Obviously Im going to say valver but Ill try and justify it without just saying the 172 is sh*t (which it is
)
If youre using it for trackdays then the valver will give you one very important thing which IMO the 172 lacks. Feedback, and tons of it.
My plan was to get a track car next year and didnt know what (106/Saxo, ax were on the list). Having done Ty Croes I can honestly say Ill be getting another valver on the cheap.
1: Depreciation isnt an issue and is cancelled out by the running costs of the valver.
2: They arent hideously unreliable. Mine has had the alternator go and the thermo housing. Everything else is a maintenance issue, and I knowingly paid less for mine than the average market value when I bought it 18months ago, because I knew it hadnt been kept A1. Find a minter and itll be fine.
3: Feedback, as already mentioned, is there by the bucketload. Not just through the wheel but through the noise, your feet, your arse, everything.
4: IMO the car just handles better outright.
5: For a couple of hundred quid you can uprate to a willy chassis effectively which I would do with 172 Cup springs.
6: The arches wont "definitely" rust, if you properly clean the car out and Waxoyl it. Although mines had one done the other is still A1 and thats on a 12yr old car that spent most of its life on the south coast.
7: The noise. Valvers are one of the best sounding 4-pots ever made.
I will openly admit that I do like the mk1 172 and would consider owning one, but if it had to do trackdays then no way.
[Edited by Swervin_Mervin on 8/5/2005 2:48:21 PM]