Car lovers?

How about a Subaru BRZ? Maybe an older Corvette? Just personally, I don't really get the muscle car thing. I associate them with dudes just out of high school who've got their first steady paycheck.

Camaros specifically I associate with the new police recruits getting their training at the local academy.

Buy what you like. I like all kinds of stuff. American muscle. Japanese sports cars. European sports sedans. Trucks. Performance SUVs.

I don't worry about stereotypes of the cars I drive. Screw the people that judge you by your car

Unless you drive an Altima with plastic hub caps. Then I know you have bad credit. (I kid, I heard a comedian say that and it stuck in my brain)

The '69 Camaro was one of the best looking muscle cars of all time. So was the C3 Corvette. Unfortunately the 70s and 80s happened and muscle cars were ruined for a few generations.

The C8 Corvette is a good-looking European super-car without the pain of buying a European super-car. The new Camaro... not so much.

Back in '10 or '11 I was considering a new "muscle" car. Mustangs don't interest me, so I drove a 2010 Camaro SS and a 2010 Plum Crazy R/T Challenger.

The Challenger looked, sounded, and drove like an older muscle car. I loved it. The Camaro looked weak, sounded weak, but drove better as a car in general. The console area of the Camaro looked plasticky and cheap.

Some things happened so I didn't get either, but nothing could have convinced me to buy that Camaro back then (or now). I eventually got a Challenger R/T later on and loved it. I have never been a big fan of C/D/P, not even the old Mopars, but I loved that Challenger. I had to trade it to get the truck to pull our camper. Sad day.

As for the '69 Camaro mentioned above - a gal in my wife's class in High School had a '69 with beautiful charcoal gray paint, a 6-pack, and cherry bombs that sounded soooo sweet. Dream F'n Car. Her younger brother had a '67 El Camino that was amazing, too.

-BEP

My dad drove a C2 Corvette back in the day. Brand new off the lot.

If I ever hit the lottery, I'd get him one.

WIN!!!

-BEP

I took the advanced driving course at Summit Point.

All excellent points.

I would add that the most fun you can have with your clothes on is to take a "slow" car to the track and make it go fast. Perfect examples of "slow" cars are stock Mazda Miatas or Ford Focuses. You can still get in plenty of trouble with either, but not like you would with a car that is beyond your ability. I have seen way too many folks with more $ than sense spin out a Corvette or M-series on the track because they had more power than they could responsibly use.

Neither is a bad choice. The Miata is the classic track car and you will likely find an ENORMOUS user group in your track community that will help you out. The BMW clubs are also pretty active too, but Miata folks are special.

I have the other side of what Moggy said. I have been autocrossing (and rallycrossing) for many years but haven't taken the leap to the track. Autocross is a great way to get out and test the limits of your daily driver regardless of it's speed. If you just want to go out, have fun, and learn a little, then either car is great.

If you are serious about wanting to become competitive, then I would not recommend the BMW for a starter car; not because it isn't a good car but because it might be too good to start learning in. If the car is so good that it can cover for your mistakes as a driver it makes it harder to learn not to make the mistake. I honestly feel like even the na/nb Miata is a little fast for a starter car, but if you are interested in RWD there aren't a lot of options for a low power car.

Whatever you choose to do in motorsports, come humble and ready to learn and you will have fun.

I've done the thing where you rent a car a few times and it was one of the most fun things I've ever experienced. I did the Porsche Experience at their track in Atlanta and I drove Porsches around Atlanta Motorsports Park. I want to get a track car and join AMP some kinda terrible but I can't justify the cost right now. When I finally have my kids out of college I'll be one of those old guys that buys more power than he can drive. Ha

I think it depends. If you are serious about developing skills and/or being competitive then slow car fast is going to get you there much faster, but even then it isn't necessarily the only way to go. If you just want to have fun, and maybe learn a bit, do what you want.

Pro level competitive? yeah you're almost certainly too old to be able to get there. Most of them started in karts at single digit ages. Nationally competitive amateur racing? There's a good chance you won't make it to the winners circle (though that's true for those who start much younger too), but locally competitive amateur autocross is definitely achievable if you set your mind to it.

That said, as I stated above, race what you want to race. Don't worry about competing with anyone other than yourself to start with, have fun, and if you are bitten by the bug and want to get more competitive, only then should you worry about what to do to achieve that. My local club has a regular that has a first get Viper and is usually among the slowest run times, but he gets out there, enjoys his car, and everyone respects him for showing up, and driving his car to *his* limit even though it's nowhere near the car's limit.

When I started I went hard on the slow car fast, partly because I wanted to learn, but mostly because I was a kid just out of highschool, and I could only afford the slow car, and not even the car (or few allowable mods) to be even locally competitive in the slowest autocross class. I just focused on improving myself, and when I finally did get into a remotely competitive car, I found I was doing very well in the small local club I was mostly running with. When I jumped into the larger regional club with many nationally competitive drivers, I still got steamrolled, but all of it is fun.

Pay 2 win! Lol

I took the course with my 08 Cooper S and I can tell you why it was hard to book time on Minis. That car is a hell of a lot of fun to drive and it is a lot harder to get in expensive trouble with it than pretty much any other car on your list. Very grippy puller so you are very unlikely to lose traction unless you are doing something truly stupid and most mistakes you make can be undone by simply stopping what got you in trouble to begin with.

Of the cars you drove, I would probably say the WRX STi would be the one I would enjoy the most. That car is designed for rally and autocross.