list good track cars

Its an interesting debate. To me the porches are honed for track, more of roadable track car. There certainly is a question as to how useable a road it it is.
In my world most "sportscars" are a waste. You cant really exploit them on road and if they dont really work on track what exactly are they for. Frankly my 4cyl Gulia has mroe than you can use on road(but motor sounds like a diesel) . A neighbor gave me a convertible 996/911 to use and to me its just a not that comfy car with a top that goes down.

Part of this all has to do with available roads. In Fl the roads are mostly straight, there is an occasional s curve and some great highway roundabouts that are occasionally clear. While you can run down the highway at 80-100 any car can do that.
True in Ct backroads are different, but theyre getting increasingly crowded with NYC Subaru folk and even then Im barely using all my NA elsie has.

Back to FL. youre right a z06 would be a far more useable car, and useable for many road purposes because its a vette. Its probably perfectly comfy to roam as far as road Atlanta barber even vir.The question is how would it really work and holdup up on track. Ive had vettes before and perhaps that unfairly sours me. But I spent too many years dealing with vette issues that related to low cost build. Given all he allowances I make for lotus and ferrari a vette should be fine, but then an elise is bulletproof where it counts.

Maybe its the interior choices people made on the C8s Ive seen, some look cheap and the more upscale ones, the term tarts handbag comes to mind.

The 4rs is the least appealing of the cayman stylistically, overwrought comes to mind, but as a tool on track I think it would be more rewarding and last better/longer., plus I like the minimalism of the interior, and you can get thinks like proper track seats, iron rotors etc.

baby porche true, dont care at all about that. But in my town c8 vettes are literally all over the place and pretty much always driven by a +70 yo just cruising about. The z06s I've seen, they show up at cars and coffe type events and rev their engines, thats the sue cysle, and seems a priority in how it was designed, plus two sets of golf clubs.

But yeah the vette is all day useable well rounded which means most of the time Ill enjoy it more, but then those times on track. Outside possibility Ill go for a used MC20.

In any event the porche are unobtanium, unless you want to spend 250k for slightly used which I wouldn't.

Id sped 180-200k though.

lastly the 4rs is probably the last of its kind, and an extremist zenith in a road car, something you could keep untill too old to drive and it would prob entertain all along the way. Its goign to fit in the pantheon close to a 997 rs 4.0.
The vette, you know theres an improved version round the corner Maybe thats part of it, the z06 is first and foremost a road car that can turn some fast laps. Im really hoping they make a properly honed version soon, as they did with the camros.

meanwhile the monoballs are going into the exige cup suspension in a week.

 

These are the things I fear. In a few years theyll prob have the cars better sorted and honed, if they bother.

 

Well racing and to lesser extent tracking is always going to find the next weak link. In racing we call that developing the car. Lol...

It does not appear this rod breaks on street but maybe it will fatigue fail??? Racers/trackers threshold smashing brakes are finding the weak link. It's not a lot different from early days of racing C5 vettes where we would crack rotors on 3rd trackday. Brakes are always an issue on track vs. On street.

 

Yeah i well remember a freind coaching in a c6 z06 surviving it careening through the bus stop at near full tilt because the brake lines were plastic/rubber and ballooned from the heat. Not a big deal for the factory to fit braided lines on a "track ready" car.. Its these types of omission that make me leery of the c8, perhaos unfairly as were a few generations later, but tis still GM so who knows. You still cant order az07 with iron rotors. Not to say the z06/7 is bad on track, but the priorities were not so track centric, ie show a competitive laptime and focus the car otherwise on street.

True 997 Gt3s had coolant or oil hoses blow off due to cheap fittings, early 991 Gt3s had rod failures, but porches got on it and replaced motors in all affected cars. That same motor is now a few iterations on the the 4rs so Id call it well sorted.

Weight/consumables aside, imo If a fast car cant really work on track for two days open lapping say 5x per day 30-40 mins out with to be fair some minimal mods, youre just heading for a world of frustration expense and wasted days.

Lower down the food chain the previous gen Honda CTR was not a track car, it went into limp mode after a few hard laps and brakes were def not up to it after few days cracked rotors, the current gen may be ok, A Toyota corolla Gr simply cant hack it on track, even after you spend another 20-30k on it.

the C7 Gs seemed to do just fine, not so the other versions up or down the food chain. prob too little experience out there with the c8 z06. And yeah brake system component failure is not some little bit needing a upgrade thats a terminal issue like a boeign flying into the groud. the question is what else lurks.

you know one day theyre going to get serious about this car c8 z06 whatever. there's an easy 50 lbs to loose from the seats alone, not to mention another 100 or so in frippery. Brake pedal feel is universally panned. Imo great road car for most of USA which is highway and stoplights, and better than most every supercar on track, but not fully baked yet as a truly track capable car. lest put it in the category the Nissan skyline used to inhabit when it came out.

 

On the other hand, sterling review.

 

I agree! But most trackday guys are not that fast. Anyone who isn't breaking their streetcar on track simply isn't or can't drive fast enough. I'm not putting anyone down just the facts of track abuse. 90% of early racedays with a converted streetcar are trying to make it survive. My second C5Z06 really pissed me off. My 1st one was easy to sort. I have more than a decade experience racing the C5Z and my 2nd C5Z still took me an entire race season to sort. It is funny that's just how it works sometimes.

 

agreed.
There are degrees or sorting needed to.
Its my impression, perhaps wrong that a z06 would need a lot more sorting to survive than a gt4rs.

pretty much every car will need something to really survive and work on track,

in fact YouTube is already full of gt4rs bei g tracked regularly and hard, as well as what these cars need from alignment. To small changes.

on the z06 its more anecdotal

 

mc20 more like 230 k, agreed on the ttv6. Imagine if that car had the zo6 v8.

as it is the mc20 is down to 180k with 1500 miles on it and I’ll be that much faster v6 with an exhaust upgrade would be a dead ringer for the f40 v8 vibe
I like the minimalist interior

Imo the mc20 is an Italian corvette

4rs just seems track honed in a way the others are not, smaller is better etc.

I also think no might with practice be able to drive a 4 RS to its potential. After a few years finally getting there on the exige. Thers a reason why peole drove Miata and one of them is if you’re going to really be good you wed to be able to maximize the car fully. As you add power the consequences are far greater the rewards less so, if you’re doing it right..

horses for courses

in any event,
Due to cost, availability, road use and a whole host of oter reasons looks like the z06 for me.
Ive owned enough gm products to be to be deeply distrustful of them is I guess my hang up. Still I’ve owned an equinox v6 for 13 years and it’s still right and enjoyable to drive. But then I ended up with its successor as a rental car, and it’s smacked of cynical cheapening everywhere, one of the de modern vehicles I truly hated and wondered how one could make something so bad. That’s the thing with gm even if they have something good they Mahe to mess it. Up either with cost cutting somewhere or just a smash and grab with ver 2.0

maybe the Vette is not so afflicted as it’s developed by the true believers but gm is a company run by beancounters

lets see in the next year how these cars shake out when people really start using them

what’s maxing is how capable and fast moderns have become, how far and quickly the game has moved on. A 2023 Honda ctr laps vir at eh same time as a 2005 ford gt.

An e36 full on race car used to be quick, now it’s chicane

 

^^^ I like my 951 (<$20K). If you could handicap based on HP I'm not sure any newer car would win.