Formula Renault - running costs? Am I dreaming?
Discussion
I've seen a few Formula Renault cars for sale on the BARC web site and on Racecarsdirect.com. They are all priced around 8-10k which to be fair seems very fair price for such lovely pieces of kit. 0-100mph in under 5secs!!!!!!
Now I dont really know anything about this formula or single seaters generally, so I have a few questions for anyone who races this formula or knows about it!
a. What are race entry fees? BARC website neglects to mention this, are they huge?
b. What are running costs per race excluding entry fee, and what are avaerage costs per season?
c. Do the cars themselves need constant fettling? Not being a mechanic of any sorts, would it require a lot of engineering knowledge to run it? Also, how expensive are engine parts, consumables and body work?
d. I know that Renault love a good deposit for series such as Clio Cup, I assume this is not the case as you can just enter one off races in the Trophy class, is this true?
Not having huge budgets to race with next season, I get the impression I maybe day dreaming with this formula, after all they were a BTCC suppport race this year at Brands. Would be great if someone could prove me wrong here!
cheers guys
Now I dont really know anything about this formula or single seaters generally, so I have a few questions for anyone who races this formula or knows about it!
a. What are race entry fees? BARC website neglects to mention this, are they huge?
b. What are running costs per race excluding entry fee, and what are avaerage costs per season?
c. Do the cars themselves need constant fettling? Not being a mechanic of any sorts, would it require a lot of engineering knowledge to run it? Also, how expensive are engine parts, consumables and body work?
d. I know that Renault love a good deposit for series such as Clio Cup, I assume this is not the case as you can just enter one off races in the Trophy class, is this true?
Not having huge budgets to race with next season, I get the impression I maybe day dreaming with this formula, after all they were a BTCC suppport race this year at Brands. Would be great if someone could prove me wrong here!
cheers guys
8-10k ? that sounds like a barc frenault to me, which is about 6 or 7 year old frenaults. the barc championship shouldn't be much more expensive than stock hatches, in terms of entry fees, but the slicks will cost a fortune.
in summary stick with the stock hatches - ps have you got your car fixed yet?
in summary stick with the stock hatches - ps have you got your car fixed yet?
I have a 96/7 F Renault and have run it for a couple of seasons now. I have not run it in the BARC series but mostly in F4 and occasionally in Mono.
If you have never driven a slicks and wings car they are a world away from a stock hatch in terms of performance and a huge amount of fun.
As far as running costs go they are not difficult cars to run once they have been properly prepared and set up. Engines are quite cheap as they are basically Laguna engines with a renault sport kit and a dry sump kit, the last race engine I bought cost £700. Clutches tend to go quite often (but they are not difficult to replace) and the car will go through brake pads quite quickly.
You could chuck on new slicks each meeting but I dont know of anyone in F4 who does anything like that, most people use 2 sets a season.
If you are reasonably mechanically able then there should be no reason why you could not run one yourself as probably 70 % of people running F Renaults or similar cars do in F4 now.
Crash damage can be expensive but you can normally source second hand spares, hence taking off a corner is probably about £500.
I would recommend having a test in a car first to see if you like it before taking the plunge.
Have fun
If you have never driven a slicks and wings car they are a world away from a stock hatch in terms of performance and a huge amount of fun.
As far as running costs go they are not difficult cars to run once they have been properly prepared and set up. Engines are quite cheap as they are basically Laguna engines with a renault sport kit and a dry sump kit, the last race engine I bought cost £700. Clutches tend to go quite often (but they are not difficult to replace) and the car will go through brake pads quite quickly.
You could chuck on new slicks each meeting but I dont know of anyone in F4 who does anything like that, most people use 2 sets a season.
If you are reasonably mechanically able then there should be no reason why you could not run one yourself as probably 70 % of people running F Renaults or similar cars do in F4 now.
Crash damage can be expensive but you can normally source second hand spares, hence taking off a corner is probably about £500.
I would recommend having a test in a car first to see if you like it before taking the plunge.
Have fun
Well the Stock Hatch is still sitting on the drive looking worse for wear, not entirely sure what's going on with the repair situation yet, hopefully we'll be getting our mechanic to fix it before january.
Cheers for the advice about Formula Renaults, they do seem like bloody good fun. Maybe a change of formula is in order for next season!!!??
Stock Hatch seems to have a lot of cars written off and major damage a lot of the time of late, it just gets so very expensive and disheartening when you've just had the car fixed up and someone decides to punt you in to the wall. Stock Hatch has got very messy this season. Going to weigh up the costs for fixing the car and the costs of starting a new championship/formula.
Does anyone know of anyone that we could get a drive in a formula Renault on a test day to find out if its for us?
