"Accessible motorsport" whinge
Discussion
A friend and I went to spectate Prescott Hill Hillclimb the other day and really enjoyed it. I quite liked the idea of having a go in our own cars, it's much more appealing to me than a track day - the point-to-point nature and elevation change plus a narrow road and no need to worry about hitting anybody really ticks my boxes!
So we got looking into it and it seems if your car is road legal then you need only to have a £40-ish National B Speed license, which you just apply for by post, no test required. Ideal! We're on course for finally doing some motorsport!
Then we dived into the regs a bit deeper... Both of our cars are modified, his MX5 being supercharged and my MR2 had an engine transplant, from 2.0 inline four to 3.0 V6. And it seems that both of those mods put us outside even the "modified" class, which states the car must retain the original engine (that's me out then) and although forced induction is allowed, it cannot push the car into a higher engine size bracket after using the 1.4 multiplier (the MX5 is a 1.8, x1.4 = 2.52, bracket boundary is 2.0... That's him out too). So our cars are both ineligible for the modified road car class and would only be able to compete in Sports Libre (feel free to correct me if im wrong), which requires a higher race license for which you have to have several previous events under your belt before you can get it!
So effectively if we want to get into this accessible motorsport for a bit of a lark with our play cars, due to the way we've modified them to make them more fun we'd actually have to buy a whole OTHER car as cheaply as possible (or use one of our diesel commuters!), and compete in four events in said car, to even be able to apply for the race license to drive the fun cars... We've not even gotten into how our class would require us to have fire safety gear etc... Sorry, no, I'm not THAT bothered about doing it! Real shame.
So we got looking into it and it seems if your car is road legal then you need only to have a £40-ish National B Speed license, which you just apply for by post, no test required. Ideal! We're on course for finally doing some motorsport!
Then we dived into the regs a bit deeper... Both of our cars are modified, his MX5 being supercharged and my MR2 had an engine transplant, from 2.0 inline four to 3.0 V6. And it seems that both of those mods put us outside even the "modified" class, which states the car must retain the original engine (that's me out then) and although forced induction is allowed, it cannot push the car into a higher engine size bracket after using the 1.4 multiplier (the MX5 is a 1.8, x1.4 = 2.52, bracket boundary is 2.0... That's him out too). So our cars are both ineligible for the modified road car class and would only be able to compete in Sports Libre (feel free to correct me if im wrong), which requires a higher race license for which you have to have several previous events under your belt before you can get it!
So effectively if we want to get into this accessible motorsport for a bit of a lark with our play cars, due to the way we've modified them to make them more fun we'd actually have to buy a whole OTHER car as cheaply as possible (or use one of our diesel commuters!), and compete in four events in said car, to even be able to apply for the race license to drive the fun cars... We've not even gotten into how our class would require us to have fire safety gear etc... Sorry, no, I'm not THAT bothered about doing it! Real shame.
The issue is just that the cars don't fit a particular class - I've another friend who's just bought a Cayman that is faster than either of our cars, and he could rock up in the road car class with the Nat B and pelt it straight into a tree next weekend. So that speed/safety theory doesn't strictly apply does it?
I'm just dismayed that as a petrolhead with an interest in performance and driving, the "cheap" motorsport actually requires me to buy a whole new car just to play - there's no class that I can use my existing performance car in. I always thought they were trying to encourage people into it. I'd be happy running in a non-competitive class of some sort, I just want to get on the hill and have a go - it's just not allowed...
I'm just dismayed that as a petrolhead with an interest in performance and driving, the "cheap" motorsport actually requires me to buy a whole new car just to play - there's no class that I can use my existing performance car in. I always thought they were trying to encourage people into it. I'd be happy running in a non-competitive class of some sort, I just want to get on the hill and have a go - it's just not allowed...
Edited by OwenK on Saturday 5th July 13:50
I think I've come across all wrong here. The point is that I was going into it as something fun to do with the car I love - the main goal was having some fun in the MR2 - NOT that I really want to race in hillclimb specifically and will jump through whatever hoops are necessary in order that I can do it for the sake of doing it.
I get that the rules are there to ensure fair competition, but what I'm saying is that I'm not bothered about competing - I just want to have a go! I naively assumed that hillclimb would be perfect, seeing as it's a timed one-car race so I wouldn't affect anybody else's day. I was hoping for a RWYB day, like drag strips have.
Imagine if you fancied having a go at fishing with some old gear that you've got lying around in the loft, just to see if you like it; but you're not allowed to fish at the lake without joining the local club, and they won't let you in with your old equipment.
I get that the rules are there to ensure fair competition, but what I'm saying is that I'm not bothered about competing - I just want to have a go! I naively assumed that hillclimb would be perfect, seeing as it's a timed one-car race so I wouldn't affect anybody else's day. I was hoping for a RWYB day, like drag strips have.
Imagine if you fancied having a go at fishing with some old gear that you've got lying around in the loft, just to see if you like it; but you're not allowed to fish at the lake without joining the local club, and they won't let you in with your old equipment.
BritishRacinGrin said:
He does though. He wants to take part in a hillclimb. The title says 'Motorsport' in it.
I just meant "motorsport" in terms of "driving event on a closed course as opposed to driving on the public road".Someone finally gets what I mean, anyway - I don't want to compete, I just want to have a go, like a RWYB track day/drag strip day. I may want to compete at a later date if I find I really enjoy it! And of course I'd be perfectly happy to try and comply with rules if I wanted to join in a championship or the like.
The closest we've found is a hillclimb school training day at Shelsley Walsh, which will let us have a couple of blats up the hill without worrying about any categories or the like. But it's a bit expensive to do more than once, due to the tuition etc.
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