Motorsport Dilemma

[Twingo 1??]

So my Twingo is sat in a shed and hasn't realy moved for years. I was building the car to continue rallying after I had sold my Puma but after 4 years I have fallen out of love with rallying due to the realisation that I won't be able to rally again because of the financial side of going stage rallying. The car is for sale but I don't really want to sell it.
I could get the car finished to a good running standard if I sell some of the rally bits, extinguisher kit, tank gaurd ect.
What are sprints like? Or any other suggestions?
I have done stage rallys, road rallys, 12 cars, auto solos and auto tests.
I would do road rallys again but navigators are an issue as there isn't any.
Track days could be fun for a bit but for me it's not exciting enough.
So what do I do?
Do some sort of motorsport or sell up?
Answer's on a post card!
If I keep the Twingo it's £10 to the Kyle just before he gets in there lol

 

[McGherkin]

How about Targa Rallying? Wayyyy cheaper than stage rallying.


I'd love to go stage rallying one day but jesus christ the cost is prohibitive now, and only getting worse.

 

[shiftspark]

I do sprinting along with the odd hillclimb and am enjoying it at the moment, my 16 year old has show an interest so I am going to book him on an under 17 drivers club event to see how he gets on. I am kind of hoping to get him to co drive and then may return to rallying but like you say it’s getting very expensive. I was also looking to see if Anglesey restart doing the rally track days as this is far more interesting than track days as they get very boring from lunch time for me.
If you have not competed for a good while sprints would be a way back into motorsport and is reasonably cheap if you look past the £ per mile stats 😆

 

[Twingo 1??]

How about Targa Rallying? Wayyyy cheaper than stage rallying.


I'd love to go stage rallying one day but jesus christ the cost is prohibitive now, and only getting worse.

I have done tagas and there are nothing like that one on sweet lamb in the video! Think there is some cheeky edits in that video to make it look faster than they are and the white subaru is a well known car that also does stage rallys. It's a old group n car with the engine swapped to a 2.5 na.
Thay are fun though.

I do sprinting along with the odd hillclimb and am enjoying it at the moment, my 16 year old has show an interest so I am going to book him on an under 17 drivers club event to see how he gets on. I am kind of hoping to get him to co drive and then may return to rallying but like you say it’s getting very expensive. I was also looking to see if Anglesey restart doing the rally track days as this is far more interesting than track days as they get very boring from lunch time for me.
If you have not competed for a good while sprints would be a way back into motorsport and is reasonably cheap if you look past the £ per mile stats 😆

I think doing a few sprints might be the way to go. I think the lack of good rallys also makes me not even want to try rallying at the moment. I don't get the circuit events at all as you may as well do a sprint or track day and save your money as the rush just can't be there. Hopefully in a few years closed road events will take off and we can do proper rallys.

 

[Mark.B]

If you have not competed for a good while sprints would be a way back into motorsport and is reasonably cheap if you look past the £ per mile stats 😆

And if you can put up with the boredom of being there for a whole day and only actually driving the car for a few mins 🤣

I used to do sprints and hillclimbs in my gti-r a few years ago, I'm going to get it back up and running soon but can't decide whether to go back to doing sprints and hillclimbs or just go and do some trackdays as that'll be a lot more 🙂 for the 💰💰

 

[JB21]

Done my first sprint recently which was good, as its got that competitive side, but in reality looking back its a lot of money for the track time you get, it cost me £130 for the day plus fuel and I literally did 6 miles on track. Most of the day was stood around getting piss wet through as well.

Think I'll stick with open pit lane track days as they seem the best value for money. Plus I love trying to beat my PB lap times.

 

[mikekean]

Sell the Twingo and buy something more fun/versatile, E36 328i or E46 330i would be a good reliable car. They are well suited to pretty much anything, with limited adaptions you could go from stage rallying to a track day or even drifting. You can use the car to suit your budget/interests at any point in time. Whilst a Twingo is a nippy car in the 1600 class at a stage rally, it's pretty gutless on a track (which can be boring) and you certainly can't drift one. A FWD stage rally car is a bit of one trick pony and one of the reasons I sold my cup racer.

 

[Twingo 1??]

Thanks for your inputs guys. I have narrowed it down to 2 options.
Keep the Twingo and fight tooth and nail to get funds to go rallying or sell up.
I just can't get excited about other forms of motorsport.
Sprints don't offer enough seat time and to much sitting about.
Hilclimbs same as above.
Track days you get the seat time but I find going round a circuit all day boring and no buzz.
Buying a different car is pointless as the Twingo could do most things bar drifting and that's not realy fun after 5 min.
A few track days next year more for the social side is on my mind as there is a good bunch of people on this forum that I would like to meet.
I have also decided to start playing the loto just incase lol.

 

[mikekean]

Is your experience of track days purely in FWD hatchbacks? I've done plenty of stage rallies in a FWD and a fair few track days in FWD and RWD cars. I can confirm track days in a FWD are pretty boring unless you have 250hp+, a RWD on the other hand is totally different, it's much more challenging and when you get bored of chasing lap times you can have fun sliding the car about.

Why limit yourself to a car that is only fun/good at one thing, you also dont need to limit yourself to just rallying or just hillclimbs.. Why not do all of them? One year you could do stage rallies, if you have less cash the next year do a couple of track days and some hill climbs instead. Having a strong reliable car like a BMW would help keep running costs low and they also hold their value well. While Renaults are great fun cars, the reality is they aren't very reliable rally cars and are expensive to upgrade which doesn't go well with having a smaller budget.

 

[Twingo 1??]

If I was going RWD again I would build another Avenger with an engine conversion of some sort as my old one had a zetec in it. I have never had reliability issues with any of the so called fragile cars I have had and moving to a bmw would be a backwards step as there to heavy and no less money to upkeep than the Twingo. Each to there own I suppose and life would be boring if we all did the same thing lol