What Car? : Which Toy Goes Edition

It's my turn to do a "what Car" thread, but this one has a twist: I already own both of the cars. I have two toys in the garage and can keep only one. I'm looking for a fun to drive car that I can take to track days, autoX's and drive on the street for twisty back road blasts as well as use as back-up car in case one of our "regular" cars is in the shop.

Car number 1 should be familar to all in GRM land, it's the Track Rat GRM Project CRX. For those of you not familiar with the car it's an 88 HF with a B16A engine transplant, an adjustable coilover suspension and some other goodies.

Car number 2 is a 2005 Lotus Elise. I had wanted an elise since I first saw one at the 2004 Miami auto show. This Elise is exactly as I would have ordered it if I had bought it new. Laser blue, hardtop, etc. I LOVE the Lotus, but it's almost not even worth having it since I can't drive it at anything approacing it's limits on public roads. I owe a sizeable amount of money on this car and that coupled with the repair costs for a relatively minor accident (e.g. kissing a tire wall) makes me really hesitant to use the car as it should be.

I'm really evenly split on these two. The Elise is the car I've always wanted, the CRX is the car I need to have some fun. I've looked into track day insurance for the Elise, it's available but it nearly doubles the cost of the track day. My payments on the Elise aren't that high, but that plus the increased cost of insurance is significant additional cost. I wondering how many GRM'ers track their car while still making payments. Also, I'm wondering if anyone here has actually had to use that track day insurance and how easy of a process it was to get the damages covered.

Thanks!

track day insurance doubles the cost of the day, but how much is it relative to running into the tire wall damage?

It sounds like you know what the "right" decision is.... but you don't want to hear it.

If i were in your situation, i'd ditch the Elise (even though it would hurt), and use the monthly savings for track day fees with the CRX.

I wish I could simply make an offer on the CRX to make things easy for you, but I don't have the cash right now.

I have a soft spot for both cars, but I think I'd get rid of the Lotus. It will be cheaper in the long run to keep the CRX and run it at the track because it's worth less and parts are cheap. In my opinion, cheap trackday costs are the deciding factor here. I'd also feel less bad about stuffing a CRX into a wall than a Lotus.

Stuff the CRX into a wall, you will cry, but your wallet won't. Stuff an Elise into a wall, you have a disaster on your hands. And that worry will compromise your driving. Have fun with the Dixie Cup car. Crash it, build another without having to worry about a divorce.

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: If i were in your situation, i'd ditch the Elise (even though it would hurt), and use the monthly savings for track day fees with the CRX.

I concur

The Elise is the car you can afford to own but not use.
The CRX is the car that you can both afford to own and afford to use.
So, what do you want? Ownership or use?

When it come to racecars and boats the purchase price of the vehicle is one of the smallest factors in the decision. It is the running costs that really take the toll.

You may want to read my recent thread about doing something similar. I had a couple of beautiful early 911's. One a street car, one a track car. I ended up selling both for a pretty significant amount of money and picked up a track-prepped 1990 BMW 325is.

The funny thing about that BMW is that I finally did what the smart $ people say to do and I let the previous owner pump a ton of money into his car, do one DE on it and then have to sell it to come up with the money for a down payment on a house. I picked it up for a song. And the funny thing is, that "song" I paid for it was covered by just selling off my extra parts I had left over from the Porsche's.

Here's the thread: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/cool-cars-you-can-no-longer-afford-to-have-fun-with-or/39849/page1/

The way I look at it is - which of the cars are you going to miss more?

I used to have an Elise that I had to sell in the UK, if I could have brought it with me I would have. And yes, I did track that car.

You have achieved a nice balance for those of us who can't afford/justify a full stable of cars: you have a 'collector car' that you love and a (insert word here) that you can beat without mercy. Well done, stay the course. Keep the Lotus off the track until it is at least paid for.

You don't mention commuting distance, or if there is a third driver for day to day use, but I'd daily one or the other or both until the Lotus is paid for and can be raced.

I know it makes more sense to keep the crx, but there's something about having something really special. Call me a poseur, but its nicer to be able to tell people you race a lotus. Its probably nicer to take your wife out for dinner etc too. I would sell the crx and autox the hell out of the lotus. You won't hit a wall and you can drive it t 10/10ths. Take it to the track on occasion and take it a little easy.

My eyes quickly darted to the two choices without reading the rest because really, years of internet experience has taught me that all the rest is just you trying to sell one position or the other.

You have an Elise and some other tin can.

If you get rid of an Elise without taking it to the track you are going to regret it. In hindsight... everyone would rather face the consequences of a spectacular failure doing something great than live with the regret of having had the opportunity and not the will to execute.

Looks like selling the lotus is the reasonable thing to do. But who listens to reason on this board?! If you have the foresight to purchase track day insurance why should it matter if you throw the Elise into a wall? It's covered right?

mw wrote: I know it makes more sense to keep the crx, but there's something about having something really special.

This is exactly why it's so hard to give up the Elise. I went back to school when I was 30 for my BSME. My wife promised that if I finished I could buy an Elise. About halfway through our son was born, so you can imagine the amount of sleep I was getting with studying for an engineering degree and having an infant... but during those times (about midnight usually) that I thought I couldn't study any more I would pull up ebay or autotrader and check out the Elises for sale. After about 10-15 minutes I was ready to get back to work. :-)

It does make a lot more sense to keep the CRX and ditch the Lotus, but there's more to it.

I was hoping to find somebody who had actually bought track day insurance and used it. I've been to one track day so far (in the CRX) at Roebling. The morning of the first day while I was sitting in the classroom with the other noobs learning about flags, apexes and such when we heard a terrific crash that seemed to come from right outside. One of the advanced folks had left the track completely and ended up facing the opposite direction in the pine trees in an almost new M3 sedan. I saw the car on a flatbed later, it was almost certainly totaled. This was my introduction to track day events... So you can see where my concern stems from. While I'm sure it's not the norm I want to make make sure I'm covered it I do decide to bring the Elise out to play.

Thanks for all the helpful responses. If anybody here has cashed in a track day policy maybe they could relate their experience.

If you could afford to crash the Elise you could afford to keep both.

Take a crapton of pictures of the Elise and sell it. Your wife promised you could have one, and you did. But ultimately it's just a car, and you can have 95% of the bang for 5% of the buck with the CRX.

When faced with a similar choice, I'm getting rid of my Evo for my 1/10th the cost E30.

The Elise is special. The CRX is not. Keep the Elise; you'll regret selling it.

You have broken my decision making skills, you have the ideal form of the car I track now vs. the car I most want to have for track. I would probably keep the CRX if I couldn't afford to track the Elise. I have run with that CRX and it is plenty fast and plenty of track car for a long time. Maybe down the road you will be able to afford to both own and track an Elise.

rotard wrote: The Elise is special. The CRX is not. Keep the Elise; you'll regret selling it.

It's far easier to find a good Elsie these days than it is to find a good CRX.

I don't care how special the Lotus is, if money is the issue sell the white elephant.

Take the Elise to at least one track day--with insurance--then sell it. They will still be around later when you can own two toys again.