Questions about tracked cars

[GoCanes1]

Guys,

I have been wanting a viper for some time and found one that I thought was clean but it has been tracked. I am looking for your expert opinions on what you would do. The car is a 96 Blue/White w/30k miles. It had an Arrow rebuild @ 17k miles, power steering pumps twice,has a roll cage, but the body an interior is in good shape and Carfax is clean. The price is $36,000, is this too high for this car, if so what is a good price, and how bad is it that it obviously has been tracked?

Thanks for helping,
Mike

[Janni]

Are you buying a race car or a street car?

And yes, you can have a tracked car that is "clean". Clean usually refers to condition and title. Tracking a car doesn't mean it's been abused - you can abuse and neglect a track car as easily as you can a street car. Hopefully, the track car has had a better trained eye looking it over for wear and safety items, but you never know. It should have had lots more fluids changes and earlier than normal maintenance schedule.

An Arrow rebuild IS NOT a reason to dismiss a car.

If the car has a CAGE - it'll take a bit to get this back to a street car. If it has been tracked - there may be some good upgrades don't to it to improve longevity and strengthen weak points (i.e. pwr steering pump...)

All depends on what you want - a street car, or a track car? $36K is pretty cheap for a 1996.

Who's car is this?

[GoCanes1]

Thanks for the response. The owner woud not be known as it has changed twice in the last year and a half. The car was used mostly in AZ but is now in TX.

I am looking for a car to have fun with, for my wife and I to take out on the weekends (when we have a babysitter), to cruise, attend some local VCA deals, just have fun with.

I do not mind it having a roll cage and would not take it out if we buy it.

[Janni]

You don't mind crawling over a cage to get in and out of your car? Your wife wouldn't mind?

Does it still have a heater and A/C? Airbags? Stereo?

What kind of events were done with the car? racing? Tracking? Autocross?

Take it to a good Viper Tech and have it gone over - check for the 998/999 recall being done. Check the entire suspension and ALL welds, esp if the car was tracked with "sticky" tires. Check the front hubs for any play. Same for all ball joints. Probably would need a four wheel alignment to get back to a street car.

Mechanically, the cars are pretty simple, but you are going to have to do some work to get the car back as a street car, IMO - don't know how much, but figure that into the true cost of the car and then see if any other non-track cars are available for similar total cost.

I'd have few worries if the car tested out OK both in a drive and after a thorough Viper Tech inspection.

[GoCanes1]

The cage is not a full 10 point NHRA cage. There is nothing to crawl or step over. It is more like the one that Partsrack has.

I have no idea what events were done and neither does the current owner. The bar could have been just for show but history leads that it was somewhat tracked. I am having a Viper tech take a look hopefully tomorrow.

Thanks,
Mike

[joe117]

If all you want is a nice Viper to drive on a weekend now and then, I'd stay clear of this car.

Tracked? Well, we still don't know what that means in this case.
Roll cage? I don't think you could live with a real roll cage so I'm guessing that it really only has roll protection of some kind and not a real roll cage.

The reason I'd say to pass on this car is that drag racing or road racing can not make the car better.
these activities are hard on the car and even if nothing is broken, the car isn't better because of being tracked.

Good maintenance and inspection can catch problems that might be caused by the stress of racing and of course many street cars can receive abuse without being on a track.
I think you would be better off finding a car that hasn't been "tracked" or abused and neglected while never being on a track.

The price seems fair to low. I'm betting that there are things about the car that you may not see right now but are the reason for the fair to low price.

At least look around at other Vipers before you get into this one.

[sun diego]

These cars are built to be run. Get it checked out. At that price it may be a great deal.

[JimT 99RT]

Oh my god its been on a track...it might have been run above 3000 RPMs. I’ve heard that's bad for these cars, it may have even been driven at high speeds for long periods of time. I'm glad my car is mainly just kept in the garage and has not been on several road courses, and down the 1/4 track many times. Gee the only issue I seem to have is that Viper lettering on my brake calipers is orange, probably came from not polishing them enough…

I second the "These cars are built to be run" statement...

