Fiat Racing Challenge Budget Racing Series

Building a Punto HGT Racer!

The Punto HGT was introduced for the 2008 racing season to provide competitors with a reliable car with an easy build process. This was achieved in several ways, but mainly restricting the regulations to maintain the level playing field of performance with other eligible cars.

As a donor car the HGT is an ideal choice because of their relatively cheap second hand value compared to other hot hatches of a similar vintage. The HGT was in production from 1999 to 2006 with a facelift version being introduced for 2003.

Early good condition cars can be picked up from around £1500.00 on Ebay or in Autotrader. Once you have your charge the process of changing it to a FRC car is quite straight forward.

Read the regs here before you start!

The key with the HGT to keeping costs to a minimum is in allowing no modifications to the standard engine or gearbox. Clearly you can rebuild these items but there are strictly no modifications allowed.

So what do you need to do? The answer is very little but here is a rough list of allowed modifications:

•Springs are free but you have to use a prescribed damper
•You can replace the exhaust from the CAT back
•The standard air filter element can be replaced but it has to fit in the standard airbox
•The brake materials are free but no carbon allowed
•Tyres are free
•You can uprate the rear torsion beam
•In addition to these performance modifications all of the standard features required for safety by the blue book are required.

You can download a full required parts list in our downloads section. The final build cost including the donor car will probably be around the £4500.00 region assuming you carry out the work yourself.

This is an excellent way to go motor racing, once the car is complete they are very easy to maintain simply because they quite standard. This has been a deliberate decision by the series in order to allow less experienced participants the platform to compete on an even playing field. With the HGT a large cheque book cannot buy you extra performance. The only way this can be achieved is through the driver. Of course people are always finding ways of improving their cars within the strict regulations, however as a base build the Fiat Punto HGT is the perfect car for both a beginner due to the strict regime and an experienced engineer taking on the challenge of making small improvements within a very limited window.

To learn more about building or buying an HGT please contact our coordinator, Mark Snelling, here.