Starting Racing.

[number 46]

If you considering single seaters then classic FFord 1600 or classic FFord 2000(i race these) is probably you best bet, as most other s/seaters(F3, F renault, euroboss !) will cost more for parts and engine rebuilds. Its best to be in a series that is quite restrictive on what can be done to the engines as this can cost the most and there is always someone who has a larger and bigger bottomless pit of money than you !! The URS Classis FFord championships are a good starting point and are very friendly and also competitive. 750 motor club F4? is another cheap single seater series. As others have said go along to a meeting and talk to racers in the paddock to find out the real costs and also which cars are the most competitive. Even if you can do alot of the prep work yourself it can still be quite expensive and time comsuming, i.e. a day to prep the car and maybe a day before some of the races to test. Overall costs for me are about £500 to £750 a meeting, £700 to £2200 for engine rebuild(every 2 years), £500 for a set of tyres, £250 for a days testing, about £250 a corner for an accident !!! One thing it ALWAYS costs you more than you think and IT IS VERY exciting and a complete addiction!!

[Galileo]

Thank you everyone for your advise and links to more info. Your all incredibly helpful. If the paddocks are going to be full of people like you all, I'm sure to have a great time. I shall keep you posted on what i decide. Thanks again.

[andy97]

Have a look at the Monoposto Racing Club series' (www.monoposto.co.uk). They usually have 2 grids for single seaters at most of the races they run. Grid one is for Mono 2000 cars - single seater chassis with slicks and wings and running standard iron block motors. At the top end of the scale there are a few people running ex F3 chassis fitted with Vauxhall or 2 litre Ford Zetec engines but there are plenty of people running Vauxhall-Lotus cars and these can be picked up for about £6k.

Grid 2 is usually for a combination of Mono 1200 (motor bike engined cars like Jedi or Speads), Mono 1800 ( F Ford Zetec, F Ford 2000(Pinto) or F Vauxhall Junior 16V) and Mono 1600 (Ford Kent engined cars.

Monoposto is affordable single seater racing - the cars can usually be bought cheaply (The aforementioned Formula vauxhall Lotus or a Formula Vauxhall Junior & F Ford Zetec for about £4500), there's plentiful spares for most things and you can even run on second hand F3 or F Ford tyres (often available at £10 a tyre from the national teams after they have done just one race or practice on them). I have raced sporadically in Mono 1800 and Mono 2000 over the last 4 years and I reckon it costs me £400 a race all in (entries, tyres, spares, annual licence and club membership, fuel, accident damage (not much),transport and paying someone to help me out). Admitedly I only tend to do the midlands races to keep costs down, I don't test very much and I am not very good!!! But, I do enjoy myself tremendously and Monoposto must be amongst the best performance per pound in the whole club racing.

The other advantage of a Monoposto car is, if you choose the right sort (F Ford Zetec, F Vauxhall Junior 16V, F Ford 2000 (Pinto) or F Ford 1600) it can be eligible for a number of different series including F4 or a regioanl F Ford 1600 series. All Monoposto cars are eligible for the BARC-SEC Single seater series and the SEMSEC Single seater series.

Monoposto is a good club for a novice to start and a lot of people find that single seater racing at this level is cheaper than racing a road based saloon or sports car.

Edited by andy97 on Friday 6th October 13:15

Edited by andy97 on Friday 6th October 13:17