Buying a 172 Cup for track days - mileage?

[Steve M.]

Hi

I've decided to buy a 172 Cup to strip out and play around with for track day use (I'm racing FF1600 this year at Castle Combe but want something I can involve my girlfriend in). I've done a fair bit of research on here for the bits I need to know about (seems to mainly be the dephaser issue that most people speak about when going for used Clio's), but i'd just like to gauge people's opinions about mileage for track cars.

I know that as long as modern(ish) engine are well maintained and serviced at the regular intervals then they will go on forever, but that's for normal road use. Is there a certain upper limit of mileage I should be avoiding as I'll be using the car pretty much purely for track use?

I can see that £2k (ish) can get you a fairly tidy 2002-2003 172 Cup with 70-80k (ish) on the clock, but then I also see that these prices rise (see autotrader - two 172 Cups for £3495 with 37k on the clock - both 2003). Is it worth the extra cash to go for the lower mileage?

I guess my main question really should be how reliable is the engine when used as a track day car once it's hit the 70-80k range?

Cheers

Steve

 

[Beef-Mc]

Pretty sure Dave tracks his Trophy regularly and his is at 180K, as long as its serviced and maintained regularly can't see a 70K being an issue.

 

[imprezaworks]

Welcome. Firstly with regards to milage lower isnt allways better. A well serviced/looked after higher milage car will be as good if not better. Yeah the dephaser can be an issue as its a pain to do and costly, so ask the question when looking at a perspective car. You want the cambelt to have been done ideally with reciepts to prove if it has. For what your wanting to do i.e trackdays etc i would go middle of the ground and pick a nice one up for 2k ish, keep an eye out in the for sale section on here. To give you some kind of idea i bought mine nearly two years ago with 77k on, its now on 93k with three trackdays under its belt and apart from servicing it hasnt really cost me a penny. Oh and cough up £12 to become a member, it will pay for itself in a week

Hope that sort of helps,

Dan

 

[Russ_16v]

140k on my old one on itb's, with a 7800 rpm redline, and was tracked around 6 times with the itb's on, and was tracked progressively over the previous 50k with me, engine still going strong when i sold it and was making 195bhp

 

[Steve M.]

Cheers for your replies - let the search begin........

 

[Dan519]

Condition is everything, I've seen some terrible 40k cars, and lots of nice 100k cars

 

[jamier27]

I bought a clio cup around 6 weeks ago with view to track and for the misses to run around in.

I am not the type to view a car and go through it with a touchpick, i just dive right in!

I paid 2100 for a 53 cup with 78k on and cambelt done. It has KW V3 coilovers, recaros, and front and rear strut braces so is in good shape to go on the track and no doubt has spent quite a few laps round a few tracks. As is a bit rough around the edges.

But now we have done a few miles in it we have had no issues with it and doesnt even use a drop of oil!