Spend My Money Good Sir

[Jake]

ZHP is not a good track car candidate due to being ineligible for Spec E46. Not like Brandon is going to go SE46 anytime soon, but it helps with resale potential down the road if the car has a wider audience.

I think a Miata or 330ci are both good choices for a project with track potential.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Not sure why you guys think an E46 330i/ZHP is really that much less maintenance than an M3. If you are going to do it, do it right and get the M3, maybe a couple thousand dollars over the LIFE of the car different. Same maintenance in bushings/control arms/subframe tearing/ICV replacement/performance part costs etc. Only real difference is rod bearings (every 100-120k miles) and valve adjustments (which are easier than you think). In fact the S54 is stouter than an M54 once you get up in age as the aluminum block of the 330i is much less forgiving than the iron block of the S54 for headgaskets.

C6 with the Performance Pack and be done. Much better daily than a C5 Z06 for 95% of the performance. Why the mention of clutch replacement? They don't blow through them that often and they are maybe an extra hour or two over a regular car to do. (in fact the C6 is easier than the C5). I just did mine on my C5Z and it was much easier than I thought it would be. Its low, smells like plastic, and has no rear seats; but that's easy to ignore with how dead nuts reliable they are, 28mpg on the highway, and raucous performance with just a sway bar and sticky rubber.

[*insertusernamehere*]

This thread is hilarious. He doesn't even have money to buy an e46 m3. Let me remind you all the money for this is banked on 2 things:

1. Having his car bought back or reimbursed by the dealer for depreciation because he discovered its been in an accident months after purchase.

2. Saving money over summer from his job

2 is probably what's going to happen, and at that point, basically just go buy a Miata or an e30. Done.

Brandon I know you want to dream big and get your dreams but there's no point in living in la la land. If you ask me, you could learn alot that you don't know about cars and wrenching by buying an older car and learning to do all that on something cheap and low risk.

Oh and the raw horsepower figure that you keep worrying about is so minor its not even funny. I guarantee you couldn't even bring a Miata to half its potential yet alone an e46 m3. Stop worrying about how fast it is. You're just gonna drive yourself off the side of 33.

[Goodspeed]

IF the stars align and you want this

Manual Transmission(this will be my first manual I have ever owned)
Maintenance Records(I want to make sure this car wasn't beat into the ground)
Fairly Easy to Wrench On(I want something that I can do almost everything myself)
Fairly Cheap to Wrench On(I'm in college, can't afford to be dropping $1,000 every month)
Decent MPG (15+ preferably, nothing too crazy)
RWD (First RWD car and I want to learn the true dynamics of a car through this setup)
Will Last Throughout College (preferably until I have a salary and can get something else)
---Preferably a Convertible(Because I've always wanted one, so why not)

And you have this

$15-20k

$25-30k

Buy a Miata for ~$5k and put the rest in index funds or save it in some other manner. Plz.

[rherold9]

Yeah everyone goes through this stage of not knowing 9/10ths so it's okay.

Driving a slow car fast is just as rewarding as anything else. There is no problem with owning a Miata because it doesn't have power. Just drive one and you'll see why so many people say Miata is always the answer. My Miata is always open for a co-drive in auto-x as long as you know how to drive manual.... I would've offered a passenger seat in the 3 as well but too late for that.

Just keep the current BMW and auto-x it/daily it. Maybe do a hyperdrive just to get a feel for driving. Seat time is always more important regardless of what car you want, have, or never going to own. Save for a car that is either competitive or fun in auto-x if you want to do that. Or save for a car that has a decent size classing if you plan to race it. Or just buy a car and make it a fun DE car or TT car and that's it. Plain and simple. Seriously you have little to no motorsports experience if you want to continue just get seat time.

[D_Eclipse9916]

I will buck the trend, have fun; you only live once (althought it might be shorter if you have too fast of one ). And if you buy a miata and hate it and it ruins your motorsports experience then it's ass backwards. Some people just don't want a slow car.

[GTBrandon]

I've only posted about the $8500 OBO clean ZHP about 3 times now in the groupme.... Don't know why we are still talking here...

If I ever decide to race the car, then ZHP will not work with current NASA classes. Also even if I don't race it, if I want to resell it, then anybody trying to make a racecar in the spec class will not want to buy a ZHP. Also $8500 is a over my budet of 5 for the car, unless it already had cooling, bushings, and subframe work done.

