Brands Sunday

[D14 AYS]

My wife and I thought we would come and have a look at the racing last Sunday as a few friends were going and we had never been to see the Tuscan Challenge before, but I can assure you all we will definitely be coming along a lot more often, we both thoroughly enjoyed the racing.

I was keeping my eye on the yellow cerb (99) after a great quallie and his particular bad warm up lap! Boy was that kid quick, really enjoyed watching him whipping through the field.

Having always been a petrol head, but also a father of four I have never had the time or money to pursue my dream of motor racing, in the not to distant future this could become a reality for me, so with this in mind what sort of running costs are we talking per season? I know it would vary considerably but what sort of an average do you guys reckon?

Well done to you all for providing some excellent sport

Thanks all

Dean

[heightswitch]

D14 AYS said:

My wife and I thought we would come and have a look at the racing last Sunday as a few friends were going and we had never been to see the Tuscan Challenge before, but I can assure you all we will definitely be coming along a lot more often, we both thoroughly enjoyed the racing.

I was keeping my eye on the yellow cerb (99) after a great quallie and his particular bad warm up lap! Boy was that kid quick, really enjoyed watching him whipping through the field.

Having always been a petrol head, but also a father of four I have never had the time or money to pursue my dream of motor racing, in the not to distant future this could become a reality for me, so with this in mind what sort of running costs are we talking per season? I know it would vary considerably but what sort of an average do you guys reckon?

Well done to you all for providing some excellent sport

Thanks all

Dean

Depends

Class C tasmin minimal mods probably £6-7k for the car then £1000 per race as an average cost.

Class A big Boys £50k plus for the car / prep then £1500 per race as an average

as ever depends on how much you can do for yourself and how much you have to farm out. the above costs are assuming you dont break anything or crash.

N.

[teamHOLDENracing]

A really good class A Tuscan will cost you ~£24k (nowhere near £50k!!). Running costs for a race weekend depend mainly how often you buy new tyres at ~£800 a set. With entry fees at ~£300 plus fuel plus consumables plus an engine and transmission refresh once a season.... it probably does average out at around £1,000 to 1500 per race if you include all the costs. It also depends a bit on luck and how much work you do yourself v paying others to do it. One or two people have spent very little on their cars in recent years and got away with it.

Dean demonstrated that you can win with a standard Tuscan on Sunday

[darren no 7]

dean has not rebuilt his engine since he brought the car so it must of done over 30 races,my car used to cost me no more than £700 a race

Edited by darren no 7 on Tuesday 9th September 20:36

[D14 AYS]

So it's £300 entry plus fuel and consumables.

£800 set of tyres (How many races do you get out of one set?)

Approx 25k for a class A car. (Is this realistic?)

If not massively mechanically minded, race prep, how much approx?

Thanks for the replies guys, I am very interested to find out more.

[Phil Dicky]

If you've no experience go for a class C or B car to start with.. spend up to £10k will get you a good car.
Tyres will last about 4-5 races but can go longer..it depends how competative you want to be.
Fuel..for the last weekend cost me £50
Entry £340
If anything goes pop it will cost you, but so do road cars.
My advice is get racing as soon as, you'll love it,

[Graham]

I know where there is a very nice class B Tuscan, that should have you up the front...

[teamHOLDENracing]

D14 AYS said:

Approx 25k for a class A car. (Is this realistic?)

If not massively mechanically minded, race prep, how much approx?

Thanks for the replies guys, I am very interested to find out more.

£25k is entirely realistic. The car that won the last two full factory championships is currently in the classifieds for £24k with a spares package. Its an awful lot of car for the money, and I'm not just saying that because I am selling it - you have to spend a hell of a lot more money to get a car as quick.

When I started racing in 2003 I had very little mechanical experience - I'm a chartered accountant for a living. I watched others, had a go, asked if I wasn't sure and slowly built up experience until I could change an engine or gearbox. The Tuscan is very easy to work on as everything is so accessible. Running costs are also reduced since the factory championship as we now know where all the parts came from - at time we had to buy parts from TVR at a mark up.

Race prep is a case of checking all nuts and bolts on the suspension, brakes and steering, checking and changing fluids and visually inspecting wishbones etc for cracks or damage. Common sense gets you a long way.

[GlynnsportRacing]

D14 AYS said:

So it's £300 entry plus fuel and consumables.

£800 set of tyres (How many races do you get out of one set?)

Approx 25k for a class A car. (Is this realistic?)

If not massively mechanically minded, race prep, how much approx?