Cheers for the advice about Formula Renaults, they do seem like bloody good fun. Maybe a change of formula is in order for next season!!!??
Stock Hatch seems to have a lot of cars written off and major damage a lot of the time of late, it just gets so very expensive and disheartening when you've just had the car fixed up and someone decides to punt you in to the wall. Stock Hatch has got very messy this season. Going to weigh up the costs for fixing the car and the costs of starting a new championship/formula.
Does anyone know of anyone that we could get a drive in a formula Renault on a test day to find out if its for us?
Try Nick at Edginton Racing 01460 65743, he has looked after my car for a couple of seasons and has a very tidy 2 ltr Van Diemen FR plus a lovely 1982 F3 Dallara that he rents. I would not bother having a few laps at Thruxton in a old 1700 car that is probably set up to have massive understeer. If you want to find out what this sort of car is like you need to have a go in a proper racing car.
williamp said:
At Thruxton you can pay for 5 laps in a FRenault car. Worth asking them about running costs??
(also have a drive to see what you think)
Be aware that the car has a rev limit of 4000 rpm and they don't let you use top gear, so it only does about 95 mph flat out. Still enormous fun though
Ogri1967 said:
I have a 96/7 F Renault and have run it for a couple of seasons now. I have not run it in the BARC series but mostly in F4 and occasionally in Mono.
If you have never driven a slicks and wings car they are a world away from a stock hatch in terms of performance and a huge amount of fun.
As far as running costs go they are not difficult cars to run once they have been properly prepared and set up. Engines are quite cheap as they are basically Laguna engines with a renault sport kit and a dry sump kit, the last race engine I bought cost £700. Clutches tend to go quite often (but they are not difficult to replace) and the car will go through brake pads quite quickly.
You could chuck on new slicks each meeting but I dont know of anyone in F4 who does anything like that, most people use 2 sets a season.
If you are reasonably mechanically able then there should be no reason why you could not run one yourself as probably 70 % of people running F Renaults or similar cars do in F4 now.
Crash damage can be expensive but you can normally source second hand spares, hence taking off a corner is probably about £500.
I would recommend having a test in a car first to see if you like it before taking the plunge.
Have fun
I do believe I have just found a new hobby. Is there a site/ or can you mail me more info (cost of car,race fee, any hidden costs).
Many thanks.
Cad
Have a look at www.750mc.co.uk and also www.monoposto.co.uk, they both have info about starting racing and running costs. It is difficult to be specific about running costs because some people spend a lot more than others. Races in the 750MC cost about £160 and about £200 for Mono. As a starting point if you were able to look after the car yourself and did not do any testing, then allowing for petrol, consumables (oil etc) and travel for a 10 race season including entry fees I would put it about £4k. Realistically allowing for a couple of test days, some damage, the occasional B & B and for a team to professionaly set up the car I would guess about £6 - £8k.
Having a team run the car means that the costs will probably be between £8 - £12k plus entry fees, any damage plus your own travel and accomodation costs.
The other option is renting a car, as far as I know this tends to cost between £650 - £850 plus entry fees.
Having a team run the car means that the costs will probably be between £8 - £12k plus entry fees, any damage plus your own travel and accomodation costs.
The other option is renting a car, as far as I know this tends to cost between £650 - £850 plus entry fees.
You can also get tyres from the National Formula Renault teams quite reasonably (usually for cash). They only use the first 100 miles out of the 500 miles they are good for (due to having restricted testing allowed and being ultra competitive you are wasting your time on old tyres in the National series).
In terms of getting people to preare your car/rental fees you often get what you pay for...
Archibold
In terms of getting people to preare your car/rental fees you often get what you pay for...
Archibold
mad4amanda said:
Just for comparisum with the figures quoted a run in the toca supporting national series championship starts at a cool £170k.
Figure quoted from series coordinator at test session at brands this week !
OUCH
Indeed, and I know of people spending even more than that when you factor in some testing on top!Figure quoted from series coordinator at test session at brands this week !
OUCH
ThunderCat said:
what is a good fairly cheap single seater series to enter?
I'm guessing this is cheap. http://www.veecentre.com/
Or Castle Combe FF1600.
Or North West Formula Ford.
But be aware, whatever you race, the faster you want to go, the more money it will cost. And generally its down to tyres. If you wonder why you are off the pace, its usually down to tyres, or more specifically, the number of heat cycles they have been through.
Sad, but oh so true.
But be aware, whatever you race, the faster you want to go, the more money it will cost. And generally its down to tyres. If you wonder why you are off the pace, its usually down to tyres, or more specifically, the number of heat cycles they have been through.
Sad, but oh so true.
Gassing Station | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff