Motorsports Vacation

I suddenly have four weeks off work starting in a few days.

I'm thinking about dipping into my savings and taking a motorsports road trip / vacation.

I don't have to stay in North America, but plane tickets are expensive on such short notice.

Ideas:

• Idea 1: 24 Hours of Nurburgring. It's next week. Unfortunately short-notice plane ticket prices are ~$2k. I would love to see that race though. Planning the trip and figuring out logistics within the next few days would be tough. If I knew someone else who was going that I could travel with that would be great!

• Idea 2: Buy an E46 M3 as I've always wanted, spend a few days addressing any issues with the car to ensure its reliability, and embark on a motorsports pilgrimage with track days across the US. To make the best of this, I'll need to find some mid-week track days.

• Idea 3: Stay home and finish all of my projects (haha, yeah right!)

• Idea 4: Same as Idea 2 except buy a nice rust-free California car, finish the trip in the northeast, then sell it and then fly back home. New Englanders... what track-capable vehicle would you want from SoCal?

• Idea 5: Same as Idea 2 except buy a Cayenne S and travel off-road between states, and still track it ;-)

More ideas would be appreciated! I want to make the best of this time.

My current track/motorsports experience is many track days up through NASA HPDE3 (checked out for HPDE4/TT already but I forgot my passport and the instructor was absent last event) as well as some open passing experience, a RallyX Championship, and a couple years of autocross. I have not done any wheel-to-wheel racing except some indoor karting. My current track car is my Fiero but it's a bit too track-prepared for long distance travel.

UPDATE: E46 M3 acquired. Idea 2 is now PLAN A.

Option 2!

Skip Barber school? BMW Advanced M School at VIR or CMS?

Details on the googles

Whatever I do, I'm going to try to put in the effort to film the whole thing too and edit together a trip video. It's a lot of work so no guarantees, but I'd like to have more than just memories when it's over .

Two M3 candidates so far:

$14.5k Silver Gray on Black, SMG, solid roof, http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/cto/4514596016.html

$17k Silver gray, SMG, moonroof, Competition package http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lgb/cto/4516140540.html

I like the idea of the SMG for track use. I've driven a prepped SMG E46 M3 on the track and had a blast. I don't like automatics. Every other car I own has thre pedals, but the E46 SMG really is a great trans.

Anyway don't want to get this steered too far in this specific direction since there may be better ideas for my time off! The brainstorming shall continue...

Just remembered my dad has a nice RV.. If I can get him on board, the track vehicle doesn't need to be street legal, since we could tow it. That opens up some possibilities...

Got another idea... I could buy a nice rust-free California car, road trip / track day trip to the northeastern US, sell it there, then fly back home.

New Englanders... what track-capable vehicle would you want from SoCal?

First congratulations.... I guess

isn't it nice to have bucket loads of disposable income....

PS... speaking about buckets of cash... Nurburgring... my fantasy week with my car

Man I just canceled my Nurburgring hotel reservations for this year. That event is an awesome spectacle, but moving it from May to June really hurts from a travel perspective. They went from one of the cheapest months to revel to Europe to the most expensive. I'd never recommend anyone NOT do a Nurburgring trip, but this year may not be the best year.

Option 2 sounds like a hoot.

In reply to JG Pasterjak:

No worries that this will be the last year for Nurburgring? With all the crazy news about the track lately I wondered if I would ever get a chance to go if I didn't go soon. Especially after reading that feature in the magazine.

oldeskewltoy wrote: First congratulations.... I guess isn't it nice to have bucket loads of disposable income.... PS... speaking about buckets of cash... Nurburgring... my fantasy week with my car

Unpaid vacation.. I'll be raiding my "I want to be able to buy a house someday" savings account so I'll probably have to sell the car after the trip; goal is for the net cost to be "euro trip" money. Hopefully I can find a car that I can break even or make a bit on, particularly if I sell it in a state where there's more demand.

I like 4, the wife and I were thinking about flying out west and driving something cheap back. After reading JGs last Nurmbergring article she thought that sounded fun so I would like to try and find a cheap car in Europe instead of California.

Lately I've been thinking of buying a Jeep* and driving across the country using as few paved roads as possible. Different kind of motorsports.

*A rust free CJ would be an easy sale in the northeast.

Junkyard_Dog wrote: Lately I've been thinking of buying a Jeep* and driving across the country using as few paved roads as possible. Different kind of motorsports. *A rust free CJ would be an easy sale in the northeast.

I also want to do a trip like that. That would be awesome! I have an off-road capable Subaru I want to use, but it needs a trans rebuild soon and I'm waiting for Subaroo Gearboxes Australia to get their 1.6:1 low range gearbox kit in stock which won't be until August. It's an EJ25 NA with a manual trans, so it really needs the low range for high altitude / steep stuff.