Thanks for the replies guys, I am very interested to find out more.

Going racing is one of the best things I've ever done, and being a little rash (daft some would say) I went straight into a full blown Tuscan and don't regret a minute of it. If you've got the urge and can get the funds together - go for it!

Yes, £25K for a good Class A Tuscan is realistic. I've recently decided to sell mine (at circa that sort of figure) as I'm concentrating on racing the Sagaris now. I won Class A with my Tuscan in 2006, so she's definitely a good car and has the full blown AJP8 race engine.

In terms of race prep, the costs can vary a lot. I know nothing about the mechanics of the cars and don't trust myself to do anything except get behind the steering wheel so have always had an expert Team (Jet Black Motorsport) to do the prep and look after her on race days. In my case, they also do the transportatin too. This is probably the most expensive way of racing (but for me, I wouldn't want it any other way tbh)and it's fantastic being a part of this Team.

The figures quoted already cover a wide spectrum of options. You need to decide exactly how much of the work you can or want to do yourself, and how long you can make a set of tyres last. The rest depends a little on luck and staying on the black stuff.

If you want to know more by all means pm me with a phone number. All the best.
Steve

[Obiwonkeyblokey]

Theres a lovely class B griff on the classifieds too!!

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...


I have had a wonderful first year and if I can pass the griff to someone in the championship to allow me to move up to class A then all the better!

come on in, the waters lovely!

Edited by Obiwonkeyblokey on Wednesday 10th September 08:19

[itsallyellow]

D14 AYS said:

My wife and I thought we would come and have a look at the racing last Sunday as a few friends were going and we had never been to see the Tuscan Challenge before, but I can assure you all we will definitely be coming along a lot more often, we both thoroughly enjoyed the racing.

I was keeping my eye on the yellow cerb (99) after a great quallie and his particular bad warm up lap! Boy was that kid quick, really enjoyed watching him whipping through the field.

Having always been a petrol head, but also a father of four I have never had the time or money to pursue my dream of motor racing, in the not to distant future this could become a reality for me, so with this in mind what sort of running costs are we talking per season? I know it would vary considerably but what sort of an average do you guys reckon?

Well done to you all for providing some excellent sport

Thanks all

Dean

Thanks for the compliment! Just a shame we didnt have time to catch dean and sam!.

I think you can dictate to an extent how much motorsport costs you. We do all the work on the car ourselves including any repairs etc.

I budget £1000 per meeting. I havent spent anywhere near that this year. However you only need one big smash to change all that!

Mike

[TVRleigh_BBWR]

If you don't have mechanical skill, then buy a car as finished and complete as possible, It cost me the same money on parts to build a slower car then the Griff for sales, and that just it parts and 9 months of time.

The car's for sale are well worth the money, compared to the price of the parts on them and time spent getting them sorted.

It has been fun building my own car, but far from cost effective.

As pointed out
Entry fee's are 310-350 per weekend.
Fuel £50
other Fluids £50
your have to add price of Transport to and from and accommodation if its a weekend.
you also need to pay a small fee to join the series, and the BRSCC

You need to spend aprox £1000 on clothing for a full noxmex FIA suit etc.
And Ideally you should spend anther £500 on a good crash helmet
Oh your need a race licence that's going to cost about £500
You may also need a logger and Transponder if the car does not come with one.
And a trailer unless paying a company to do the transport.

so you may want to budget an extra £5000 on top of the car to get all the other stuff and yourself race ready.

[heightswitch]

£50k was an arbitrary figure guys.

To a novice thinking of taking the plunge a whole host of issues needs to be accounted for.

£10k will get you through a seasons racing driving a low budget C car if you do everything on a shoestring and don't break anything.

£24k buys a good Tuscan. It doesn't buy anything else associated with going racing. £50k is also a mid pitch figure to run in Class A and be competitive. Andy I am guessing that you won't really want to share how much your car has cost you to build for fear of the missus reading the thread

For someone coming into racing from scratch it is important to give worst case costs, not pipe dream delusions.

A Built Car purchase is the easy thing to do and the easiest way onto the track. But!

How are you going to get it to the track?
What are you going to pull it with?
Where are you going to sleep
Helmet, Overalls, Ballyclavas, Shoes
Is your new car purchase really ready to race?? or does it need a full set of wets and drys to be up in the times. How many races has the old engine done in your newly purchased steed? Is it refreshed or does it need £4k spending on it to guarantee it won't go pop in the first race.
I've seen a lot of re-built gearboxes and back axles in and out of cars this year £1200 a time??

