CheapLexus

Wonder no longer.... I did a cheap car challenge with some friends over in the UK. The rules - buy a car for less than £500, make it safe and track-worthy, get it to the Nurburgring in Germany and do at least 1 lap, then get it home again.

I picked up a GS300 for £350 ($420 ish) with a fresh MOT (vehicle safety exam). It was cheap as there was a leak in the heater matrix. Other than that, it was quite wobbly on the suspension front, but solid. I gave it a mother of a service (Here's the car preperation thread - https://www.nurburg500.co.uk/2000-lexus-gs300/), and in doing so found loads of great info on these forums, so I thought I'd post up how it went...

In a nutshell - I did about 20 laps, the car ate a complete set of EBC yellowstuff pads (front and rear) in 15 laps, and it was hilariously the wrong car to take to the ring!

Lap time was mid 9 minutes, very respectable bearing in mind it was on standard suspension.

I had a full on race datalogger in the car, and put a gopro in the front so it looked out through the center of the Lexus badge. It came out quite well...
The full write up is here - https://www.nurburg500.co.uk/the-dancing-cow/

Wrath

iTrader: (2)

Freakin' awesome man! love seeing this kinda stuff here.

firelizard

iTrader: (1)

That's fantastic. Props for not only bothering to do it, but for documenting and sharing it with us.

Brickbeats

Awsome post, i wonder how my gs430 would have held up with its 213.000 miles!

SoCal Cyco

iTrader: (20)

$420 us dollars? That is less than a set of trd sways!?!?!?



And a hell of a 1st post!!!!!

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

^Probably closer o a grand with exchange rates, but still cool regardless

CheapLexus

Cheers for the comments.

It was great fun. I think the extra power of the GS430 would have made quite a difference, though the brakes would last even less time!

Here's my favourite shot of the car:



The suspension lean is awesome.

I've dumped the car at my workshop for a bit, it's developed some serious front end clunks after the laps. Will be interesting to find out what they are, especially since I basically replaced all the bushes and balljoints (and upper arms) before the trip. I'll post back when I've pulled it apart and found the culprit(s). Always good to know what the weak spots are.

SoCal Cyco

iTrader: (20)

so much body roll!!!

czr73

THATS BADASS !! !!
Would love to know your setup specs ;-)

kamlung

iTrader: (8)

thanks for doing this... that is awesome!!!

your faces look priceless.. and look at those brakes... oh my...

thoiboi

Was that a McClaren and was it part of the challenge too? :P

CheapLexus

I've had a good poke around it now, and it held up surprisingly well considering the abuse. I can't recommend running yokohama AD08R's enough. They have hardly worn, which considering the abuse is amazing.

Setup was max out negative camber on all the wheels, then book toe in at the back, and slightly toe out at the front. Everything else was stock.

These were the issues:

1. Bent front ARB drop link. Was brand new before the trip:

'old' vs new replacement drop links

2. Front bottom ball joints - slight play.
3. Rear Top ball joint - loads of play.

On the plus side, the new pads held up fine, I put the standard exhaust back on it, and my co-driver on the trip took the car to a track day in December and had a great time with it. I've also got a load of footage from the ring I've not been through yet, including harassing a Ferrari through the twisty bits over a lap. To be fair, it was an old couple in it, but it was very entertaining at the time.

I think there'll be a few more track days for the brother in law, then either it gets turned into the family long distance wagon or sold...

Brahms

Actually, I have wondered how a GS would do on the Nurburgring. This is awesome!

AzNGman07

iTrader: (2)

Wow this is too awesome, Thanks for sharing

TW99GS300

I would love to do this run with my GS. Suspension and brakes are fully setup for tracking.