This page is sponsored by Silverstone, who offer track days on a special track club basis. On these days you'll try your hand at advanced driving techniques on a range of track configurations, plus you're free to put your own car through its paces, or choose one of Silverstone's track cars (including Aston Martin, Ferrari and Lamborghini) to experience in car instruction from one of Silverstone's own coaches, plus the input of a sports psychologist.
Below are a selection of the best track cars on the planet. But what makes a good track car?
In our opinion it's the following attributes:
If you own or have driven a track car we would love to hear what you think. Please submit your review using the form below.
The best track cars in the world, in order of excellence.
Lightning acceleration but watch out for the slightly twitchy handling, especially in the wet. Our favourite track weapon and almost as fast as a superbike. Good reaction speed is essential. 
: Acceleration: Braking: Cornering: Reviewer review: Drivingfast.net review
Over 50 years of experience make this Caterham a superior lightweight track car. Rocket propelled acceleration to rival for any supercar. : Acceleration: Braking: Cornering: Reviewer review: Drivingfast.net review
F1 shifters are quick to engage, The BHP and torque are well managed at mid RPM. Great braking attitude. Stable corner handling. Strong acceleration. Stock tyre upgrade is a must, reat ride : Acceleration: Braking: Cornering: Reviewer review: Drivingfast.net review
The best track FWD car by some margin. Brutal midrange torque, well balanced chassis and well judged steering. Excellent traction out of corners (for FWD) and relative absence of torque steer. Playful lift off oversteer. If abused with power and understeer in slow corners, eats front tyres quickly. Gorgeous off-beat, 5-cylinder, rally inspired engine note. : Acceleration
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A masterpiece from Lotus. Quite happy to be driven on the road, but lives for the track. Steering is without rival. : Acceleration: Braking: Cornering: Reviewer review: Drivingfast.net review
A hardcore racer with all the trimings and frightening Nurburgring times. : Acceleration: Braking: Cornering: Reviewer review: Drivingfast.net review
Powerful, light, lots of fun : Acceleration: Braking: Cornering: Reviewer review: Drivingfast.net review
Great engine and 7 speed DCT transmission. Balanced handling and great throttle steer. Cheap front strut suspension causes excessive tyre wear. Camber plates help but suspension is inferior to double wishbone. Worthless single piston floating caliper brakes fade and smoke, very poor cooling of brakes. Cure is a set of big brakes with fixed calipers and performance pads, as well as cooling ducts for front brakes. The new BMW M5 has real brakes and a double wishbone suspension. : Acceleration
: Braking: Cornering: Reviewer review: Drivingfast.net review
An incredible car for the money. Gobs of torque and acceleration from naturally aspirated engine. Dry sump oil system. Incredible balance and cornering. Great turn in thanks to double wishbone suspension. Brakes are fixed caliper 6 pot front and 4 pot rear. Needs track pads and slotted front rotors with directional vanes. Don't like ABS at high speed. OE run flat tyres are horrible but easy to change to R compound. I wish that GM will make a DCT transmission available. Best value there is in my opinion. The 911 GT3 RS is no longer a problem. : Acceleration
: Braking: Cornering: Reviewer review: Drivingfast.net review
I'm a beginner and have had four different track sessions this year. The car was well beyond my skills. Top speed at first session was 85mph, last session was 135 and going solo on my last session. Learned a few things along the way but found the handling to be very predictable with no surprises. I was smooth enough to be able to drive with all of the nannies turned on, had half the straightaway left when I hit 135. Awesome car. Upgraded to the GS though didn't really need to. Wider wheels/tires and bigger brakes. I'll keep this one for a long time. : Acceleration: Braking: Cornering: Reviewer review: Drivingfast.net review
The S2000 is an amazing handling car that is a reliable performer. Turn in is as close to perfect as you can get. The power on the straights is where the S2000 is lacking. : Acceleration: Braking: Cornering: Reviewer review: Drivingfast.net review
Great fun to drive! : Acceleration: Braking: Cornering: Reviewer review: Drivingfast.net review
Most bang for your buck. Supercar acceleration at 4.5 secs, stock.
New S-AWC system provides forgiving handling at speeds.
With a few modifications (which I did), you'll be chasing Lambo's on the track.
The bad part is that it's only a in-line 4 engine with a large turbo, so there is a limit to how many horses you can squeeze out of it. With slight mods, 500bhp is no problem, with lightning fast handling.
