Best track day cars 2025 – the thrill of driving in its purest form
Some of the world's most visceral, engaging track cars have emerged in recent times – these are our favourites
Track cars have a simple mandate to excite and entertain when driven to the maximum. There’s no specific recipe to uphold – driven wheels, body styles and engine layouts shouldn’t matter here, only a resolute focus on being both fun to drive and resilient enough to handle more than a few laps at high speed.
So here’s our list of the best cars to fulfil for your track day desires, be that something designed specifically for the circuit driving job, or a car with a broader remit. Most are road-legal, but for absolute purity and thrills, there are purpose built machines that take things to the next level.
Track day stalwarts from Caterham and Ariel make the cut, but also extreme, single-minded supercars from the likes of Porsche and Aston Martin. So in no particular order, here are the best track day cars you can buy now that’ll make every turn-in, apex and straight a pleasure.
Best track day cars 2025
- Life110 Alpine A110 R
- Caterham Seven
- Ariel Atom 4R
- McLaren Artura Trophy Evo
- Porsche 911 GT3 RS
- Honda Civic Type R
- Radical SR3 XXR
- Porsche 911 GT3
- Spartan
- Aston Martin Valkyrie
Life110 Alpine A110 R
We were left a little disappointed by the A110 R when we first drove it around Jarama circuit in Spain. It felt like Alpine had been too conservative with what should have been the most vivid, intense A110 of them all, but the beauty of the R is that its chassis is highly adjustable, and that ultra keyed-in feel was just waiting to be unlocked. For our 2024 Track Car of the Year test at Cadwell Park, it arrived with a revised setup and shone brightly next to serious, purpose-built machinery, cementing itself as one of our favourite track cars on sale.
> Life110 Alpine A110 R review
Now, Life110 – run by ex JLR vehicle dynamics engineer David Pook – has devised a series of upgrade packages to take things to the next level. With choice tweaks to the R’s adjustable coilover suspension, engine calibration, gearbox tuning and aero, among other details, the result is a supremely focused A110 with more power (316bhp) and real positivity in the way it handles. In other words, it’s a brilliant car made even better.
Caterham Seven
With every distraction and every ounce of fat carved away, the Caterham Seven distils driving into its core components. The formula has remained fundamentally the same since the Caterham's spiritual predecessor – the Lotus Seven – arrived in the late ’50s, but gradual evolution has seen the Seven become a physical, raw and formidable track car today.
With a range that spans from the dainty, vintage-style Super Seven series and all the way to the crazed, supercharged 620R, speccing the ultimate Seven is somewhat of a minefield, but fear not – evo has done all the work for you. To coincide with the magazine's 25th anniversary and Caterham's 50th, we partnered with the British car maker to produce the Seven evo25 Edition; a unique spec of Caterham that combines our favourite elements from existing models. With a 210bhp Ford Duratec motor, adjustable 420 Cup-derived Bilstein dampers and a selection of track-oriented options, the evo25 is glorious to drive on track but at home on the road too – covering distance in the snug, cosy cockpit with the dampers softened off is no hardship. Unsurprisingly, neither is belting around your favourite circuit.
Ariel Atom 4R
The Ariel Atom represents the pinnacle of track day thrills. At the top of the current range is the wild, all-compassing Atom 4R – it's hard to think of another car that's so exquisitely technical yet primal and raw in character. Its Civic Type R-derived turbocharged engine kicks out 400bhp and it weighs less than 700kg, but adjustable traction control and ABS mean that the potential of the 4R doesn't feel hopelessly out of reach. As your trust in the car (and yourself) grows, the Atom takes you into an entirely new realm on a circuit.
If you’re after something a bit different from Ariel, the Nomad 2 is also an absolute blast, its long-travel off-road suspension giving it an endlessly fun roly-poly character. It’s not one for setting lap times, but you’ll probably have as wide a grin as GT3 RS drivers at a track day.
McLaren Artura Trophy Evo
You probably won’t climb out of a McLaren Artura wishing it had more performance, but with the track-only Trophy Evo version, McLaren has ramped up the capability of its ‘baby’ mid-engined supercar to a stunning degree. With a dry-sumped 3-litre twin turbo V6, no hybrid system, a full aero package and slick tyres, it’s massively exciting yet accessible to drive – and a gateway into McLaren’s Trophy race series.
> McLaren Artura Trophy Evo review
With 612bhp at your disposal the Evo feels massively quick, but it’s the cornering performance that leaves the biggest impression. Make the most of its high-speed grip and neutral handling and it’ll lap close to GT3 pace. If you’re a (very) wealthy racing fan, there aren’t many better ways to spend a quarter of a million pounds.
