Race car suggestions please!
Discussion
I'm looking at possibly moving on to another racing series and would like some unbiased opinions.
As a disclaimer to anyone involved in running my current championship, it is great - no complaints, I just fancy rear wheel drive, faster cars and a change.
This is what I'm after:
* Car purchase cost of around £10k (or preferably less!).
* Reasonable running costs. No frequent £2k engine rebuilds please! Or equally people spending loads on an engine and then winning as a result. Also, no stupid race entry fees. One championship that I shan't mention charges £500 per race - yeah right!
* Rear wheel drive
* Easy to work on. I'm not ruling out monocoque saloon cars, but it would be nice not to have all that bodywork in the way when you're trying to work on the car.
* Not too slow. I'd rather drive something with more than 200bhp/tonne.
* Practical - I don't want to have to put different wheels on just to drive the car across a bumpy paddock or load it onto a trailer!
* A good social scene - friendly competitors that see motor racing as a sport, not a life or death struggle to become famous! A decent dinner dance at the end of the year can really round the season off nicely as well.
* Safe: I would like to race with decent drivers that don't cause accidents through aggression or incompetance! Also, if I do get unlucky and have an accident, I'd rather walk away without crutches! I don't race for the adrenalin fix or the danger - just because I love it.
* Longevity - I don't want to get into a fly-by-night series that will leave me with a worthless car and nowhere to race it after a couple of years.
* No classes - I'm not keen on getting the fastest lap, pole position or winning the race if everyone other than my fellow competitors thinks I've come 4th!
So, any ideas? I've got some, but I won't cloud your judgement by posting them now.
As a disclaimer to anyone involved in running my current championship, it is great - no complaints, I just fancy rear wheel drive, faster cars and a change.
This is what I'm after:
* Car purchase cost of around £10k (or preferably less!).
* Reasonable running costs. No frequent £2k engine rebuilds please! Or equally people spending loads on an engine and then winning as a result. Also, no stupid race entry fees. One championship that I shan't mention charges £500 per race - yeah right!
* Rear wheel drive
* Easy to work on. I'm not ruling out monocoque saloon cars, but it would be nice not to have all that bodywork in the way when you're trying to work on the car.
* Not too slow. I'd rather drive something with more than 200bhp/tonne.
* Practical - I don't want to have to put different wheels on just to drive the car across a bumpy paddock or load it onto a trailer!
* A good social scene - friendly competitors that see motor racing as a sport, not a life or death struggle to become famous! A decent dinner dance at the end of the year can really round the season off nicely as well.
* Safe: I would like to race with decent drivers that don't cause accidents through aggression or incompetance! Also, if I do get unlucky and have an accident, I'd rather walk away without crutches! I don't race for the adrenalin fix or the danger - just because I love it.
* Longevity - I don't want to get into a fly-by-night series that will leave me with a worthless car and nowhere to race it after a couple of years.
* No classes - I'm not keen on getting the fastest lap, pole position or winning the race if everyone other than my fellow competitors thinks I've come 4th!
So, any ideas? I've got some, but I won't cloud your judgement by posting them now.
All sounds very good 
I had a close look at a race car at the Autosport show in January. The guy that showed it to me seemed very friendly and was only to happy to show me the car and tell me everthing about it. He offered to lift the bonnet off and show me how simple everything was, which really sold it to me.
The one thing that puts me off is those enormous entry fees though! I know it is good value for money for the amount of track time that you get, but at the end of the day it is still £500 a meeting, which is 4 times the cost of a Caterham race to enter, and 3 times the cost of the MGCC (currently under fire for high entry fees).
I'm on the committee for my present championship, and we discussed double headers, and the general consensus was that qualifying and one decent race was a) enough for most people to call it a fun weekend and b) enough for the cars and our pockets.
Ginettas do sound good though, and IIRC the cars are only £12,995 new aren't they?!
I'm very tempted..
I had a close look at a race car at the Autosport show in January. The guy that showed it to me seemed very friendly and was only to happy to show me the car and tell me everthing about it. He offered to lift the bonnet off and show me how simple everything was, which really sold it to me.
The one thing that puts me off is those enormous entry fees though! I know it is good value for money for the amount of track time that you get, but at the end of the day it is still £500 a meeting, which is 4 times the cost of a Caterham race to enter, and 3 times the cost of the MGCC (currently under fire for high entry fees).
I'm on the committee for my present championship, and we discussed double headers, and the general consensus was that qualifying and one decent race was a) enough for most people to call it a fun weekend and b) enough for the cars and our pockets.
Ginettas do sound good though, and IIRC the cars are only £12,995 new aren't they?!
I'm very tempted..
GreenV8S said:
Have you considered the TVRCC Challenge? It seems to meet most of your criteria.
It has crossed my mind, yes. I had a look at the website. I was trying to get an idea of running costs - I fear that they might be quite high. Also, lap times and grid sizes? I found one race on the MST website, but the TVRs seemed to be lumped in with another series, and the fastest lap around Brands Indy was 58 seconds!!
Any thoughts?
Munter said:
I was going to suggest max5 series as well. But it's down on your power requirement (116bhp in a 900ish kg car).
Sadly a total non starter for me. I say 'sadly' because you're dead right - a very good and well thought out championship. However, everybody has what they call 'slow', adequate, and fast, and sadly the MX5 comes into my slow category. A friend of mine let me drive his 140bhp one the other day, and I honestly couldn't tell the different in acceleration between it and my girlfriend's Nissan Micra! honestly!Thank you very much for all your suggestions. I've got quite a few championships to look into there. I will have a good look at them all.
I think that the best so far has to be Ginettas, but the race entry fees worry me somewhat. However, if I can get that back by owning a car that doesn't need constant attention and fiddling then it would be worth it.
I think that the best so far has to be Ginettas, but the race entry fees worry me somewhat. However, if I can get that back by owning a car that doesn't need constant attention and fiddling then it would be worth it.
Ah, that's a hint as to why the races are so expensive to enter!
I don't want to say anything too negative about a club series (especially one I may join in '06 or '07!), but let's just say that the race entry was exactly double the second most expensive series that I looked at (the semi-pro level Powertrain R400 challenge).
I don't want to say anything too negative about a club series (especially one I may join in '06 or '07!), but let's just say that the race entry was exactly double the second most expensive series that I looked at (the semi-pro level Powertrain R400 challenge).
I agree completely. The entry fees are an initial shock, no-one can deny that, but the whole package is just fantastic. For example, the cost of a complete new engine is half the *minimum* spend on an ultimate budget engine build in my category of racing - as for what some of our guys spend... In addition to that the standard engine spec presumably means that engine refreshes are fairly infrequent.
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