Minor Project: TJ's '02 Z06

[tjZ28]

@Your Mom

Sadly I think this is mostly true. but still very expensive. a friend has a c5z and always has brake issues, finally got willwood 6 pots with 2 piece rotors. his pad choice maybe the weak link. tires are very expensive and the car needs 4 coolers, engine, tranny, diff, and brakes. the only thing doing fine is the motor. had his first wheel bearing go bad, doesn’t sound too expensive to replace.

I’d like to argue that an LS1 in a rx7 FC or FD, or 240sx. miata’s with a super charger,some e30s and e36’s. The trill vs $$$ will always be very biased toward the $$$ side, but i feel like taking the best of a few things and making your own is the best way to get the most for your money.

I’ve got about 23 or so track days under my belt with my 240 and sr20. I’ve done fairly well trill vs $$$ up until lately. motor being the weakest link. Theres gotta be a good combo out there. it maybe buying an already built/race car like yours.

anyway, have you been to reno-fernely, yet, TH is great, RFR is just awesome. elevation changes ftw. and if your willing to go for a drive ORP is damn awesome.

I was mostly referring to a car you can buy and track more or less “as is.” A engine-swap car is a much bigger project. Though I’ll agree, a LSX FD is a helluva car. I helped a buddy build one years ago (it was only the 3rd fully BAR’ed and CA-legal LS1 FD in California at the time) and raced it a few times. The FD chassis is great, and the steering feel is fantastic. My buddy who owned it is about 6’4" and was just too tall to comfortably drive it, let alone put a proper cage in for road course. Being the 3rd legal one he sold it at around a 100% profit and bought a C5Z also (which he’s selling along with his '98 Viper to buy an Atom).

Anyway, about C5Zs, they can be tracked 100% stock. On the stock tires and at stock power levels unless you are a HELLUVA driver you don’t really any extra coolers. The stock brakes will hold up on street tires just fine, even the stock pads until you get pretty fast yourself. You won’t have trans/diff or even engine heat issues on street tires either accept for a very few, very aggressive, very fast drivers who can really tax any car. Sure, once you put R-compounds on it it could use a trans (and diff) cooler and better brake cooling and/or a brake upgrade. But at that point look at the lap times it’s turning: you’re talking race-car fast and much faster than things like stock 911 GT3s and such. Sure, to run those lap times you need some coolers. But nothing you find is going to turn those times w/o some help.

A Miata is probably the best, most economical, easiest to maintain, cheapest to track, most plentiful “track car” out there, no doubt. Great learning car, and not having any power can do some really good things for your skills. That said, they’re pretty boring to track unless you actually w2w race them. The same is mostly true for E30s, NA FCs, and stock motor 240s. E36s and FDs are definitely a cut above the others mentioned, but start to be just as costly to track as a C5Z and not even close to as fast.

Anyway, I largely agree you can build something cheaper/faster but if you want to go buy a stock car today and track it tomorrow and be crazy-fast (assuming you can drive) it’s really hard to beat a C5Z.

-TJ