At 12:36 PM 10/10/2001 -0400, Joe Alexander wrote:
>We were pretty close to $10,000 when we got it to the track the first
>time. We were pretty resourceful
>
>Quaife went in the 2nd year, TR666 cam went in the 3rd year.
>
>By the 5th year we were under 3:00 minutes at Road America and loved every
>minute of it.
Mike, et al.
To put this in context...
I bought a race car that was... well... It was a race car. It did need some
sorting out, (sic) but all the foundation was there. I bought the car and a
truckload of spares for 7K. Major haul of go-fast goodies.
Ran 3 events in 2000. By the end of the season I had replaced the roll
cage, built two race engines (don't ask) and several other things not worth
mentioning. I was just under $11k at that point.
Last winter I kept at it. Add another $2.5k for a Southwick axle, a 4.1
ring and pinion and a Salisbury LSD.
First event of 2001 was Road America. I ran a sub-3:00 lap that weekend. So
my 4th event ever driving a race car I was able to do what it took Joe 5
years to accomplish.
Not knocking Joe, gosh no... Joe is my hero! As is Jack, and all the Beady
Eye boys, and Mike, and Jeff, and George... basically everybody that has
been doing this for a while is my hero!
My point is buying a good, built race car will get you on track faster, and
on track cheaper. If you buy a car that the suspension has been sorted out,
you will be MUCH faster out of the box.
I have found the art and science of driving a race car is hard enough to
learn.
Trying to learn what you are supposed to be doing when your car is not
doing what it is supposed to be doing will increase the learning curve
exponentially.
Well, that is the way I see it anyway.
Henry Frye - thefryes@iconn.net - TR4 #05
http://members.iconn.net/~thefryes/race/raceintro.html
"If it doesn't have four wheels, it isn't a sport!"
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