[Shotimes] OT: Ebay discount coupons

[Ron Porter]

Mark, when I say "serious track work", it's more along the lines of as many
track events as you do (!!). Now, if I were 20+ years younger....

Actually, I had toyed with the idea of getting into wheel-to-wheel PCA club
racing in the late '90s. But, all I have to do is think back to the time/$$$
that a coworker spent on running an H-Production Midget in SCCA back in the
'80s, and I come to my senses!! Actually, it's not that bad, as a few guys
in the Bluegrass PCA in Louisville did PCA Club racing. They were in
(relatively) cheaply and didn't spend all of their free time on it....but
they weren't really competitive, either (the term "backmarker" comes to
mind). I know that wouldn't suit me.

Auto-x is OK, and I toyed with that idea a couple of years ago with the
Fiero (which I remember being competitive years ago). I then spoke to a few
guys at the Fiero National Convention in '03 (it was here in Pontiac the
same week as the '03 Madison Convention), but I found out that Fieros were
no longer competitive in any SCCA venues, having been supplanted b the ewer
Japanese cars. As we know, SHOs were never very competitive in G Production
back in the '90s when a few guys ran them, and they went downhill from there
(don't even mention the Prepared classes!!).

I wish that there was a venue similar to auto-x, but on a road course.
Meaning not wheel-to-wheel, but single-car times runs around a track, and
times tracked like an auto-x. Maybe I haven't been following things closely
enough and there is such a series, but that would be something that would
interest me a lot.

Ron Porter

-----Original Message-----
From: shotimes-admin@autox.team.net [mailto:shotimes-admin@autox.team.net]
On Behalf Of Mark Nunnally
Sent: Monday, December 12, 2005 2:36 PM
To: SHOtimes@autox.team.net
Subject: RE: [Shotimes] OT: Ebay discount coupons


If you are building an all out track car (solo1 timed event, or
NASA/SCCA/EMRA etc competition), things get real even (ie $$ invested)
when it comes to cage/fabrication work, safety gear, track wheels/tires,
brakes, datalogging, communication, etc.  Any car you build is gonna cost
at least X amount of $$.  The advantage of the SHO is cheap buy in price
for a building block (chassis).  They are nearly free!

Serious track work (modified 911's, vipers, Z06, etc) takes BIG bucks
if you run door to door, probably more $$ than anybody on this list
has or would be willing to spend!  Chris Ingle (local who runs a Z06
in SCCA T1) was telling me some figures for a budget like that', it's
huge.  Big big money.  A used Z06 is $25k-$32k depending on what you
get, and you'd spend $45k prep'd to run T1 mid pack or up front.  And
that's just the car.

Also depends on what class you plan to do serious track work in, there
are some "serious" all out spec miata's my 92 (street car) will blow
the doors off of on a track like road atlanta.  To go run 2:teens at
watkins glen or low 1:40's at road atlanta is gonna take at least a
SHO with 300 hp and sub 2800 lb, which can be pretty fun, to go any
faster would take a bunch more $$, even if you went to another car.

There are a lot of guys with a passion to race (spec miata, these new
import classes - honda, etc) that don't have big buck funding.  So if
you want to race, just gotta find what you can afford and go have fun.

It's hard to find that "sweet spot" of all out speed vs money.  Buy a
better base car to build from, but spend more $$ up front.  Buy a
cheap car like the SHO, and have lots of $$ to play with for upgrades,
but eventually hit design/engineering limitations.  Spend too much up
front, and don't have much for other upgrades that are required and
end up going slower than a crappy car with a bunch of work.

I'd say for the SHO that curve would start to tail off around $12-14k.
You could build a decent race car (NASA touring car series for
example) for that, but to go faster would require tons more bucks
(base car engineering limits).  Time to find another car.  But this is
all in the context of just trying to be a mid pack or better car in a
given series.
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