Buying a used vehicle that has been tracked

[anzai]

have tried searching the forums, google etc, maybe i wasn't using the right keywords. found nothing.

what should i look for when buying a vehicle that has been tracked in its life.

in the long run, do they tend to come up with more problems?

im trying to keep the question as vague as possible so i can get as much inputs as possible to the many aspects of the vehicle that could go wrong as a result of having being driven at the track.

thanks guys

[M@lew]

Depends if the owner has taken care of it or not really. If serviced before and after each track day etc. shouldn't be too much of an issue, vs a non-tracked car that's rarely serviced or taken care of badly.

[Zilli]

define "tracked"... if the guy has been to the track 3 or 4 times in the time hes owned it i hardly be worried as long as it's been maintained... if it is a track car then yeh, the life of components cannot be expected to be as long as a car that is babied on the street... its really an open ended question man

[dougie_504]

Well, same as any car you just do the usual checks for maintenance. At least they told you it's been tracked to begin with :)

[mnc]

Ill start off by doing a compression test and leakdown test to see the engines health.

Then like dougie stated do the usual checks =]

[markismaximus]

its already been said above but it depends on if the car has been serviced between track outings. A car that is regularly serviced and tracked is going to be in better condition than a daily thats neglected and gets an oil change every 30,000ks.

Also if a car has been tracked one would assume everything is in working order, such as brakes, shocks etc. Because only an idiot would take a car to the track that could potentially fail and kill the driver.

[TheSaint]

it depends how prepped the car was for tracked - if things were uprated to track spec that would normally fail under those conditions
what was changed and what was left stock - if parts were left stock will the fail in the future?
was the car serviced for track work every time?

also depends how many times he went to the track, and how he drives on the street'
he could be superfast on the track but than drive like a nanna on the street
or he could be superfast on the track and drive like a hoon on the street
or he could be slow at both
and than you get street cars that are abused everyday which would accumulate to a much worse results than a properly maintained track car

theres really too many variables here - the only real key is to do as much research and history check about the car as possible than make an informed decision
but hey - you should really be doing that about every part in life lol

[anzai]

thanks everyone for the pointers.

i have very little information of the car at the moment, i havent even seen it yet. only just found out about the fact that its been tracked, dunno how often or how many times.

i'll be definitely doing a compression test to check the health of the engine, and then we'll see what happens from there.

ill keep you updated!

[dougie_504]

Like I said IMO it's good that they told you to begin with. Some people won't tell you but for me the honesty would inspire some trust...

[Mikecivic78]

As with any car, receipts to prove servicing is best. Logbooks can be fudged, don't trust them.

Maybe it might be alright, but I would stay away, there are many fish in the sea.

Buy one that's been serviced regularly and taken care of.