[s-cars] Track car or not track car

[TM]

Easy answer- the major benefits that I can list off the top of my head:

1. You don't have to worry about crashing/breaking your daily driver
2. You don't need to have the track car registered/insured as a street
car-
thus no inspection/emissions/etc. worries as well
3. You can have a car that is much better suited to the track than your
typical
street car and the setup of the car doesn't have to be compromised for
street
use considerations
4. Depending on your priorities, the track car doesn't have to be
pretty- I
don't like driving a crappy-looking street car, but I don't mind driving
a
crappy-looking but mechanically pristine track car

The downsides:

1. You need a trailer and a tow vehicle, esp. if the car is not
street-legal
2. Costs more to have an additional car- repair, track prep, etc.
3. Need extra storage space- lots of communities will not allow you to
park
your trailer and track car on the street or sometimes not even in your
driveway.

If I could afford it, I'd definitely have a track car, no ifs ands or
buts- our
Audis are big pigs (except for maybe the UrQ) and there are many cars
I'd rather
drive on the track (BMW E30, Porsche 951, 968, Mazda Miata, Acura
Integra Type-R,
FD3 Mazda RX-7 to name a few).

In Europe, you have even more choices: Lotus Elise (mk1 and mk2), Exige,
R400,
Vauxhall VX220, Nissan Silvia, Skyline GT-R, Mitsu Evo (many
generations), Subaru WRX
(STi and the like- Prodrive models as well), Caterham, Westfield,
various TVRs,
etc. Also, the greater available numbers of even the cars we have here
make it much
easier on the used market- 951s produced from 1985 to 1992, etc. With a
large
track car budget, even more choices- 968CS, 964RS/R, 993RS/R, E36 M3
Evo, E30 M3
Evo II/III, etc.

Something like a Lotus R400 would be a blast- saw one locally once,
completely
surprised that someone had one here w/ plates and apparently
street-legal.

Taka