If you want to hit the track but you’re worried about damaging your daily driver in the process, you might be in the market for a nice second car to spend your weekend hooning responsibly.

This track-ready set of wheels needs the performance to handle a circuit, but you might not want it to cost the Earth if it’s your first attempt at racing.

To uncover some great starter cars for anyone looking to give racing a go, we turned to you and asked what’s the best budget track car for beginners?

Don’t throw ‘performance’ parts at it.

GM is cheap to fix consumables.

Not sure that’s quite what the makers of this aging Vauxhall Corsa had in mind when they designed it.

“Man, there are so many different schools of thought to what makes a good track car.

Is it a DEDICATED track car, or something you daily and also track.

You have enough trunk space to haul consumables and tools to the track.

That’s the Mustang.”.

It sounds like there might be a Mustang for every occasion and every budget.

That’s before Ford has even released its next wave of track-focused Mustangs.

And pre built race cars that are already sorted aren’t cheap, and ones that aren’t well sorted can be a real headache.

Sure, you’re forced into FWD, but decent ones are still cheap, parts are plentiful and the aftermarket is huge.

The EK Civic from 1995 came up due to its plentiful aftermarket parts

Maintenance and consumables are very cheap, if you ever bin it there are plenty of Corolla parts/chassis in the junkyard

If you can learn to work on your car while you learn to track it, that’s got to be a win-win situation

More HP and just as good aftermarket support

Being able to recoup the cost of a track conversion by selling off spare parts is a handy hint to know

“E36 BMW non-M3 – cheap, simple strong motor, plentiful

“BRZ/FRS – cheap consumables and parts, lightweight, good out of the box

“C5 ‘Vette – also cheap and plentiful parts, lots of power

If you still don’t want a Miata, then the E36 BMW from the 1990s was another very popular suggestion from commenters today