I just sold my integra and I'm in the market looking for another car. I've decided that it will be between a Civic EG, Miata, and 240SX. Here's the mods on the civic i'm looking at.

Civic: Engine/Tranny - 96 Type R, Brakes - GSR front and rear discs, Suspension - Ohlins 36 way adjustable, ITR front sway, rear GSR sway. Took the car out for a spin a few days ago and its built solid, ride quality is great, took the corners just as good as my teg with the koni/gc setup. Very impressed. Only bad thing is the exterior is rough but that can be easily fixed. Price set at 6500. Comes with a few sets of wheels as well. Will need about $1K for bodywork/paint.

I talked to the owner/founder of speedventures, Aaron Bitterman and he recommends a miata. Here's what I estimate a track ready miata will be.

94 - 99 miata with 80-100K miles, approx. 3-6K. I'll probably get the cheapest one...so $3K.
Roll cage - $3-400
Suspension - $1K
Wheels, 2 sets with tires, $7-800
New brake rotors and pads, $3-400
Full tune up, timing belt change, etc, $6-700

I haven't priced out seats and harness for either the civic or miata, but I'll probably spend about $5-600.

So for a price comparison, the miata will be cheaper, motor is expendable since you can find them for $5-600, and they have seperate miata race class if I choose to race in one. Also, mazdaspeed offers parts at wholesale prices if you show them a timeslip from your racing day with speedventures. Downside is that its underpowered.

My dilemma is, which car to buy for road racing. I've been used to FWD cars for a while. I've driven RWD cars and used to own a 944. The civic is built up, will be much faster in a straightaway, but cornering, I think the miata would win easily. Again, either car I buy will need to be streetable/smog legal.

When I was at Fontana last week, there were a few honda fwd cars that were competitive. The miatas I did see at the track were killing all sorts of cars, including corvettes, porsches, Evo's, STI's, etc. That made me consider a miata, as well as talking to aaron about the cars he's raced and seen at his event.

Any insight?

 

Umm, is this for actual racing or just HPDE stuff? There is a big difference!

Will it be track only, or semi-daily driven?

Sounds to me like you want a decent street/track car.
Either will be fine.

You need to ask yourself where this is going and what your plans are for the car down the road....

 

Good point. HPDE events, semi-daily driven. And when I say semi, its very SEMI lol. I drove my integra only on the weekends so thats how much use it will see on public roads.

As for the future, the car will still remain a track/semi-daily driven car. I won't make it a dedicated track only car.

Thanks.

 

It's pretty hard to beat the EG with the Type R engine. I raced this setup before and it worked pretty well. The only problem with it is the cost of engines/trans as compared with the Miata. So your per hour on track cost may be more expensive with the EG than it would be for the Miata when looking at the engine as a amortized consumable.

 

Don't get me wrong...I would hope with either car I get, the motor would last me quite a while lol. When talking to aaron, he said he bought a miata with 90K miles, and tracked it till he blew the motor at 150K miles. 60K miles is pretty damn good, consistently tracking it.

The thing is, I LOVE honda motors. I just think they're the best thing since sliced bread haha. And the type r motor has been the motor that I've always wanted to own.

decisions decisions...

 

need to fix some of your prices.

Roll BAR = $400 - $500
Full roll CAGE = $1,000 to $2000
Suspension - $1K (springs, shocks only. Will cost more if you want bushings & chamber adjusting control arms)
Wheels, 2 sets with tires. cheap wheels = $70-100each, Cheap tires = $70-100each total for 8 wheels/tires = $1,120 - $1600
New brake rotors and pads, $3-400
Full tune up, timing belt change, etc, $6-700

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by snowboardgeek1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I just sold my integra and I'm in the market looking for another car. I've decided that it will be between a Civic EG, Miata, and 240SX.</TD></TR></TABLE>

For Speedventures? Those might be fine choices for NASA or Redline, but I don't think they'd fit in very well at Speedventures. For that you'd need a Boxter, M Coupe, 3-series or some other leased, German sport touring car. Then when you put it into a wall or tire barrier your first time out everyone will post photos and talk about you on the interweb. That's just the way its done there...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by thawley &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

For Speedventures? Those might be fine choices for NASA or Redline, but I don't think they'd fit in very well at Speedventures. For that you'd need a Boxter, M Coupe, 3-series or some other leased, German sport touring car. Then when you put it into a wall or tire barrier your first time out everyone will post photos and talk about you on the interweb. That's just the way its done there...</TD></TR></TABLE>

lol i love going out there with the doctors and the lawyers in their expensive cars they can't drive

 

lol that's funny. You're right about all the cars there are usually either german, corvettes, or evo's. There were a few honda's out there doing quite well. In fact, there was a wagon and an eg hangin' with the advanced drivers and doing quite well actually.

 

You're right about the roll bar. I should have been clearer.

As for the supsension, I was basing it off the Tein Flex kits, so around 11-1200.

For starting out, I still think 6500 is a good number to purchase a miata and "fix it up" to be race worthy for a bit.