I agree with Katie. Everything on my car is used,
including the car itself, I even have an ex-Lucy sway
bar. Maybe I'll come 5th at Nat's one day! I cringe
at the the thought of spending $20k+ on a 'toy' like a
Miata. However, having exactly the right car and
exactly the right equipment goes along way to
improving your belief that you can win. or...
Craig
--- "Kelly, Katie" <kkelly@spss.com> wrote:
> I've only been slightly lurking on this thread
> (Stock Classes), but although
> she's in semi-retirement now, most of the parts on
> Lucy my Miata R I bought
> used. I used the OE rims for autoxing, and through
> Charlie's connections, I
> got a nice set of aftermarket wheels for the street
> for a reasonable price
> that I can no longer remember. I bought the Konis
> and sway bar and exhaust
> used. Total spent, not including tires: $500. This
> car, a '96, finished 5th
> at Nationals in BS (Open) in '99, and had this car
> (it's never my fault) ran
> over a cone (might have been two), would have been
> 3rd.
>
> If you keep your eyes and ears open, there are
> always great deals to be had,
> but here's a big tip I can give you for free. I was
> REALLY surprised when I
> last went to Nationals in '99 at how LITTLE work was
> done to a lot of the BS
> cars, even those in trophy positions. I AM pretty
> sure, though, that the
> over all winner, Gary Thomason, had spent a great
> deal of $$ for shocks. If
> I remember right (it seems so long ago!),
> aftermarket shocks for the '99s
> were (and are?) hard to come by.
>
> I refuse to believe it's because of shocks that GT
> won. Look at his record.
> He's just good.
>
> You don't NEED three or four sway bars. The trick is
> you find out what the
> top guys and gals are doing, preferably one in your
> area. Then you copy that
> person as much as you can. If it's not an exact
> match, it doesn't matter.
> Proceed to step two, which is DRIVE LIKE HELL.
>
> And here is why:
>
> The people forking over big bucks on lighter,
> aftermarket wheels have
> serious mental problems, stemming from autocross
> addiction. If they're
> faster than you, the truth is, they'd probably be
> faster than you anyway.
>
> These are completely obsessed individuals. They're
> probably out there every
> weekend, either winning, or trying to figure out why
> they're not, and those
> solutions are either a driving improvement, or small
> tweaks and adjustments.
> The expensive aftermarket parts are only for the
> psychological advantage,
> one that you can also gain for merely the price of a
> Coke.
>
> Only in SM do I see drivers spending more money when
> they lose. :)
>
> True story: I once believed that because of my tight
> budget, that my car
> would never be as fast as Kevin McCormick's. I saw
> Mr. McCormick with his
> Reitmeir's Werkstatt license plate frame as more of
> an icon, someone
> completely untouchable. I spent way too much time
> dwelling on what a better
> car he had so much so that I became a very annoying
> person.
>
> Don't become that annoying person.
>
> Then he took a run in my car, and I learned
> something. It was a very painful
> lesson, but I really did learn something much more
> valuable than a sway bar.
> I really needed to just drive faster. Over the
> course of the following year,
> I tricked myself into catching Kevin McCormick by
> making little bets with
> myself, just to see what would happen, just to see
> how close I could get. I
> just told myself that one day I would beat him. It
> was both a game and a
> mission, one where if I failed, it would be all
> right, because that was a
> pretty crazy goal anyway. At the very least, I knew
> I'd be a better driver,
> and I'd stand a better chance at trophying at
> Nationals, which was a goal I
> was seriously hoping to achieve.
>
> Except I achieved my incredibly lofty goal and now
> everyone's wondering what
> was so special about my car. :)
>
> I encourage EVERYONE to set lofty goals. Shees, if
> it worked for me...
>
> You might suprise yourself, and save some money in
> the process.
>
> Katie
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