Traditional V Jap Car Budgets

[trackday addict]

Might seem a bit of an odd post but would love to understand what a typical more traditional (& by traditional I mean either american or european car running a typical chevy engine or similar) costs over a couple of seasons (allowing for a couple of breakages/rebuilds etc).

To make it more like for like against my skyline it would need to be running low 8's or even 7's & say a season would consist of 5 or 6 events.

Just curious as the jap tuning world is pretty small & running costs are not cheap so really one for me to ponder on longer term really.

Huge thanks
John

[liner33]

I have to say I reckon the traditional route would be cheaper than the way you have gone , its always cheaper to tread the well trodden path.

So many more parts so much more competition between manufacturers and the weak dollar

I personally would prefer to be unique than just one of the crowd as well, let alone the interest your car has received in the Jap world and its cross over to the mainstream events , can only be good for the sport i think

[Bigmouse]

If you compare it to street eliminator costs then they would be on average:

7 x meets at average £350-450 per meet including entry and consumables; fuel, nitrous, oil, belts, plugs etc. Then add on the cost of a freshen up at the end of each season depending on what needs doing and whether you can do it yourself or have to pay someone else to do it; say between £500 and £2500. Then add in 10-20% for breakages unless you're heavy handed like me in which case you need to factor in around 100%

[veryoldfart]

Bigmouse said:

unless you're heavy handed like me in which case you need to factor in around 100%

dont you mean heavy FOOTED?

anyway "dare to be different" is a very true saying, and drag racing has always been mix and match, i remember the daimler hemi dragster (who?) in the 70's, john sleaths front mounted blower, and didnt i see a suprs engined rail on malta running down to the low 7's?

keep the faith....

[trackday addict]

thanks for the info

certainly going to keep the old girl for the next couple of years & go hell for leather first as was always a 5 year plan and a lot more to do yet (will try somehow to get to the 7.57 out in NZ if it's possible .........

but after that I'm tempted to look at things as the other half is less than impressed to say the least about running costs & the kids are getting older so a sensible budget seems the way to go if i want to carry on then to be honest.

[Benni]

veryoldfart said:

.....i remember the daimler hemi dragster (who?) in the 70's,

Hi !
From one old fart (47) to another :
I remember Russ Carpenter racing the "Glacier Grenade" ,
and being stunned that THIS noise and THAT speed (7.20)
were coming from a 2.8l Daimler engine.....
More info here :
http://www.russcarpenterracing.co.uk/
Looking at the page, Russ and his son Gary stopped in 1999.
Cheers,
Benni

[veryoldfart]

seems a sudden end to the project

shame really

but i bet blocks were getting hard to find!

[liner33]

I dont think anyone can run a 7 second car on what could be considered a "sensible" budget

[veryoldfart]

liner33 said:

I dont think anyone can run a 7 second car on what could be considered a "sensible" budget

all things are relative, the daimler rail did run 7.2....on nitro.

and it seems hardly used any parts to boot!

chassis and fuel regs seemed to have won the day