Porsche 911 GT3 RS
There's an air of inevitability about the Porsche 911 GT3 RS. It's the yardstick by which all other track-focused road cars are judged, and given that the latest 911 is more GT-like than ever, Porsche has pushed the new RS to even more extreme heights than its predecessors to produce a truly formidable machine that's highly distinct from the base car.
The GT3 RS’s immense performance and grip are almost otherworldly. It genuinely feels like a 911 Cup car with number plates, and while the 518bhp 4-litre flat-six isn't meaningfully more potent than that of the standard GT3, the RS feels like a car transformed – particularly on a high-speed circuit. With the damper and diff settings adjustable on the fly, it's also a car that offers a deep well of rewards for high-level drivers. At our 2024 Track Car of the Year test it lapped quicker than a Radical SR3 XXR, which tells you just about everything you need to know.
Honda Civic Type R
The latest Honda Civic Type R is an example of a manufacturer listening to feedback and delivering in brilliant fashion. We loved the previous FK8-generation car, its communicative, tenacious chassis and engaging powertrain, but there were two snags in the otherwise world-beating formula: its divisive styling and the restrictive drive mode presets that left the Type R with untapped potential. The FL5 model rectifies both of these and brings a host of engineering enhancements in one hit, making it the best hot hatchback money can buy.
In an age of DCT-equipped four-wheel drive mega hatches, the Type R feels almost touring car-like in the surgical, sometimes frantic way it delivers performance. The Honda's communicative controls and instinctive manual gearshift draw you into exploiting all of its potential on track, where even full-blooded sports cars would have a very hard time clinging to its rear wing.
Radical SR3 XXR
The Radical SR3 has been around since 2002, but don't let that fool you. In XXR form it's a cutting-edge downforce demon that scrambles your mind with its sheer precision, intensity and cornering ability. You sit reclined in the chassis, LMP-style, with the centre of gravity skimming the ground and a 1500cc RPE racing engine revving to the stratosphere. Despite weighing just 699kg (full of fuel) and putting out 232bhp, it's not the straight line speed that gets you – rather the enormous cornering and braking potential the SR3 manages to generate.
> Radical SR3 XXR v Revolution 500 Evo
In the dry you can lean hard on the Hankook slick tyres, braking impossibly deep and carrying massive speed through every apex. There's real finesse to the driving experience too, and it's possible to place the Radical with pinpoint accuracy and trim your lines to what feels like the nearest millimetre. It's one of the most intensely pure track driving experiences out there.
Porsche 911 GT3
No car has been as consistently high on every trackday goers wish list as the 911 GT3. And though the threat of emissions regulations and a push towards electrification has called the existence of the GT3 as we know it into question, the latest 992.2 delivers everything we love about the very best GT3s – and then some.
As before, the engine is a masterpiece. It remains a 4-litre naturally-aspirated flat-six that revs to 9000rpm, and despite needing to comply with more stringent emissions regs, still produces over 500bhp. You can pick between manual or PDK, and the 992.2’s chassis and steering have been further honed, taking inspiration from the fabulous S/T. It all comes together in a superbly polished and exciting driving experience, that leaves us wondering how a future hybrid or turbocharged GT3 could ever match it.
Spartan
The name says it all; the Australian-built Spartan is just about as angry and unhinged as track cars come. Designed with inspiration from 1960s Can-Am cars, its flowing carbonfibre body helps keep weight down to just 745kg (full of fuel), and its supercharged 460bhp Honda engine has the goods to thrill, excite and downright terrify its driver (in the best way possible).
Thankfully, the Spartan combines this furious performance with directness and communication on a circuit. This gives you confidence to really lean on it through corners, at which point you'll find that the balance is neutral and approachable with reassuring high speed stability. Our man Richard Meaden sums it up: 'I can’t think of another road-legal car that places so much in the hands of the driver and delivers such an intense and unfiltered reward.'
Aston Martin Valkyrie
If you want to recalibrate your expectations as to what a road car is capable of, look no further than the Aston Martin Valkyrie. It should come as no surprise that the 1139bhp, Adrian Newey-designed machine is the most technically impressive, physically demanding hypercar of them all, but with a shrink-wrapped body generating a sustained 600kg of downforce at speed, it opens up an entirely new realm of performance.
> Aston Martin Valkyrie review
The Valkyrie takes time, skill and enormous commitment to get near its potential, but when everything comes together, there's no road car quite like it. 'At first everything feels like it's happening too fast, but the trick is to look further and further ahead,' said evo's Richard Meaden having lapped the Valkyrie at the Bahrain GP circuit. 'It feels unnatural, but it’s all part of the recalibration process. One that you gradually get on top of lap-by-lap, but with less time to relax on the straights and so much compressed into each braking effort the Valkyrie is a ruthless and relentless test of your focus and mental stamina.'
