I just sold my track car (street legal S2000). I don't do many track days (about 5-8 a year). I typically run in the instructor group or advanced.
my S2000 was a well sorted. quick and fun track car and I am looking for a different experience.... more towards a "street" experience that is fun on the track and not a track car that is only tolerable to get home from the track. If I get a NSX, it will remain mostly stock besides some of the things that you guys listed above. Thanks again.
You sound like me 6 years ago. I sold my 91 NSX track car because it was too track to be used for any other purpose, I bought a 2004 garage queen because I was not going to track the new car and keep it for street only use. Well here we are and the 2004 now has 30+ track days in the past two years alone. If the budget allows buy two cars, one for street and one for track use. The compromises between the two are far too great to really find a happy middle ground. This might work for you but it is not working for me. I intend to keep the 2004 and find or build a dedicated track car.
Here are a couple more things to consider, 5-8 track days a year is about average for most guys and depending on your abilities and tire choice can cause a significant level of wear on a few costly items.
1. If your looking at an older coupe that has seen some track time be aware that Ball Joints are EXPENSIVE, and I am not talking about hundreds but thousands to replace them all on a single courner of the car. They are reliable and can last but if tracked with R-Comps you will have to do them someday. A lot of guys track untill the car shows signs of needing ball joints then they sell them and move on to a newer or different car. So check out your potencial buy.
2. The age of these cars is making the average major service (timing belt & water pump) much more expensive, you will see issues with spool valve seals, cam plugs, valve cover leaks, oil pan leaks, coolant hose failures. These items are age issues not design issues but they can push the price of a major service up into the 2-4k range. This applies to tracked or non-tracked cars. Once fixed you are good for at least 7-10 years of happy driving.
3. Most likely if you buy an older car it will have had at least one clutch replacement and maybe an aftermarket clutch. With the stock power and a good driver clutch life is less than average compared to most other cars. The twin disk clutch in the early cars wear quickly and are expensive to replace, good news is you have many after market choices that are a better product and at a lower price than OEM, but clutch prices start at about $1200.00 for the parts and labor much higher than a S2000 clutch service.
4. If you are like me you want the paint and body to be perfect on your pride and joy, If you track your pristine baby you can forget about the pristine paint. For some reason the paint of the front of these cars almost jumps off the body work in order to avoid being hit by debris from the track. 3M the front bumber, hood, fenders, rear bumper skirt, and rockers if you like your paint.
5. If you have an off and bend anything, either suspension or body it is going to be a very expensive repair. There are few choices for aftermarket body parts and almost no other choice than OEM for suspension arms. Used parts are very hard to find.
If I sound like I am trying to talk you out of what you are about to do I am not. I have tracked all three of the NSXs that I have owned. They are a lot of fun but they are much more expensive to track than other cars, and very expensive if you have that competative thing that makes you want to be the fastest guy among you buddies. These cars are amazing things to own and use, due to depriciation being almost non-existant cost of ownership can be very low for a sports car, but compared to a M3, S2000, RX8, Z06, and a handfull of other cars the cost to track a NSX is very expensive in an already expensive hobby.
Dave
