750 MC stockhatch
Discussion
I'm looking at competing in this towards the end of this year or more likely next year. I already have a 205 GTi which is 90% preped. The roll cage is in, lead adjustables fitted, cobra evolusion seat fitted. Just need to sort out a liecence and personel equipment (overalls etc)
Does anyone on here compete and if so what sort of budget do you consider to be a minimum for a season (although i may start with a few more local events this year)
Also i have a brands hatch track day booked what is a reasonable wet / dry time for the indy circuit.
I did a trackday in dec. which was very cold and icy. Although the car wasn't running 100% i was lapping in 1m 06 ish. how far off the pace am i?
Does anyone on here compete and if so what sort of budget do you consider to be a minimum for a season (although i may start with a few more local events this year)
Also i have a brands hatch track day booked what is a reasonable wet / dry time for the indy circuit.
I did a trackday in dec. which was very cold and icy. Although the car wasn't running 100% i was lapping in 1m 06 ish. how far off the pace am i?
I raced in Stock Hatch last year in a Mk1 Golf.
The front runners do laptimes around the 59secs to 1 minute mark on the Indy circuit. A time of around 1:01 to 1:02 is respectable and will put you somewhere in the middle.
As for costs, I spent a bl**dy fortune! Even at this level, there's no limit to how much you can spend. A modest stock hatcher may spend between £3k to £5k in a season, depending on accident damage etc. Some of the front runners can spend £20k!
The front runners do laptimes around the 59secs to 1 minute mark on the Indy circuit. A time of around 1:01 to 1:02 is respectable and will put you somewhere in the middle.
As for costs, I spent a bl**dy fortune! Even at this level, there's no limit to how much you can spend. A modest stock hatcher may spend between £3k to £5k in a season, depending on accident damage etc. Some of the front runners can spend £20k!
I currently compete in the stock hatch championship and have done for about 4 years.
Keith R is right, budgets are down to what you want to spend, the biggest costs are entry fees followed by fuel ( race car and tow car) then tyres and other spares.
if you want to be really tight with money - and there are those that get as much satisfaction from spending very little as they do from the result, then a race if the circuit is localish to you would be around £200, further afield about £300. if you test the day before you can expect to double those figures.
basically you need to decide what you want to get out of your weekends racing - i.e. winning , or a bit of fun, and then work out how much to spend.
as a further point, i would hope to be a top ten runner, i will do some testing, probably about 6-7 days during the year, and budgetting for one accident, my spend for the year will be about £7000. If I have more acccidents, i'll just do less racing to pay for them.
that figure includes everything, food, hotels ( although i either camp if its warm, or stay at friends houses), entries, spares etc.
hth
Keith R is right, budgets are down to what you want to spend, the biggest costs are entry fees followed by fuel ( race car and tow car) then tyres and other spares.
if you want to be really tight with money - and there are those that get as much satisfaction from spending very little as they do from the result, then a race if the circuit is localish to you would be around £200, further afield about £300. if you test the day before you can expect to double those figures.
basically you need to decide what you want to get out of your weekends racing - i.e. winning , or a bit of fun, and then work out how much to spend.
as a further point, i would hope to be a top ten runner, i will do some testing, probably about 6-7 days during the year, and budgetting for one accident, my spend for the year will be about £7000. If I have more acccidents, i'll just do less racing to pay for them.
that figure includes everything, food, hotels ( although i either camp if its warm, or stay at friends houses), entries, spares etc.
hth
Cheers for the replies. Pritty much said what i expected. I'll have to see how i get on on the trackday and see what my times are like.
Budget also seams around what i expected. I'm currently racing karts and finding that reasonably expencive mostly due to £145 a day for tyres + entry fee. And thats before fuel, damage and wear and tear on an engine which only does 40-50 hours between rebuilds. This also attracts people willing to spend 10 times my budget
I'll have to speek nicely to my boss and see if he wants to cover my entry fees. I'm really looking to enjoy it first had if a couple of good results come along then all the better.
Budget also seams around what i expected. I'm currently racing karts and finding that reasonably expencive mostly due to £145 a day for tyres + entry fee. And thats before fuel, damage and wear and tear on an engine which only does 40-50 hours between rebuilds. This also attracts people willing to spend 10 times my budget
I'll have to speek nicely to my boss and see if he wants to cover my entry fees. I'm really looking to enjoy it first had if a couple of good results come along then all the better.
I agree with Stock hatcher re season costs. It really is dependent on what you are willing to spend and what you want to get out of the racing. To be honest even doing a couple of races a season is still very very exciting, lining up on the grid at Brands for the first time, heart pounding, you'll soon realise its money well spent. I know of a couple of racers that seem to only appear at Brands as it's local to them, they have fun but don't obviously intend to get anywhere in the overall championship.
