750mc - No Hot Hatch Championship for 2009? Alternatives?

I would imagine one of the reasons for it not running next season would be that at quite a few meetings last year they struggled to muster a double-figure grid. It's a shame because I think the cars were pretty good to watch; certainly Mr & Mrs Cox's and Tony Dolley's 206GTis looked and sounded feisty out on track with Andy McLennan's little Swift GTi gamely hanging onto their coat tails.

As for where you could run as an alternative, I guess - without knowing what your car is - you could look at DMN Saloons, LMA series or maybe the Castle Combe Saloons. All of these have pretty diverse grids and the former and the latter of the 3 would all be reasonably local to you (assuming anywhere's 'local' to the IoW!).

If your racer is pre-'93 you could always join the excellent TTRS series for pre-'93 2wd saloons.

the car isnt eligible for the combe championship as the regs says "Civic 95 on"

the classic sports car club run the "tin tops series" and it looks good fun, 40 minute races too. regs are pretty straight forward and its probably your best bet. dont know the regs for the euro saloons or the slick 50 championships.

LMA?

err.. I doubt it!

it's not BTCC!

[quote=Kozy
This sounds very interesting, being able to split the costs between two drivers is a help too! I will speak to a potential team mate and get back to you for some more details. I think my Honda will run in class B as it is only 1595cc.

What sort of running costs for the season would we expect from this series?
[/quote]

Is the Civic 1595cc 16 Valve (in which case, Class B) or 1595 8 Valve (in which case, Class C)?

As for running costs, its difficult to say as people will always spend what they can afford, and it also depends on how highly developed your car is (in my experience, the more highly developed, the more rebuilds required & therefore the more expense!), whether you do mechanical work yourself or pay someone else, whether you test etc etc. Most cars in Tin Tops are not developed to "within an inch of their life" and are therefore quite robust and don't seem to need expensive engine/ gearbox rebuilds etc. There will always be someone that proves me wrong (and indeed I over revved an engine which is now being rebuilt but that was my fault and not the cars!). Most people will use one or two sets of tyres a year (Yoko A048s or Toyo R888s seem to be favourite - a set of 14 inch x 6 tyres for my car cost £250 and I only used one set for 6 meetings).

It really is fairly low cost (as far as these things go) and we have had a couple of people join us from Hot Hatch who are amazed at what good value it is. Cheque book racing is not encouraged & people definately are not spemding vast sums of £ on tweaking, preparing, rolling roading and tuning etc etc between races. many cars probably don't even get off the trailer between events! Its a series where the emphasis is on enjoyment - no one will make it to BTCC from CSCC Tin Tops, and its all the better for that!

Including entry fees, petrol, transport, a few overnight stays, paying for mechanical support at the track, consumables etc, I reckon to spend £600 a race. That would be c £150 less if i wasn't mechanically incompetent & didn't to pay for someone to help me. (remember at some races I can split that if I share a drive and the chap that shares usually gives me a few £ for the "rent" of his drive). On top of that my engine rebuild, a second hand gearbox & a few other odds and sods will cost me about £3500 (hopefully amortised over a couple of years). My car is just a Fiat Uno, though, so may be cheaper to run than some(although the engine is probably less robust than a Honda!).

I have also raced an Alfa 33 (whilst waiting for the engine rebuild on the Fiat to be complete) and I bought that car for £750-00. It was a bit of a shed, not helped by me replacing some accident damaged panels with different colour ones! But it did 5 races and performed OK. Almost a disposable race car!!

I am sure that the guys winning in their Integra DC5s or Civic Type Rs are spending more (particularly if you take in to account the original purchase cost) but its all relative.

Depends on your location, but try the regional championships e.g Northern Saloon & Sports Car Championship (Croft-based) or the North West Saloons (Oulton-based). Both are very strong in terms in numbers, and will accept most closed-wheel cars

I'm not suprised to hear this. I did one round at Cadwell in June, in a car owned by the team I race for. I was in a shockingly slow MG Meastro. It really was st! I could barely keep up on the parade lap. But at least 5 other drivers (about half the grid) came up to me in the pits, almost begging me to do the next round at Donington. I couldn't work out why. I just assumed they liked the old car I was in. Obviously not.....

It's a shame. The other drivers were really nice guys and although my car was obviously not up to scratch, I had a really good time....