A major factor towards building a reliable car is keeping it from overheating.  This requires instrumentation beyond the super inaccurate factory coolant temp gauge (generally three settings: cold/warm/blown head gasket).  Keeping track of oil temperature is also very important for a vehicle that is tracked heavily.  Examples of cars with excessive oil temps include the 370Z and the dual clutch transmissions of the Evo X MR and Nissan GT-R.  Even the BMW 335, when first released, overheated the oil during a high speed Autobahn run (BMW fixed the situation by adding oil coolers to all the vehicles).