It does seem that the front runners in the finals will spend a lot more money then the class B mid to back field cars. We run an XR2 and this being our forth season, I would say that it's not cheap at all!! We had the car rebuilt over the winter due to a first lap punt at Mallory last season and it cost a packet, but in all fairness we have a fantastic guy who maintains our car! You pay for what you get! It can be done on a tight budget but just don't expect to race at every meet or to come very far up the grids!
When are you doing Brands, we're there on wed 29th March I think for open pit lane track day, if you're around then come and have a chat.
It does seem that the front runners in the finals will spend a lot more money then the class B mid to back field cars. We run an XR2 and this being our forth season, I would say that it's not cheap at all!! We had the car rebuilt over the winter due to a first lap punt at Mallory last season and it cost a packet, but in all fairness we have a fantastic guy who maintains our car! You pay for what you get! It can be done on a tight budget but just don't expect to race at every meet or to come very far up the grids!
When are you doing Brands, we're there on wed 29th March I think for open pit lane track day, if you're around then come and have a chat.
IMO building your own car is an expensive option. If you have some mechanical ability you can put one together fairly cheaply, the cost of developing it into a competitive car can be expensive.
If you buy the right car you can save yourself lots of time and money. I bought a car that had been run for 3 seasons and had just been rebuilt. Got a competetive car for not much more than £2k, spent £300 on a trailer and 3 races later I got 2nd in class B and fastest lap.
I actually shared the car with a mate, ended up spending £3k overall for 7 meetings = about 12 races and got £1k back when we sold it all at the end of the season.
Total cost = £2k for the lot including an accident, pretty good value for money I thought.
If you buy the right car you can save yourself lots of time and money. I bought a car that had been run for 3 seasons and had just been rebuilt. Got a competetive car for not much more than £2k, spent £300 on a trailer and 3 races later I got 2nd in class B and fastest lap.
I actually shared the car with a mate, ended up spending £3k overall for 7 meetings = about 12 races and got £1k back when we sold it all at the end of the season.
Total cost = £2k for the lot including an accident, pretty good value for money I thought.
wow, that might have been a better way off doing it.
I bought my car for £250 because of vandal damage to a few pannels. Up until a month or two ago in owed me around £1000 after buying the suspension (leda -ve camber adjustables), cage, cobra evolution and stripping it (thanks to selling lots of the interior for silly mony on ebay) Looked at what else i need and its coming in at around £1200 to get on the track but this does include liecence and race suit etc.
Think i'm going to pop up to the round at brands hatch in a couple of weeks to encourage me to save every penny to make sure i get on the track myself.
I bought my car for £250 because of vandal damage to a few pannels. Up until a month or two ago in owed me around £1000 after buying the suspension (leda -ve camber adjustables), cage, cobra evolution and stripping it (thanks to selling lots of the interior for silly mony on ebay) Looked at what else i need and its coming in at around £1200 to get on the track but this does include liecence and race suit etc.
Think i'm going to pop up to the round at brands hatch in a couple of weeks to encourage me to save every penny to make sure i get on the track myself.
This is the most exciting thread I've read in a long time! 
I'm itching to go racing and this seems like a great way of starting out. I was initially persuing the Caterham route but the 750mc series seems a lot more cost effective and has always looked like great fun. Is there a 750mc website and where can I buy a car?
Hee hee I'm all excited now look ->
Edited to add..............found it!
www.750mc.co.uk
I'm itching to go racing and this seems like a great way of starting out. I was initially persuing the Caterham route but the 750mc series seems a lot more cost effective and has always looked like great fun. Is there a 750mc website and where can I buy a car?
Hee hee I'm all excited now look ->
Edited to add..............found it!
www.750mc.co.uk
Theres often cars for sale on ebay or www.racecarsdirect.com
L100NYY said:
This is the most exciting thread I've read in a long time!
I'm itching to go racing and this seems like a great way of starting out. I was initially persuing the Caterham route but the 750mc series seems a lot more cost effective and has always looked like great fun. Is there a 750mc website and where can I buy a car?
Hee hee I'm all excited now look ->
Edited to add..............found it!
www.750mc.co.uk
If you were looking at caterhams I race a westfield in the 750mc kit car champs and it seems good value, a car around £7k should get you up the front and costs seem similar to the stock hatch costs already mentioned. Entry fee for the season opener on the 2nd April is £170.
Lap times at Brands come in around 52/53 secs for a top ten position.
