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I recently purchased my mid-life crisis car; it's rear-engined, manual transmission, air-cooled, same engine block as a Porsche 914 ... but it's a VW Vanagon.

Anyway, my super sweet high performance sports car can really only get up to highway speeds, and it takes a long time to get there. Getting on the highway means at least 20 seconds of full throttle driving, and staying at highway speeds is pretty darn close to full throttle too. It's kind of fun having your foot down the whole time you're driving without endangering others. :)

One of these days, I'm going to take it to the drag strip for fun. I'll get a better value, since I'll be on the strip for at 2-3 times as long as someone in a fast car :)

Really, I got it because I thought it'd be fun to get it running and hopefully keep it running, and it would probably be an easy manual to refresh my skills and teach the kiddo and maybe the spouse on. That and bugs and cuter VW vans were spendy, so I got the Vanagon instead.

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> One of these days, I'm going to take it to the drag strip for fun. I'll get a better value, since I'll be on the strip for at 2-3 times as long as someone in a fast car :)

If you're paying for the track time, might as well get your money's worth!

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I am past it but unless it's Nurburging track doesn't interest me although I am trying to buy a track car eg. Lotus Exige but I have time

I don't do the squeeze benz shit, if it's day time I see a gap in traffic that's when I floor it but yeah, even with a radar detector a lot of cops/troopers don't use their radar so not even helpful... and the tickets which I was dumb and paid... like I said I'm done with it as I want to stay out of jail

It's almost a curse discovering fast cars the thrill of the acceleration... I used to drive like mundane just part of life... and with the RD now I'm just on edge looking for the cops so yeah... I'm glad not speeding now

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I agree with your almost a curse sentiment. My interest in fast cars, BMWs in my case, is a blessing and a curse. But HPDE gave me a "safe" (for others) out and I took it.

It's expensive. So, FWIW, buy a car that's really reliable and parts relatively inexpensive so you can spend your money on track time and not the car. I have an F80 M3 dual purpose car and would have got an older dedicated track car (E46 maybe) if I ever got to do it all over again.

I doubt I'll ever get to Nurburging, too far and too expensive, but I've had a lot of fun on some relatively small and simpler tracks. Turns out I like the skill needed and experience of nailing a turn more than I like raw speed on a straight.

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People's car interests are interesting like for me I'm looking at visuals, I like the 2-door rounded back (Coupe?) design like Porsche 911 or Nissan 370z Nismo, Lotus Exige is not like that but damn what a sexy car 240 S in Chrome Orange. This is not the same car but love this video https://youtu.be/0c9prOTdp_M?si=7q7ffymWuGKZvmaf&t=155 I drive a manual I like downshifting closest thing I can get for now lol.

For Bimmers though my friend wants to get an M4. Oh and one of my friends gutted his old Bimmer, bucket seats inside that was crazy.

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As I'm watching videos like this shot with very fast shutter speed cameras, it's really hard for me to get a sense of how fast the car is actually going. Even the static shots of the car driving past, there's just no sense of is that really that fast? I've attached plenty of cameras to cars and have shot at the Indy 500, but the video has just never given me that "wow that's fast" sense.
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I get that, Barry's videos with the Lotus Elise on the alps are like that, feels like he's going really fast but only like 60mph

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5vF7ApxbAg

For the Exige above just the racking and down shifting sound, blip the throttle damn love that, that's why I'd never get an electric sports car even if it is faster, though the C8 can do a sub 2 second 0-60.

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Just get a EV. Your average tesla runs circles around ICE when it comes to acceleration.
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Granted. But, on the track, acceleration is only one component.

I've been passed on the track by cars with hundreds of horsepower less with a better track setup, lighter, and with better drivers.

There are reports of people taking EVs to the track but they are usually hampered by charging availability and heat dissipation. I've also heard that braking can be a challenge because you want to use regenerative braking as much as possible but that can make the braking unpredictable. The last thing you want coming in hot on a corner is to have any doubt about how well your heavy EV is going to shed speed.

I don't know for sure, but I'd make an educated guess that the EVs are really hard on tires. Lots of torque and relatively heavy is a bad combination for tire longevity.

The other problem EV owners face is that tracks have banned them due to the fire risk in the case of an accident. The tracks aren't equipped to handle a large LIB fire.

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This is why people buy miatas. You can wail on the car and still be driving the speed limit.
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