Howdy,
On Fri, 21 Jul 2000, jon e prevo wrote:
> Most of us will race anyway, but there
> are those who will be lost because of a perception that "I will naver be
> able to be competitive. I have a wife and a family and a mortgage and
> I'm already working two jobs to afford what I have." Do those people
> deserve to be sneered at and told that they don't deserve your concern?
They don't deserve to be sneered at, but what exactly do you propose to do
to help the problem? The current stock class rules (with the exception in
my mind for the front swaybar allowance) do a pretty damn good job of
creating a class where you can run your daily driver for a minimum of
money. At some level though, you have to recognize that some money will
in fact have to be spent. And there will always be people willing to
spend more than you on their car. The job of the rules isn't to prevent
that, its to ensure that the benefit to cost ratio drops off fairly
quickly, thereby giving the less well heeled racer a chance to overcome
money issues with talent.
> FWIW, I am looking into a cheap car to run in a stock class for a while
> so I can concentrate on driving, rather than developing a car. I will
> not be preparing it beyond simple adjustments and any parts I replace
> will be with typical aftermarket equipment. I hope to find out how close
> to competitive I can get in a "real" stock car, but I am not going to try
> to take it all the way. The reason is that I refuse to spend the value
> of the car twice just to be competitive when I know that in a few (max of
> 3?) years the car will be obsolete.
"to be competitive"?? Assuming you pick a low buck class (say, DS or CS,
maybe HS too) I posit that you can have a car that would happily go win
national championships for less than $10k.
In DS for example:
buy my '95 ACR coupe: $5k
If you think it matters, replace the Arvins with revalved Konis: $1.2k
Get an set of wheels & race tires: $1k (probably less)
Align the car: $free to $60
Harness: $100
K&N: $50
wires & plugs: $100 (??)
Total: ~$7.5k. $6k or less if you don't replace the "good to at least the
top 5" struts, buy used wheels, etc.
Now go win DS. If you can't, it's totally because _you're_ not driving
well, not because of the car. Don't feel bad, you got plenty 'o company.
I'll also say that if you can't sink $7.5k into a daily driver that can
also win nationals, then you aren't very dedicated to winning. In which
case you should stop whining. I don't know of any other form of
motorsports where $7.5k will buy you a national-winning vehicle.
Mark
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