Where to start circuit racing?

[tomperkins]

djroadboy said:

I reckon Mx5s, Compact Cup, PBMW or Caterham Grads would all be a great place to start your financial ruin.

Dan, thanks for your views, appreciate it.

[mattmk391]

djroadboy said:

I know one of the Mk1 front runners very well and he has been using the same engine for two full season with no work done to it and the same diff. The engine has also not had a fortune spent on it. A head skim and triple angle valve seats don't exactly break the bank and its good enough to win races, if you can drive.

Mk3s are inherently more unreliable. Engines, gearboxes and diffs all see regular failures and are considerably more expensive to replace than Mk1 parts.

Just to balance this statement we (family ‘team’) are now in our 3rd season in the MK3 MX5s and have never had an engine/gearbox/diff fail. We’re even running two cars this year.

During two years racing a MK1 MX5 prior to that we never had a mechanical DNF either.

We really enjoyed the mk1s (Ma5da) but are enjoying the mk3s (SuperCup) even more, especially so this year.

I think in any race meeting paddock you can find someone who’s had endless mechanical trouble and there is always someone who’s thrown silly money at their car/engine perhaps unnecessarily.

But I’ve never seen anyone who’s started these types of thread come back and say ‘I’m not enjoying it. I chose the wrong championship’ no matter what they ended up racing. Usually quite the opposite!

[tomperkins]

mattmk391 said:

Just to balance this statement we (family ‘team’) are now in our 3rd season in the MK3 MX5s and have never had an engine/gearbox/diff fail. We’re even running two cars this year.

During two years racing a MK1 MX5 prior to that we never had a mechanical DNF either.

We really enjoyed the mk1s (Ma5da) but are enjoying the mk3s (SuperCup) even more, especially so this year.

I think in any race meeting paddock you can find someone who’s had endless mechanical trouble and there is always someone who’s thrown silly money at their car/engine perhaps unnecessarily.

But I’ve never seen anyone who’s started these types of thread come back and say ‘I’m not enjoying it. I chose the wrong championship’ no matter what they ended up racing. Usually quite the opposite!

Cheers mattmk391, appreciate you sharing your experience.

[firenza43]

Here's some SuperCup action from Rockingham last weekend. Great close racing and no contact.

http://youtu.be/-raeYnr5h54

The racing at Donnington, which is the next round, is usually even closer.