[SNKEBIT]

Oh my god its been on a track...it might have been run above 3000 RPMs. I’ve heard that's bad for these cars, it may have even been driven at high speeds for long periods of time. I'm glad my car is mainly just kept in the garage and has not been on several road courses, and down the 1/4 track many times. Gee the only issue I seem to have is that Viper lettering on my brake calipers is orange, probably came from not polishing them enough…

I second the "These cars are built to be run" statement...

[Sonny 00 GTS ACR]

Yeah Baby!

[Bad_Byte]

Guys,

I have been wanting a viper for some time and found one that I thought was clean but it has been tracked. I am looking for your expert opinions on what you would do. The car is a 96 Blue/White w/30k miles. It had an Arrow rebuild @ 17k miles, power steering pumps twice,has a roll cage, but the body an interior is in good shape and Carfax is clean. The price is $36,000, is this too high for this car, if so what is a good price, and how bad is it that it obviously has been tracked?

Thanks for helping,
Mike

Trust me, you don't want that car. You should just tell me where it is so I can make sure no one else gets it.

[joe117]

All of these guys have fun with their cars.
And they are built to be run.
Right on! As we said back in the day.

The thing is, running the car hard is not good for it.
Not to say that it will cause permanent damage,
I'm just saying it's not good for it.

Racing puts more stress on every part of the car, PERIOD.

Ask anyone,
Would you rather have a car that has been raced hard and received proper maintenance,
or,
would you rather have a car that has received the same maintenance but never been pushed very hard on a track?

Anyone who tries to dick with the above question by saying that race cars receive better care or that a street driven car doesn't get the carbon blown out, or that very hard driving doesn't make any difference,
is not giving this new guy an honest answer.

Jeez, everyone knows that stop and go city driving is harder on a car than highway.
So it is a given that the way the car is driven means something.

[Tom, F&L GoR]

I suppose the real issue is useful remaining life. If it exceeds your life, then it doesn't matter what the car's history was. As someone with a little lubricant formulation field experience, I can say almost all cars are driven, not towed, to the junkyard. As a DIY mechanic, there are lots of easy things to take care of and keep the car running fine. We are all guessing at what the major "oops" will be and assuming it now happens much sooner rather than later.

I bought a "high mileage" 1994 (20,000 miles!! in 1998) that was drag raced a lot; I have 74,000 miles and can look back and say the only possible related failure (which might have just as well been me) was a recent third gear synchro and a slave cylinder (repaired both at the same time.) Head gaskets are original, OEM half shafts, I changed the clutch because I was in there and it was fine...

So Joe117's question is valid, but in my experience, if there's nothing showing up now, the answer is likely to be beyond the point of where you can strictly assign the problem to running the car harder. And as properly noted, running the car in city stop and go, or even not at all, can cause a whole different set of problems.

It's a car, not an investment. You can only enjoy it if it gets used.

[sun diego]

Joe, most of these cars have just been "tracked", not raced, right?

[joe117]

Tracked?
Well I thought about that. Like I said, we don't really know what kind of track time the car has had and in what kind of events.
Given the roll protection, I would guess that it was more than a day at an open track event. But that's just a guess.

Tom,
It all boils down to this, the new guy asked,
"how bad is it that it obviously has been tracked?"

I believe that the guys that said "these cars are made to run", are not giving the new guy a really straight assessment.
Sure, running a Viper hard on a track doesn't mean the car was ruined.

However, it is a significant factor and it certainly doesn't make the car worth more.

I stand with what I said to him.

"The reason I'd say to pass on this car is that drag racing or road racing can not make the car better.
these activities are hard on the car and even if nothing is broken, the car isn't better because of being tracked."

"The price seems fair to low. I'm betting that there are things about the car that you may not see right now but are the reason for the fair to low price."

"At least look around at other Vipers before you get into this one."