I have been putting off getting a track car off for years but now i think i owe it to myself to get something cheap to tune for the track. I would start small but I don't know what kind of car i should do. I would like to do a bmw but quattro is pretty apealing for the track and a big T3 turbo would be a lot of fun. Does anyone have any input. This would not be racing just weekend open track crusing.

 

so you want it street legal and able to drive around town?

 

yeah i am going to have to drive to and from the track for now until i hit the lottery and buy a truck and trailer.

 

Audi and cheap doesnt go together well at all. I think the cheapest turbo setup on here is a k04 setup which will run you at least 2k to start. Not to mention another 400-1000 for an exhaust, 500+ for a chip, suspension (coils) will probably run you another 1k. Springs/struts will run you anywhere from 4-1000 depending on the setup. You're going to jump into something immediately, you need to be prepared to drop some cash. These cars are very tunable, and they're a blast to drive, but they're expensive.

 

most will tell you to steer away from a t3/t4. would have too much lag to be competetive expecially in a slower, more twisty course. others would most likely recommend a gt28rs or a full gt2871r setup. plus i hope you got the cash. you could easily spend 10g's on a track car.

 

I know these cars are not cheap but i was going to make it a work in progress and not do everything all at once. start with light mods and and move on from there. I am just wondering about the dynamics of using a b5 a4 on the track compared to an e36 bmw or nissan 240sx.

 

is this going to be a dediacated weekend only car or are you going to drive it more then once a week? what are your HP goals and how much do you have to spend? strait track or autocross/rally?

i wouldnt really call our ecu "very tunable" compared to others some others. for instance BMWs you can change the fuel map by just editing a spreadsheet. thats not to say that there arent already good software maps for A4s though.

look around here
http://www.audizine.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=145

 

e36 M? They're expensive too. A buddy of mine just picked one up. They're nice cars, he actually just got back from the track yesterday, and said it was a hell of a time. Lets break it down a bit for you, since I've driven all 3 cars

b5 a4 - Expensive to maintain/upgrade. If you want to start off with something small, start piecing together a gt28rs or the full 2871r kit like redline said. It's a great size turbo, and will get you to where you want to be as far as HP/TQ levels, and is still VERY easily DD'able. These kits I want to say are around 2-3k?? DIRECT QUOTE FROM FAQ GUIDE @ AZ

"GT2871R Eliminator: Bolt in upgrade. $95 more than the GT28RS elim. good for 400chp. Mika or Unitronic for the B5.
Note: For the eliminators, I highly recommend a braided oil return line. The stock oil return will work, but it's a pain to get in. Unitronics for software, but also Mika tuning offered by ATP can be a good software. but FWIW not off the shelf. it requires tweaks to get things running right. some have run tweaked ko4 software with success on this big of a turbo. ATP and Renn-Art are the best places to get the eliminator products. Renn-Art has a proven kit."

GTRS Eliminator
Bolt in upgrade. Much larger than the stock K03. Produces roughly 350chp. Mika tuning or Unitronic for the B5.

These are very common turbo setups amongst people who want some extra power, but still daily drive. Check these out.

Just a piece of advice, be prepared to either A) piece this together due to money if you're worried, or B) Save up lol.

The E36 M3... Great car, tons of fun to drive, its RWD for those times where you want it to get sideways, but unfortunately, they're not easy to get HP/TQ numbers without spending a **** TON of money. Most common upgrade for big #'s I believe is the supercharger. They also offer another engine for this car, that comes stock to about the same #'s as the SC'd one, but its right around the same ball park in $$.

Nissan 240sx... I've owned one of these, have spent years researching them, and modding. They're incredibly cheap to own and maintain due to them being so popular, and the fact that they're Japanese. Parts are not crazy expensive like they are for the audi, and most of these are OBD I, so you can get away with doing almost any exhaust setup. I ran 2.5" straight pipes off of mine, and it was deafening LOL. Turbo setup's are not too expensive, again, you can run almost any setup you want depending on the #'s you want and the amount of $$ you want to drop. These cars are the easiest to start out with because SO MUCH is available to them and they're fairly inexpensive.

If you've got any questions, consult different forums, or FAQ threads. AZ is agreat place to start. Here's the link for the Audizine FAQ thread. http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=113728

 

yeah i figure i might drive it a bit here and but mostly for the track, i live about an hour away from sebring so that would be a place i will definatly use it. I would be looking mostly at touring car type tracks and as fas a hp i think i want to get up to 300 or so with a stage 3 kit. Over time i figure about 6-8k invested into the car plus car cost. I had 2 a4's before i got my bmw so i am very familiar with all the mods out there and always loved the AWD dynamics.

 

6-8k is a nice starting point, but Stage III for Audi's is going to put you there and make your head spin. These parts are NOT cheap, and will take time to assemble unless you have multiple people working on it, or a shop doing it. Which... will then add labor costs. MY suggestion... figure out what you want. AWD or RWD. European or Japanese. Here's what I did to figure out what car I wanted.. I wanted a BMW, Audi, or a Benz or an S2K. I created a spread sheet. Put the cons/pro's of each into 2 separate columns. I then created 2 more columns for "price" and "modification costs" I listed everything possible that I could think of, different setups, cost of doing it myself as opposed to having a shop do it, etc. etc. From those lists, I compiled enough evidence to point me to the car that I wanted. Sure a lot of it was just me being a kid in a candy store picking out parts, but it was stuff I could afford, so I did it. Try it out. Weigh the pro's/con's of each for each vehicle and then decide how much time/money you want to dump into it. Either way.. you're gonna have a fun car they're all a blast to drive.