking is on the priority list! Out of the GTR and 997 GT3, i'd sooner have the GT3 but would need to do a bit more saving for that option.

Think i'd be happy leaving an R34 outside, but I think i've missed the boat on that model as finding a straight one seems tricky. I spoke to Jonny from BaT about the R34 and his view was that while it would be expensive to run on track days, he reckoned it was a hell of a lot of fun. I think his words were that it was like a big caterham

 

I have fully adjustable Ohlins on the Exige, and left it on Lotus race settings so it's a bit bloody firm atm

 

The R34 feel SIGNIFICANTLY smaller than the R35. And the R34 felt a little bit too big for smaller roads. The R35 is definitely the more 'complete' car, and quantitatively better, but I think the R34 is much more characterful, and significantly cheaper.

Have you spoke to Middlehurst about finding a straight car? They are usually good at sourcing decent cars.

 

MB I see 2 main comments here:

1) MB liks to go fast. This is relative to the cars that are around you. I am sure I went faster on Friday than you ever have done in any of your cars. Why, because I was flying in an A320. So the relative speed was not noticeable.

I therefore think you like going faster than those around you as there are usually comments regarding what cars where there at the track day and how / where you beat them.

Is racing therefore the answer?

Buy a nice road car, that you are comfortable leaving in places and spend excess cash on a race car. Prove to yourself how quick you really are, meet people rather than just see them as adversaries on track days behind wind screens and finally find out if you are quick.

2) You like nice cars, but be comforable with your purchase.

 

It's def not that I want to be faster than anyone / everyone, and I don't often compare speeds. I just like the feeling of extreme speed.

I am not good enough for racing I don't think, much as i'd love to

Well, there is some progress on the car front in that yesterday, I sold the Exige back to the dealer

Worst bit was walking away from it sat outside the front



However the timing was right and I have a lot of pennies in my pocket I suspect I will have another one, one day but it just wouldn't have been used between now and April / May time.

So just the Evo remains!

 

Racing is there for the people of that mindset so if you have the enthusiasm, you'll be good enough.

Just stay away from anything with rich kids (the Caterham series I saw was a shambles with quite a bit of awful driving).

Obviously, there will be people who have better X,Y,Z than you, so you won't be able to challenge them.

But there will be people who are in a very similar situation of which you can genuinely race against.

 

He speaks the truth, I'm not good enough for racing either and I'm having bloody good fun.

There's racing and there's racing.

I'll do a quick report on my weekend in bit, it may help make the point

 

i m parting out my s2k and saving my every penny for the exige S, i heard that the 2008 spec Exige is much better, anyone can shed some light on this??

 

the exige looks really pleased though