So I recently put a deposit on a tastefully modded s2000 that seen a few track days which didn't bother me much at the moment. The car was clean and well maintained. It drove awesome and had no strange noises under the hood. The mileage was under 30k. I found out recently that the previous owner before the current owner used it for mostly the track and autocross. So now I find out the car seen over 15+ track days.

I know most people prefer cars that haven't seen track because it's been ran hard and they would prefer a car close to stock but should I stay away just because it's seen numerous track days even if it looked to be well maintained. How reliable will it be down the line lets say with 80k miles? Will the engine feel less power with higher mileagE? How reliable is your S if you daily and track it alot? Any advice or comments would be appreciated. Thanks

 

Not normally. Probably better serviced. Mine gets a lot of love.

 

i think it really just comes down to how well the car was taken care of. you can run it out of oil, over rev it, or crash it regardless of where you are driving it. does tracking the car increase the odds of these things happening...? probably. i track my car regularly and drive it hard all the time but always within the designed limits and always with proper maintenance. so my feeling is just the fact that the car was on a track doesn't automatically make it less reliable. being driven by a jackass makes it less reliable!

 

The fact that he tracks it regularly means that he knows how to drive and hows to maintain it. One of my buddies the other day was bragging about taking his S to 130mph on the highway.. He doesn't track nor know anything about cars. So personally I would trust someone that tracks their S over someone that doesnt. Just make sure it runs right which it seems you have.
Besides, depending on the track, he probably doesn't go near as fast as those stupid kids hauling ass on the highway and destroying their differential at red lights..

 

If you found a bone stock one for the same price would you go for the bone stock one or the well maintained track one with lots of tasteful mods like hardtop, exhaust, coilovers, etc.

 

I would personally go for the one that is modded, as long as I like the mods. There is the merit of adding the mods yourself, but you'd be spending more in the long run I would think, given the cars would be of similar value stock. This is applies only if the mods have been installed correctly. Plus the hard top is always a plus.

 

Track or not it all comes down to how well the car was maintained.

Tasteful is subjective. I don't see the advantage to buying mods that I have no interest in. You need to make your purchase decision based on your priorities/needs/wants rather than opinions from random people.

 

track guys are normally to the tooth when it comes to maintenance and replacing things when they go sour. The ones that buy the car because it looks "cool" usually could care less if they skipped a few thousand miles between oil, diff, brake, clutch and fluid changes. I got a co worker with a civic si who has never EVER in the past 10 years changed his clutch fluid yet he daily drives it and does not track it

 

You are asking for an absolute answer that can not be absolutely answered. There are cars that are well maintained and break down quickly and the same exact car can be abused and last forever. There is no statistic to say a tracked car will break down faster than a non tracked car. It's all a gamble. Just drive the car and if it checks out it checks out. Do a compression test and if the drivetrain is good all you can do is drive and never look back. If two cars were equal and one had mods I liked I would take that one because you can always part out those mods for extra cash.

 

Tracking a car stresses it, that is a matter of physics and material science. Granted, the owner may be meticulous about maintenance but to say that because he tracks it makes him meticulous in maintaining it just doesn't pass muster in Logic 101.

As with all cars, the more you can find out about the specific vehicle and how it has been treated and maintained, the better.