Brakes needs help, OEM brake do not provide sufficient braking, and boils easily, for safety sake, change ASAP if you're planning to be at the track regularly.
Mods are a must to unleash the true potential of this monster : Acceleration: Braking: Cornering: Reviewer review: Drivingfast.net review
Stock power is decent but can definitely be awakened via a few mods and a reflash. Realatively light weight (3100lbs) given the size. The VQ can easily be boosted to 450Bhp on a stock block. Stock braking is decent (non Brembo), the Brembos being a slight advantage. Next to no understeer. Oversteer can be corrected easily with a 305 or 315 wide tire when using significant power levels. For a modest investment the Z can compete with most the heavy hitters for around half the cost. : Acceleration: Braking: Cornering: Reviewer review: Drivingfast.net review
Front engined and rear transaxle layout gives Porsche's 944 near perfect 50-50 weight distribution. Excellent balance and handling makes the 944 a popular track day toy for those on a budget. : Acceleration: Braking: Cornering: Reviewer review: Drivingfast.net review
Probably the most fun you can have in a front wheel drive car. A serious pocket sized machine. : Acceleration: Braking: Cornering: Reviewer review: Drivingfast.net review
This car has also has potential like the Impreza line and has 4WD transmission. It looks like a city car but has a racing inner potential. : Acceleration: Braking: Cornering: Reviewer review: Drivingfast.net review
Excellent car, fantastic acceleration, superb braking, handles like it's on rails. Feels like a thoroughbred race car. : Acceleration: Braking: Cornering: Reviewer review: Drivingfast.net review
If you don't want to go as extreme as a Caterham/Atom/Radical and can get beyond badge snobbery then the VX ticks all the boxes. 4.7 to 60 as standard. Great handling as standard with divine steering feel. Great power to weight ratio. Brakes are ok as standard but need the abs turned off and better pads to make them great. Respected by people in the know who have driven them. A very credible alternative to the Elise to the open minded.
Relatively low running costs. It's a real drivers car that is possible to run as an everyday car as long as you accept there are some compromises. For the money I struggle to think of a car that can deliver so much performance, tactility and fun. : Acceleration: Braking: Cornering: Reviewer review: Drivingfast.net review
I find the Golf R an amazing track car due to its superb acceleration, superb big brakes, AWD handling and its ability to get the power down in all situations. With a Stage 1 ECU Flash with 240kW it is a very competitive track day car. : Acceleration: Braking: Cornering: Reviewer review: Drivingfast.net review
Come on now, this has to be the best bang for the buck! Transform your parents grocery shopper into a highly competitive race car for as little as £5000, it's light weight, easy maintenance, low-cost, unlimited parts option, all the right ingredient for an ultimate affordable track car. With the right setup this car should be one of the top contenders on tight tracks! : Acceleration: Braking: Cornering: Reviewer review: Drivingfast.net review
This is one potent car, after one year with several track days I'm heavily pleased. Some minor flaws such as lack of a really good brake feeling and a risk of hitting temperatures which reduce the available power. My machine with non OEM brakes matches many other more expensive cars on the track and I can still go to work every day with this little sleeper. : Acceleration: Braking: Cornering: Reviewer review: Drivingfast.net review
Possibly the most fun you can have in a rear wheel drive car. Slightly twitchy handling on the rear. Needs more power though! : Acceleration: Braking: Cornering: Reviewer review: Drivingfast.net review
Suffers from understeer. Really light and a near 50/50 weight balance. Very reliable. I love this car, I have owned a US spec GTS model. Amazing control, steering and engine. Did I mention a fantastic T-50 transmission? : Acceleration: Braking: Cornering: Reviewer review: Drivingfast.net review
Looking just at the numbers, there is nothing about this vehicle that would make one consider it for performance driving of any sort. Acceleration is decent at best in first gear and nigh-on terrible any other time, you can get the choice of an automatic or a broken automatic (the latter being the more common), it's got drums in the rear, weighs as much as an aircraft carrier and body-rolls more than the aircraft it carries. But surprisingly, this minivan's redeeming quality, is the fact that it is a minivan. Driving a Windstar a speed makes the driver feel like he's playing a guitar that's strung with shoelaces. The music isn't great, but the fact that you can play at all provides an addictive novelty-factor. Passing another driver in a Windstar is like winning a gunfight with a spork. It's not a track-car by any stretch of the imagination, and that's precisely what makes it so entertaining. : Acceleration
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