I owned Mk II chassis #11 for 3 years. 1100 track miles.
I tracked the car at several events including running COTA three times.
Pros: The car is extremely easy to drive and a blast on track. Stable and predictable, although I doubt I pushed it past 8/10ths. The cars are durable with less chance of hydraulic leaks etc since suspension, aero elements, wing are fixed. Certainly drew a lot of attention in the paddock.
Cons: The cheapest part of owning this car is buying it. Race gas is minimum $10/gal. Consumables such as brake pads, rotors, and tires aren’t cheap. There are time specific rebuilds on the motor and gearbox. MM has designated Gradient Racing near Austin, Texas (currently racing a Mustang GT3 in IMSA) as the service guys for Mk II cars in our area. That’s three hours from me. You can’t just take it to your nearest Ford dealer or race shop.
I was somewhat of a beta tester…my car had a delaminated windshield and dead headlamp…MM were great and kindly provided new parts free. My Chill Out (cooling suit) system was the first one installed in a Mk II. After trying 4 different units, including adding a blower fan, it still didn’t cool me much on track. Any track session with air temps above 75-80 was no fun. The cars are so aero, no air comes through the side window. Air con would add weight but other track cars (Porsche and the new GTD) have it.
My titanium Heffner exhaust cracked from harmonic vibration, so Heffner redesigned a new one with a cross brace. That led to an advisory to other owners and an upgrade. That’s why you see an extra exhaust in the pics with the above BaT listing.
All in all…lots of down time getting things sorted.
One of the problems about doing track days with a $1.25 M track toy is that you do worry about some track hero in a Miata dive bombing you. And there’s no track insurance coverage at that level. Also, on full slicks, you can’t run in the rain. I didn’t have a set of rain tires.
The ideal owner for one of these is a driver who is involved in events like Ferrari Corsa Cliente. An arrive and drive experience. I pursued the grass roots way and got an F250 and a JimGlo trailer. The ramps on the trailer had to be reingineered. The car will scrape diffuser and splitter otherwise. Only about an 1 1/2” clearance to each wheel well. Definitely a production to load/unload, requiring two folks. We even brought our own nitrogen tank for the air jacks. Quite a production!
So at the end of the day…I had fun with the car, and actually used it as intended. I opted to go back to something I could drive to the track, play, and then go home. I ultimately got a GT4RS.
As for valuations…other than a couple of early flipped cars…when I decided to move on in late ‘23….there were two others that had bid to right around 1M…Chip’s low mile yellow car and a white car with a few miles.
I got close to that on a trade against a red Carrera GT and felt it was a fair deal.
My car went on BaT thereafter and was a no sale at 40k less than I got in trade value. It was sold privately after that but that guy traded it back in as it wasn’t street legal. I guess he didn’t do much research! #11 now has bid twice (Sotheby’s and BaT) to $750k, in line with the above blue car. Unfortunately that number sticks, as the internet’s forever. The market speaks. The track version will regress towards the mean price of the street car IMHO.
These are niche cars and the bandwidth of interested buyers is narrow. Most will just sit in collections. I drove mine and had fun. I feel that I got away from a falling knife, rather than trying to catch it.
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