Shane@DBPerformance
09-13-2011, 07:45 PM
...start a Chumpcar team.
I can not stress how much fun it is. Driving a 140hp piece of shit FWD Honda on Road America is the rain is only about 100 or so more times fun than driving a 700whp car down the drag strip or on the street. You don't need some super car, you will just need some balls, taking a corner at 100+mph in a piece of shit and hoping your brakes are back coming into that 30 mph corner after they seemed to be kinda gone a couple corners ago is scary enough.
It's a lot more fun that your typical HPDE days at the road course because you are actually trying to race other cars, if you go off course it's no big deal, you aren't driving a $15,000 Evo that you are scared of crashing, and you have a roll cage.
Even with all the different kinds of cars out there, it is very competitive. At the June BIR Sunday 7 hour race, the difference between 1st and 6th place was 4 laps. To be competitive you need a lightish car with around 115-150whp.
It is probably the cheapest form of real road racing that you can get into, you will get shit loads of seat time and it's run at some of the best tracks in the country(most of us just run the upper midwest tracks). And if it rains, you still get to race. I really like to be the one who has to race in the rain on our team, it's a great equalizer, I like to slide all over the place and our car handles really good in the wet.
#1 It's cheap, but still costs a decent amount(Build car, towing gas, tires, gas at race, hotel). The more people you have on your team the cheaper it will be, but the less driving time. You will need a real race suit, real automotive racing helmet(not a motorcycle), gloves, shoes, socks. That part is a bit expensive, but I see people waste money on all kinds of things on their DSMs/Evos that are not needed, but someone or some shop on the interwebz told them they needed to have that.
#2 You need someone or a few of you that actually know how to fix basic things on the car. The checkbook racer teams often don't very far when their car isn't 100% perfect.
#3 You don't need to be a good driver or ever even driven on a road course before. It would help, but it isn't essential. The first race or two your team will probably mostly be getting used to the car, driving in traffic, passing, getting passed, etc.
#4 You need to build a $500 car and will want to bring some spare parts. Now is the time to start a winter Chumpcar build to get ready for hopefully Road America in early spring. You can run just about any old pile, but the most competitive cars are BMW E30, BMW E36, Hondas, Taurus SHO, Miata, MR2, Porsche 944, Sentra, Impreza, Saabs, and probably more I don't know of. A simple Mirage or Galant might do well.
I can not stress how much fun it is. Driving a 140hp piece of shit FWD Honda on Road America is the rain is only about 100 or so more times fun than driving a 700whp car down the drag strip or on the street. You don't need some super car, you will just need some balls, taking a corner at 100+mph in a piece of shit and hoping your brakes are back coming into that 30 mph corner after they seemed to be kinda gone a couple corners ago is scary enough.
It's a lot more fun that your typical HPDE days at the road course because you are actually trying to race other cars, if you go off course it's no big deal, you aren't driving a $15,000 Evo that you are scared of crashing, and you have a roll cage.
Even with all the different kinds of cars out there, it is very competitive. At the June BIR Sunday 7 hour race, the difference between 1st and 6th place was 4 laps. To be competitive you need a lightish car with around 115-150whp.
It is probably the cheapest form of real road racing that you can get into, you will get shit loads of seat time and it's run at some of the best tracks in the country(most of us just run the upper midwest tracks). And if it rains, you still get to race. I really like to be the one who has to race in the rain on our team, it's a great equalizer, I like to slide all over the place and our car handles really good in the wet.
#1 It's cheap, but still costs a decent amount(Build car, towing gas, tires, gas at race, hotel). The more people you have on your team the cheaper it will be, but the less driving time. You will need a real race suit, real automotive racing helmet(not a motorcycle), gloves, shoes, socks. That part is a bit expensive, but I see people waste money on all kinds of things on their DSMs/Evos that are not needed, but someone or some shop on the interwebz told them they needed to have that.
#2 You need someone or a few of you that actually know how to fix basic things on the car. The checkbook racer teams often don't very far when their car isn't 100% perfect.
#3 You don't need to be a good driver or ever even driven on a road course before. It would help, but it isn't essential. The first race or two your team will probably mostly be getting used to the car, driving in traffic, passing, getting passed, etc.
#4 You need to build a $500 car and will want to bring some spare parts. Now is the time to start a winter Chumpcar build to get ready for hopefully Road America in early spring. You can run just about any old pile, but the most competitive cars are BMW E30, BMW E36, Hondas, Taurus SHO, Miata, MR2, Porsche 944, Sentra, Impreza, Saabs, and probably more I don't know of. A simple Mirage or Galant might do well.