What Classic Car Would You Turn Into A Track Toy?

Most of us have had the privilege of attending a handful of vintage racing events in our lives so far, whether they be the Mt. Olympus-types like the Goodwood Members’ Meeting or the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, a simple down-to-earth VARA weekend, or even just a handful of E30s banging doors at your local circuit. There are plenty of reasons to attend both sides of that spectrum, for no matter how fast the cars go and how far the lap times fall in modern motorsport, the allure of historic competitors—downright archaic as some may be—is simply, special. It’s a live look into the past, and while it’s rare to see somebody flogging these cars like the drivers in period, it’s far from accurate to say they’re just doing parade laps (okay, some “races” are like this, but you get the point).

I’d so much rather attend a vintage racing event with “mid-tier” cars actually on track than walk around a bunch of static million-dollar-plus machines doing nothing, and when I inevitably have to drive back home from a day spent leaning on the fences and not wearing earplugs when I really should be, I always play the dangerous game of rationalizing the purchases necessary to build my own proper track car out of something born before the year 2000. I have far too many hypothetical builds in my head, but there’s no point in being close-minded, so I’ll turn it over to you guys: which classic car would you turn the dials up to 11 on? As you can see by the photos, I’ve tried to keep things a bit more on the realistic side, but feel free to spill the beans on your 917 fantasies too!