L100NYY said:
Thanks for that, I may well have a look into that series as well.
I'm itching to get out there and go racing but don't want to be bankrupt within two races!
SKR's version of events to go racing is particularly good. The key element is to buy a second hand car, nick it off the current owner for no money keep it for a couple of years and try and get better results. then you can possibly sell it for more than you paid for it.
at this level it is more about cash flow than expense, and it is possible to justify it over the medium term, if you buy clever and race well.
BUT - you must buy the most reliable car ever, if your racing is going to be cost effective. therefore key selling point should be 100% reliability with the result to back that up. You can defo get a car for £2-3K like this, and maybe retail it on for £3k if you've had some success with it. not easy but it is do-able. Also you need to be sure that the championship you're investing in is likely to be still going in two or three years - i.e. when you want to bail out so that you can sell your car. there are many championships that start off ok, but quickly go into decline. For example Clio Cups are selling for less than £10k, but they were £35k new 5 years ago, but the championship is on its arse, so its not worth the investment in buying the car as it will not be eligible in 2 years time to race, therefore will be worth nowt.
there are many cars for sale on 750 mc, and there is also a stock hatch for sale on this site.hth
>> Edited by stockhatcher on Wednesday 15th March 16:16
Sorry to hi-jack this thread but would this be any good? I like the sound of this one -
www.pistonheads.com/sales/68062.htm
www.pistonheads.com/sales/68062.htm
Stock hatch is a great series to start racing in. But looking longer term is a mater of serious money and time to be competitive within. For what its worth there are two series worth doing in club racing at this time one is MaX5 the other the Seloc BMW series.
The reason I suggest these two is they are both relatively cheap to start in... not as cheap as Stock Hatch perhaps but if you view your racing as a long term enjoyment thing then I would assume you also want a fair chance at the front in future and in this case Stock Hatch is not a good option.
MaX5 will offer super close racing (towing is unavoidable) in the most cost controlled environment you can get outside national racing, the Seloc series is cheaper to start in but is more open to higher costs in race winning cars longer term similar to Stock hatch but not as random.
There are many other cheaper strat up series but non offer long term security in grid numbers like these 3.
The reason I suggest these two is they are both relatively cheap to start in... not as cheap as Stock Hatch perhaps but if you view your racing as a long term enjoyment thing then I would assume you also want a fair chance at the front in future and in this case Stock Hatch is not a good option.
MaX5 will offer super close racing (towing is unavoidable) in the most cost controlled environment you can get outside national racing, the Seloc series is cheaper to start in but is more open to higher costs in race winning cars longer term similar to Stock hatch but not as random.
There are many other cheaper strat up series but non offer long term security in grid numbers like these 3.
L100NYY said:
Sorry to hi-jack this thread but would this be any good? I like the sound of this one -
www.pistonheads.com/sales/68062.htm
wouldn't touch that with a barge pole
try this
www.pistonheads.com/sales/68245.htm
l100ney said:
Is there a 750mc website and where can I buy a car?
Do your research first. I found that within stockhatch there are specialists in each of the different cars. So decide what car you would prefer to run - cheapest = 205 or XR2 and then speak to people who already run them and find out what to look for, they may even know people who are looking to sell. (contact details on 750mc) just take a look at previous results.
Some people who compete in motorsport enjoy the engineering/mechanical side of things as much as the driving. I was lucky and found a car that was owned by one of these people, end result was a very well sorted car that had been driven by someone who wasn't that into the driving.
Personally I just want to drive, and all the other stuff that goes with it is a means to an end.
simon_mason said:
MaX5 will offer super close racing
Max5 is the reason I no longer compete in stockhatch. Whilst competeing in stockhatch I realsied I needed somewhere to work on the car and set about trying to find a sponsor who would let me use their workshop. I finally found someone, they import Jap cars so I found a series to suit them and have not looked back.
After all I have said about buying a car rather than building, I actually built my own Max5 car. Although I did get a good deal on the base car, the main reason I chose to build my own is that 2005 was the first real year of the Max5 Chamionship. The championship has not been going long enought for people to have tested the regs!!! And the regs stricly limit the amount you can do to your car. I think stockhatch is in its 8th/9th? year now and some of them have been competeing since the start. That is a lot of time to develop your car and test the rules/regs to their limit.
The other advantage to Max5 is that everyone is in the same car, if you get a problem someone will know what the problems is and probably have the parts to get you racing.
I am sure what ever you choose to do you will enjoy it and make some friends along the way.
If you would like to look at Max5 in more detail take a look at www.max5racing.com or mail me.
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