Bone stock 1.7 durability for track days Options

[Bulldozer27]

In December of last year, I took the 914 plunge and bought a '71 6cyl conversion. Said car had too much cancer (rust), so I started looking for a suitable replacement donor chassis. By this March, I found and bought my replacement chassis, a clean, mostly original, bone stock base '71 1.7L 914.

My intention was to strip down the latter to transplant drivetrain, suspension, and brakes from the former, but before doing so, I wanted to drive it just to see what it was like. So I took it on a canyon run in the mountains down here (where I have driven many other previously owned sportscars). Afterwards, I found that the 1.7 was one of the most fun cars that I have driven on those roads because the meager 80hp is perfectly complemented by the OEM suspension that leans like the Tower of Pisa in corners, and the 165SR/15 bicycle tires 4-wheel drift everywhere.

My question to those of you with experience: is a bone stock 1.7L durable enough for track days? I would love to drive this thing as is at track events, not in pursuit of laptimes (obviously), but purely for enjoyment.

[GregAmy]

"I'd rather make a slow car go fast, than make a fast car go slow" - way too long ago for me to remember who said that...

So here's the deal:
- Someone can take a fast car and go fast, and no one notices, because that's expected.
- Someone can take a slow car and go slow, and no one notices, because that's expected.
- Someone can take a fast car and go slow, and everyone notices in a negative way...

- Or, I can take a slow car and go fast, and everyone notices in a positive way.

So, really, there's only one "win" scenario here...

- Me, to a student who's worried about driving a slow car...


"Son, do you want to be the Miata chasing the Corvette, or the Corvette chasing the Miata...?" - some old grizzly fart