A Formula E car could be your new £150k track toy

There’s a huge market for track-only supercars. But while we’d all dearly love to spend a huge pile of cash on a Ferrari FXXK or Aston Vulcan, they aren’t without downsides.

Downsides such as costing actual millions, and making so much noise they’ll likely blast the decibel limit of your local track evening.

Downsides which are both neatly sidestepped by this – a now-defunct Formula E car. The 40 cars that have competed over the last four seasons of the world’s leading electric race series are now (unofficially) up for sale, and you could have one for as little as £150k.

‘Little’ is a relative term here, we'll admit. But what you’re getting for the same money as the most basic McLaren road car is a single-seater racecar from the first few seasons of a race series that may, in time, become the race series. A potential piece of history, but one that runs so quietly you’ll sneak past the noise limits of any trackday you choose.

“They’re sat doing nothing,” a Formula E spokesperson told us. “They might be bought back by their teams, their batteries may be recycled.” Could they be bought privately as a trackday toy? “It’s certainly feasible. If someone’s got enough money and that’s what they want to do…”

That money is likely to be between $200,000 and $300,000, according to a Bloomberg story, which means an entry point of around £150k if you’re lucky. The sales have come about because as Formula E launched, the series owned the cars and leased them to teams, making it easier for sceptics to get on board. As the series grows up and evolves for its fifth season, starting in December, the cars have changed design and will now be owned by their teams, just like in other top-line race series.

Will it be a practical track toy? Perhaps not, unless you’ve an ingenious charging or battery-switching idea. Until now, Formula E teams have swapped cars midway through races to avoid the inconvenience of depleted batteries. How we’d love to see one ducking and weaving around a gaggle of mk1 MX-5s and tuned E36 BMWs at a typical British trackday, though…