Take 2 cars or just own 1 all rounder.

Car ownership is getting expensive as all Torquecars members will tell you. When you start tuning up a car you increase the running costs by reducing your fuel economy and reduce the reliability of parts because of the extra stress on the components. The servicing regimen on a highly tuned engine is generally a lot tighter than on a standard car and by tuning it you are reducing the margin for fault toleration.

More drivers are switching to run a track tuned car and many kit cars like the Caterham, robin Hood and Westfield are gaining popularity. The idea is that you can have a hardcore track car to throw around the track and get a car with a power to weight ratio greater than most supercars and an effortless 0-60 sprint of sub 4 seconds. Having a track specific car means you can throw out the comfort to maximise the track performance. Most track bred cars are a simple lightweight scaffold pole style chassis and large power plant such as a Honda Type R supercharged or Vauxhall or Ford pinto derived engines. Kit cars are also a popular choice as they have very lightweight body shells and huge engines and many good quality replicas of supercars are around with engines that outperform the originals they mimic.

Your other daily commute car is then an ordinary run of the mill realiable car and the combined running costs of the 2 cars is about the same as having a highly tuned car which you use every day.

Never underestimate the fun you can have with a classic or large engined American car on the track and often older car have lower tax and other concessions that make ownership of them a little less expensive.