I think you get my point.

as per you Andy I have built an historic car from scratch. unlike yours, mine is nothing special, warmed over engine, reasonable box, good diff. I have nailed most of it together and I am up to £30k!

I am going to run 18" rims in tuscans to allow good brakes... hey up that last sentence just cost £5k.

The question asked was how much will it cost to race.

2 answers:

The most expensive car on the grid in 2007 cost £100k plus to put there
The cheapest £5-6K

Anything in between is your budget.

racing drivers are the worlds worst at calculating real costs. so much of the expenditure is never counted. its amazing how many tenners here and there are never factored in.

N.

[GlynnsportRacing]

heightswitch said:

£50k was an arbitrary figure guys.
The most expensive car on the grid in 2007 cost £100k plus to put there
The cheapest £5-6K
N.

Neil, you make some good points. What grid are you refering to with a cost of £100k+ out of interest?

Edited by GlynnsportRacing on Wednesday 10th September 14:19

[NTEL]

My costs to date for this year are as follows:

Car........................................£4000.00
Refurbish Nitrons and new rear springs..... £300.00
Set of Dunlop slicks....................... £700.00
Set of Toyo R888 for track days............ £400.00
Cost of safety gear........................ £600.00
Cost of new poly windows................... £300.00
Cost of a couple of geo set ups............ £200.00
Spark plugs and other bits................. £50.00
Brake linings.............................. £60.00
various fluids............................. £200.00
Wheels refurbished......................... £280.00
ARDS Test.................................. £250.00
BRSCC...................................... £150.00
Go Racing pack............................. £45.00
Race Licence............................... £45.00
Challenge entry fee........................ £160.00
Sprint and hillclimb entry................. £25.00
Sprint and hillclimb event fees............ £500.00
6 challenge races.......................... £930.00
2 test days................................ £400.00
Trailer....................................£2000.00
Motorhome.................................£24000.00
Insurance and tax for motorhome........... £400.00
Diesel.................................... £500.00
fuel for race car......................... £700.00 (inc track days)
Track days................................ £800.00
Storage costs of car and motor home....... £800.00
Crash repairs............................. £1800.00
Stickers.................................. £200.00
---------
£41,795.00

I'm sure I have missed a few bits but it kind of adds up a bit!!!!

[Obiwonkeyblokey]

to be fair the 24k for the motorhome does skew things slightly!

[NTEL]

Obiwonkeyblokey said:

to be fair the 24k for the motorhome does skew things slightly!

I know that mate, but if I wasn't racing then the wife wouldn't have bought one

To be fair, my budget for next year is £10K.

[heightswitch]

GlynnsportRacing said:

heightswitch said:

£50k was an arbitrary figure guys.
The most expensive car on the grid in 2007 cost £100k plus to put there
The cheapest £5-6K
N.

Neil, you make some good points. What grid are you refering to with a cost of £100k+ out of interest?

Edited by GlynnsportRacing on Wednesday 10th September 14:19

Granted steve I am looking at the extreme end of the grid IE the Newly built saggy bodied cars.

But look at Daves first year costs. Discounting the motorhome, getting on for £20k to run a relatively low spec C Tasmin. Year 2 hopefully will be alot cheaper (especially if he doesn't try for another moonshot)

We are all guilty of under egging the pudding though when it comes to starting out and especially if wives are in earshot

N.

[GlynnsportRacing]

Neil, I'd love to foster the rumour that our Sag's cost £100k+ especially if someone would pay that for one! Fortunately though you're well off the mark. They're cheaper than a good second hand 997 race Porsche, cheaper to run too and a whole lot quicker.

Granted it'll be a different ball game once we've developed them with the Chevy engine, but then again they'll be able to compete with cars costing £250k+.

You are however spot on when it comes to conveniently forgetting the odd bit spent here and there, especially when the missus are listening to us!!! Also, the first year by definition is going to be the most expensive year as you have to acquire the car, all the race gear etc, etc. Don't forget though, that a well looked after Tuscan is a good asset and is most likely to go up in value over the coming years. So in fact a good Class A car over a number of seasons isn't actually too bad.

[NTEL]

teamHOLDENracing said:

£25k is entirely realistic. The car that won the last two full factory championships is currently in the classifieds for £24k with a spares package. Its an awful lot of car for the money, and I'm not just saying that because I am selling it - you have to spend a hell of a lot more money to get a car as quick.

Get thee behind me Satan..........