The "I wanna go racing, but have no idea where to start" thread

[Kevin M]

So for a couple years I've been kicking around this long-term goal of running a full, complete season of door-to-door club racing. Still well away from even doing serious planning, but I figured it's always fun to benchrace and BS. So, I posted this wondering, if next year were going to be the year I actually did it, what classes should I be looking at on a non-sponsored budget? Production-based cars, open wheeled, specialized cars like Sports Racers? Of course we'd have to talk about Spec Miata, Spec, 7, etc. What do you guys think?

[AlexR]

Aim for the series with the cheapest car cost. Maybe scan the back of sports car magazine, etc, for the race cars for sale and see what's closest to the budget?

Spec Focus? seeing how Fords don't hold their resale value as well as miatas , maybe take a peek into going that route?

[Kevin M]

Spec Focus sounds promising. I didn't even know there was a series.

[jim.gandy]

Alex,

If there is a Spec Focus series, it's not SCCA, to my knowledge. NASA, maybe.

In general, NASA offers more low-budget options than the SCCA. But it's still possible to race cheap in the SCCA.

First off, if you want to win, NOBODY offers cheap racing. It's an old racing proverb, and a fact of human nature, that if you put up a $15 trophy, some idiot will spend $50,000 trying to win it.

But, if you just want to get out there and run fast, and duke it out occasionally with others who are the same speed as you, IMO you should look at the SCCA's Improved Touring category. It's a great way to test the waters.

Vic Chalk chose that route two years ago, buying a Civic and running it in ITE. He'd be a good information source.

How cheap can it be? Well, I built an ITA RX-7 in 1997 for less than two grand. I raced it off and on for eight years or so. Other than a shade tree paint job and two transmission changes, I never did much to it. I sold it to Doug Driver three years ago, complete with trailer, transponder and logbook, for $2,500. He got his license with it, and he raced it for a full year in Vintage racing. He then sold it to someone in California, and it's back to racing in Improved Touring.

Another old proverb is absolutely true: In motorsports, there are three desirable attributes for a car to have: Fast, Reliable, and Cheap. Pick two. You CANNOT have all three at once. Some people struggle just to get two. Since my old RX-7 was cheap and reliable, you know it was slow.

And a third proverb is USUALLY true: It's always cheaper to buy an existing race car than to build one. There are exceptions, but unless you're good with tools and have a place to work on a car, building a racer can be a pain, in the wallet and elsewhere.

That said, it's also true that buying a race car without personal knowledge of its history and performance is a crapshoot. There are no warranties on race cars.

Other low-buck options in SCCA racing include Spec Miata (around $9,000 on up), American Sedan (talk to Luke Kunze, but I suspect a car could be built for 10 grand or less), Spec RX-7 (now dying out, so there may be some bargains), and the "limited-prep" versions of the smaller Production classes (small sports cars and sedans). If you just want to get started and don't like working on cars too much, you can find older Showroom Stock cars for under ten grand.

My advice would be to ask to go to a couple of races as a crew member, maybe for Vic or Luke, or Dave Deborde when he gets time to race his Z-car. See what catches your fancy.

And keep asking -- racers are always willing to share their experiences.

[Kevin M]

Heh, you are right Jim- notice I said "go racing" not "go winning." :D I don't really ever plan on that, barring sudden unforeseen financial independence. And since I don't gamble...

[vic]

I was at the sfr reagional this weekend. It went very well. So Kevin, there are alot of ways to get started . The way i went seems to be OK so far and not super expensive. Talk to me about it at the meeting or the test and tune.

[Kevin M]

Will do Vic. I'm already bummed thoguh- turns out the car I would eventually be running (non-turbo AWD Impreza) isn't permitted in IT. :( I have to build it as a World Challenge car to go to D Prepared, basically.

[dsmith]

I was at the sfr reagional this weekend. It went very well. So Kevin, there are alot of ways to get started . The way i went seems to be OK so far and not super expensive. Talk to me about it at the meeting or the test and tune.
How'd you do Vic?

[vic]

I lowered my lap times by 6 sec. over last year. I started 20 in both races out of about 40. I finished 15th and 14th in group. I was 11th in class in the second race. Not sure about the 1st race. The best news is the car performed almost flawless all weekend. I think there is 2-3 more seconds in the car I just have to find it. (seat time)

[BillH]

Hi Kevin, I think Jim's answer is right on. The big question is how much do you want to spend? Buying/building the car is only part of it. What's your budget for the car? Then what's your budget to run the car? Full season/ selected races? Do you have or plan to get a tow vechile & trailer? Are you going to do most of the work yourself or have a shop take care of the car? And if you're going to diy, do you need to buy more tools?

You mentioned open wheel, if you plan to run mid-pack and get experience, you can pick up a Club Formula Ford in the $7,500 to $9,000 range. If you want a very competive car car, they are about $10,500 which is the same price as a competive Spec Miata. If you get a Miata, hope you like doing body work, the SM guys beat each other up quite a bit, the IT guys seem to respect each others equipment much more.

Can you tell that I'm prejudice? Anyway, what I like about the FF's is that they are fast, they handle very well and they are very easy to work on compared to a production based car.
A current FF motor will run 50 to 60 hours between rebuilds, about 2 full seasons. A fullbore rebuild from the pro's in Portland runs $4,500 with all the good parts replaced. I build my own engines and a refresh with valve work, rings, pistons and bearings costs me $1,500.
Club FF runs spec tires. They are still fairly competive at 12 heat cycles so that's 4 race weekends ( 3 cycles per weekend, practice, qualify & race ) and still have a few cycles left for a practice day at RFR. They're about $450 a set.

Hope you get your race car no matter what it is.
If you have any questions about open wheel, I'll be at the time trials, I'll be working tech saturday morning.

[AlexR]

http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/features/0708_sccp_ford_spec_racing_focus/index.html
http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=139271

yep it is Nasa. if it ends up your cheapest route and its a dream, i say go for it :D you can pay off the bills later on, but you don't want to die thinking "if only i had tried ...."

[dsmith]

Anybody interested there's a Spec Renault in Gardnerville for sale on Ebay for $9500, with trailer.

[Kevin M]

Where the heck does one go to get spares for a Renault?

[sperry]

Where the heck does one go to get spares for a Renault?
France?

[Kevin M]

Something something elderberries something.

[Joeyy]

Ok I've got to say it. Get a kart and go wheel to wheel for around 2k. Check out the NNKC's site. Everyone out at NNKC has been very nice and the competition looks to be good this year.

http://www.nnkc.com/

[solonut]

Kevin....look for a formula vee.....cheep to buy, cheap to run and most races are the best to watch.....its a drivers race....you can swap out tires and run FM in solo....and they are light enough that you can pull it with your Subie
if you shop hard, you can get a good one for less than 7k with spares & trailer

[MikeK]

I think formula 1 is the way to go. With all the new rules about engine freezes and transmissions lasting 4 races it is cheaper than ever.

[BillH]

Where the heck does one go to get spares for a Renault?

Everything but the engine should be available from SCCA Enterprises since these are the same as the Spec Racer Fords. You're probably on your own for motor parts.

[BillH]

Ok I've got to say it. Get a kart and go wheel to wheel for around 2k. Check out the NNKC's site. Everyone out at NNKC has been very nice and the competition looks to be good this year.

http://www.nnkc.com/

Get a kart and a racecar:D

I'm one of the 10 guys that built the NNKC track. I might even get mo 125 TonyKart back out there this year.

NCK roadrace karts will be at Reno-Fernley in 2 weeks, Apr. 18 & 19th.

[Joeyy]

Get a kart and a racecar:D

I'm one of the 10 guys that built the NNKC track. I might even get mo 125 TonyKart back out there this year.

NCK roadrace karts will be at Reno-Fernley in 2 weeks, Apr. 18 & 19th.

I have the 18th off, maybe I'll take a run out that way.

[BillH]

I may go out on Friday too. Great bunch of people, I ran with them for 10 years, took 5 IKF championships. The numbers are way down compaired to the mid 90's, they used to get 300+ karts at Sears Point.

[vwRacer]

Kevin, you can buy onto my Lemons car for a mere $500.00. That covers your entry fees. You will still need safety equipment, but they are offering a deal for around $500.00.

I think Lemons is the way to go if someone wanted to try wheel to wheel for a little investment. There is no schooling involved and the speeds are below 80mph. Kinda like a really fast autocross.

Call me if you are interested.

PS: The offer is open to anyone intererested

[Kevin M]

If I wasn't in the middle of an initial project car build myself I'd probably already be in. But I can't justify another $1500 in expenses for one weekend of racing.

[vwRacer]

UM it would be a total $500 for entry fees and for the lemons car then your safety equipment. Where is the other 500 from the 1500? Besides that, you'd have the drivers suit for later times if you ever want to tt or road race.

[Kevin M]

Full firesuit, gloves, shoes, balaclava, socks, new helmet, some sort of HANS device... pretty easy to run up another $1000 with that given that I wouldn't go with the lowest bidder on safety equipment, plus the other miscellaneous expenses I could easily tack on. It's true all this stuff will come in handy for TT down the road, but that doesn't change the fact I can't spare anywhere near that much.