[GTBrandon]

Not sure why you guys think an E46 330i/ZHP is really that much less maintenance than an M3. If you are going to do it, do it right and get the M3, maybe a couple thousand dollars over the LIFE of the car different. Same maintenance in bushings/control arms/subframe tearing/ICV replacement/performance part costs etc. Only real difference is rod bearings (every 100-120k miles) and valve adjustments (which are easier than you think). In fact the S54 is stouter than an M54 once you get up in age as the aluminum block of the 330i is much less forgiving than the iron block of the S54 for headgaskets.

C6 with the Performance Pack and be done. Much better daily than a C5 Z06 for 95% of the performance. Why the mention of clutch replacement? They don't blow through them that often and they are maybe an extra hour or two over a regular car to do. (in fact the C6 is easier than the C5). I just did mine on my C5Z and it was much easier than I thought it would be. Its low, smells like plastic, and has no rear seats; but that's easy to ignore with how dead nuts reliable they are, 28mpg on the highway, and raucous performance with just a sway bar and sticky rubber.

Confused on if you are recommending an E46 M3, or a C6, or both :mrgreen:

[rherold9]

Confused on if you are recommending an E46 M3, or a C6, or both :mrgreen:

Well he owns an E46 M3 and a C5Z, so.... I'm going to have to go with both.

[Senor_Taylor]

All of us in this thread.

[JPolen01]

It's asinine to base buying a ZHP on a) whether or not you will race with NASA or b) if it will hurt resale because it doesn't comply with spec46. How many years away is racing IF you do it? Don't base possible resale of a car on whether or not 40 people in the mid Atlantic might want your car to race in. If you like the ZHP buy that.

If you end up going racing worry about that in 10 years. And if you want to sell the car those are rare enough that someone will buy it right away.

[*insertusernamehere*]

It's asinine to base buying a ZHP on a) whether or not you will race with NASA or b) if it will hurt resale because it doesn't comply with spec46. How many years away is racing IF you do it? Don't base possible resale of a car on whether or not 40 people in the mid Atlantic might want your car to race in. If you like the ZHP buy that.

If you end up going racing worry about that in 10 years. And if you want to sell the car those are rare enough that someone will buy it right away.

STOP IT. THATS LOGIC. GET THAT OUTTA HERE. WE DONT NEED THAT.

[.RJ]

I will buck the trend, have fun; you only live once (althought it might be shorter if you have too fast of one ). And if you buy a miata and hate it and it ruins your motorsports experience then it's ass backwards. Some people just don't want a slow car.

I'm glad started going to the track at a time when a E30 M3 or ITR was a 'fast car' :lol:

[D_Eclipse9916]

I'm glad started going to the track at a time when a E30 M3 or ITR was a 'fast car' :lol:

Those were true good ole days. Now a 100hp Miata like these fanbois suggest is just going to deter a guy from coming back and continuing after spending 99% of his session with his hand out the side.

Now you have cars with 5-6x the horsepower of that same Miata out on track. Basically a rolling hazard. It's why we don't mix lightning and thunder. 50mph+ closing speeds don't mix well together..


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[Senor_Taylor]

I'm glad started going to the track at a time when a E30 M3 or ITR was a 'fast car' :lol:

like these fanbois suggest

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[*insertusernamehere*]

is just going to deter a guy from coming back


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Hey Zach, how do you feel about coming back?

[Jake]

It's asinine to base buying a ZHP on a) whether or not you will race with NASA or b) if it will hurt resale because it doesn't comply with spec46. How many years away is racing IF you do it? Don't base possible resale of a car on whether or not 40 people in the mid Atlantic might want your car to race in. If you like the ZHP buy that.

If you end up going racing worry about that in 10 years. And if you want to sell the car those are rare enough that someone will buy it right away.

The ZHP is also kind of pointless to pay a premium for, honestly. They all have 100k+ miles and will need a suspension refresh, negating the ZHP "special" suspension. The alcantara inside wore like shit. They got cams and a tune to add 10 whole hp, which isn't very substantial.

People charge near-M3 money for ZHPs and really, a regular 330i with new shocks and an M3 replica front bumper will look about as good and drive just as well.

When you look at all of ^^^ that logic, PLUS the fact that it's got less resale potential, it's 100% not worth buying one.

[Goodspeed]

We're being delusional. His need of a vehicle, IF the GT is not in the picture anymore, is

If I get the car sold then i'll need a new car lined up so I can get to work.

Why are we talking about tracking? Racing? I'm pretty sure someone could post on here "Ideas wanted: car for my grandma to get to church on Sundays" and that thread would involve calculating consumables cost on platforms for GTS4 builds :lol:

[JPolen01]

I've been asking the same thing Goodspeed. You go to one NASA weekend and suddenly you're working a spreadsheet of race car builds and truck and trailer expenses.

[WRXtranceformed]

So when are you going C6 shopping?

We're all awesome at helping people spend their money