I've been pondering getting a Cayenne to replace the Outback so that I have something with towing capacity. Maybe I should add that option to the list.

series8217 wrote: In reply to JG Pasterjak: No worries that this will be the last year for Nurburgring? With all the crazy news about the track lately I wondered if I would ever get a chance to go if I didn't go soon. Especially after reading that feature in the magazine.

Concerned but not panicked. Yeah there's some chaos over there, but there's also a lot of tradition. Yeah there's a lot of famous racetracks in the US that have been plaoed under to make room for mini malls full of yogurt by the pound places and tug joints, but they take their tradition pretty seriously over there.

Right across the street from the Nurburgring is also an industrial park housing everyone who is anyone when it comes to performance. Nearly every major auto manufacturer, tire company, suspension company and major race team has invested literal BILLIONS of dollars in construction of major facilities there. They're what really makes me believe the 'Ring will be around for some time to come.

You know, JG and I have discussed a GRM road tour--half a day of GRM lore that includes a lunch stop. We can save you a spot.

In reply to David S. Wallens:

That would be rad!!

apologies for being a "wet blanket"... was in a crappy mood yesterday.

As for #4..... Buy an imported Jap car... Soarer... or twin cam Celica ($11,000 crackpipe nice price I posted about a year back) or other 25+ year old car... drive it east... You may not sell it right away... but a classic Jap performance car in great condition should make you all your money and maybe a small profit

Haha its cool.

Old Japanese car sounds like a cool idea. There's still that RX3 I posted about a few weeks back. Not really a road trip car though...!

buy a clean NA or NB miata and drive it to NJ and I will buy it

Idea #6: Use the track car you own now to do track days across the US and check out some interesting non-motorsports places too, a la Motortrend's Road Trip show. Just take 4 weeks to be able to hit the maximum track days and interesting places.

In reply to Mr_Clutch42:

I would like to have that possibility but it's not reliable nor comfortable enough for such a trip :-(. Fuel pump died on Sunday, AC hose blew, and I'm running out of wheel bearings (OE bearings are NLA and aftermarkets don't hold up at the track). I can fix everything except the bearings.. Oh it also doesn't cool well enough at air temps higher than 95*F. That is going to require more work to address (front hood radiator exhaust duct, oil cooler ducting).

Looked at two E46 M3s today.

One is $17k, 2005, competition package, silver gray on black, 122k miles, looks like it has 500 miles on it. It's that immaculate. However the current owner (#3) hasn't driven it much and the previous owner (#2) didn't have any service records, so I don't know when the clutch was last done or if the SMG pump ever had to be replaced. Has nav and Harmon Kardon. VERY nice car and hard to believe it wasn't serviced, so maybe the lack of records is just because owner #2 was an enthusiast. Going to try to negotiate down to $15k if possible since I'll have to go through all the inspection 2 items and maybe even take the trans out to see how the clutch looks.

The other is $13.5k, 2002, steel gray on black, 130k miles, looks like a daily driver, but body is good. Paint could be detailed but otherwise nice. Owner is knowledgable about cars, bought the car from a friend 20k miles ago. Claims the friend did inspection 2 and replaced VANOS and SMG pump himself (works at a shop). No records though. Owner is very confident that the car is reliable and sorted, and pretty enthused about it.

No other cars to look at today. Very few cars avail right now.. The other one I really wanted to see had already sold. It had service records. These cars are going fast in SoCal. Might need to check some PSS10s and Hawk HTC10s into my luggage and turn this into a fly and drive to somewhere else. I really don't want to track an M3 that doesn't have new rod bearings in it though.

Picking up the '05 ZCP tomorrow for 15.8k. A little more than I wanted to spend but it was that or the cheaper/more questionable car with the early con rod design. Andrew @ Lang Racing recommended I go with the newer car. He knows S54s very well.

Pics soon :-)

The car is immaculate. I cannot find a single scratch on the paint anywhere. Not even the rocker panels. It must have been professionally corrected. The only defects are the expected rock chips on the front. The car has 122,000 miles on it. I still can't believe it based on inspecting and driving the car. But it checks out.

I got it up on the lift at Lang Racing and Andrew looked it over. The only thing he noted was the accessory belt is old and the oil pressure relief valve seal is leaking a bit. It does still need all the Inspection II items, but I'm happy there were no surprises on the underbody.

Going to address those issues and rebuild the VANOS, do a valve adjustment, and replace the rod bearings for good measure. The car needs to last 6000+ street miles and 8+ track days, so I want to be confident that the main issues with these cars have been addressed.

I plan to pull the pan tomorrow and install the new rod bearings on Tuesday. Wednesday is VANOS day, and Thursday is suspension day. It's gonna be a long week.

Do yourself a favor and put a clear bra on it before the trip. May as well try and protect the resale

Did they very carefully inspect the rear subframe mounts for cracks? I work at a another SoCal shop specializing in these cars and it's a major recurring issue, and I've seen it get missed in PPIs many times. If it has them, it'll need a subframe mount reinforcement job, which thankfully isn't insanely difficult or expensive if you've got access to a lift and can weld.