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I am currently not seriously considering this, just being curious.

Has anyone ever leased a car with the intent to autoX it? any issues explaining all the cone marks when turning it in?

I've met a few national level stock class drivers that have done this, but my guess is that the lease agreements have clauses about competition events that prohibit this.

That being said, I've still considered it, especially for stock class and knowing that I would be towing it around to events. When the car isn't competitive, you turn it in or buy it out, then sell a car that's 3 years old with less than 10k miles on it -> Profit - AB

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'14 Toyota Sequoia Platinum 4WD
Super Westerfield Bros - '93 Integra - LeChump Du Jour
STX 93 - Scion FR-S

yeah... my thought process is I have a new car of the week that I druel over... I figure leasing might be cheaper in the long run when i am wanting a new one every other year. Now to find a way of securing the resources for said idea.

ps. thanks for the edit... you knew what I ment though

I used to track leased cars in DEs. We'd turn them in with the brake-wear sensors melted off, warped rotors, all kinds of weirdness. Never ran into any trouble.

The biggest drawback was never wanting to upgrade anything in the car (even if you're going to run stock, you can spend some money doing shocks, an extra set of wheels, etc, which doesn't pay off in a lease). Plus, just when you got fast in a car, it was time to turn it in!

The other problem is that if you have a *ahem* mishap in a leased vehicle it is a bigger downside because the leasing company might consider HPDE use to be more than "normal wear and tear" and they are more sophisticated nowdays when the market is not so good.

Certainly true! On that front Autocross is probably a safer bet than track.

I have also talked with a friend that has leased before. He said if it's paint damage bigger then about 2 inches they will likely charge for it. Idk. Buying is probably the better approach. I just need to find the money to do that.

Or just buy a cheap car that you can afford to walk away from *ahem*

I have one of those... now I just want a daily driver thats more practical (pedals dont seem to "squar" off with the body very well), more visible, and can be raced in the rain without creating a swiming pool. anyone know of a car that fits the bill?

You could start by punching holes in the floor for drainage!

yep. And to fix pedal placement I could take a hammer to the transmission well so I can relocate the pedals. :p

Honestly, while I can see this to be an issue for a school, for the 2 mins or so the top needs to be down per run at a real AX, I don't think it's a real problem. We ran many years with our Miata that way, though ran our hardtop once, I think.

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Dustin Fredrickson
-- I'm a nobody --

Dustin,

99% of the time I agree with you. However I have had issues in the past where I couldent get the top down while it was raining (leather shrunk). Honestly, a hardtop is the cheapest option of all. Where I dont really need a new car, i just want one, and dont really have the money for one.

Need vs Want vs Afford, boy do I know that dilemma. While I like running AX with the top down and quite frankly, had a hard time driving with the top up or the hardtop on for awhile, HPDEs cured that since I have gotten used to driving with the top on. I agree that the cheapest alternative is to buy a hard top. It funny, when I actually had a functioning top on my car I never remember the vinyl getting so tight as to not go down - although it was sometimes difficult to get up Of course it didn't really matter after a short time as it had no window in the back.