old formula Fords

[sniff petrol]

Never realised they were so cheap, I mean look at this for £2000:

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/237406.htm

Ok so it's engine and box'less, and one bent suspension arm (I'm sure a local engineering shop could knock one up for you if you could'nt buy one elsewhere)

Get a good 2.0 Duratec or VX redtop on throttle bodies, or even a Hyabusa or ZX12 lump complete with sequentitial box, and some cycle wings a la Caterfield and it looks like some serious track day pace for any money.

[jleroux]

can't run open wheelers on (most) track days though - so limited to test days or racing. the value of these cars plummeted a few years back - I assume partly or wholly for that reason.

Jonny
BaT

[anonymous-user]

What if you fitted mudguards, would it be any different from a caterham or atom, as these are allowed on Track days?

[Birdthom]

Even if that were permitted on a track day with cycle wings etc I'm not sure I'd fancy it. Track days are very safe, but have you seen how delicate that thing is? Fine (ish) if you're only going to come up against other single seaters, but being in that and overtaking/being overtaken by some of the bigger road cars you see on track days would scare the crap out of me.

I've driven (not raced though) a couple of old FFs in the past and thought they were lethal TBH. Total lack of protection for the driver. Consequences of an incident with something bigger just don't bear thinking about.

Some TDOs do still permit single seaters but they are usually driven very slowly for some reason. No idea why, but it always seems to be the case.

Just my risk-averse 2p.

[sniff petrol]

jleroux said:

can't run open wheelers on (most) track days though

But look at this yellow thing:





Would you get away with it if you covered the wheels like this?

[racingsnake]

What about something like an old Mallock?
They are fairly cheap now if your not fussed about passengers it solves the open wheeled problem.
Big wings and wide wheels = impressive pace.

[Tim.C]

I looked into this a couple of years back. At the time, most organisers wouldn't allow single seaters - something about public liability insurance. This was certainly the case with Motorsport Events and (I think) Book-a-Track.

Things appear to have changed a bit. That yellow thing is a Road Runner Sprint-R designed by Martin Keenan of MK Engineeting. There are a number of them doing trackdays with the likes of Javelin.

The question is, where does it stop? Why not buy a Jedi and put cycle wings on it? Then again, why not do that with an old F3000 car? My point is that some of the single seater formulas will be too quick for tin-top trackday traffic.

[racingsnake]

That's so true I am always bored watching Formula Fords racing thinking "god these are so slow."
Then you check out the lap times and think "WTF these things are rapid", very deceptive turn of pace with single seaters.