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'budget' and 'track' only appear together when 'budget' is preceded by words like 'large' or 'big' (or 'unlimited'...)
Says you.
I don't make a ton of money, but I can afford to race and still live in a nice house with decent cars and a social life. I built this car and race it competitively in amateur endurance racing at various venues across the country. Total build cost around $15k and maintenance is very reasonable. Costs $9-10 per lap total to race it, including fuel, tires, tow fuel, entry costs, etc, with entry cost averaging about $2 per lap for most of our races. If you drop off a car and a blank check at a shop and tell them to build you a car, you'll most certainly pay a big chunk of money, but racing needn't be prohibitively expensive.
Uhhh. Didn't realize anyone ever considered such a thing as 'cost per lap.' Mine must surely be something like $300 per lap based on what I've spent. This year.
I run an M3 in NASA and BMWCCA... it's on the low side for consumables cost, and I do all my own work. I figure minimum $1K+/weekend ($1200?). Skiing is stupidly cheap in comparison.
Apparently my definition of expensive differs from everyone else's. $700 for a local event, $1200 for a 600 mile one way pull (until gas goes back up) assuming I don't break anything and not counting consumables. The cost of the trailer, the support equipment, etc. Unless you've got money coming out your ***, it's an expensive hobby period.
$15K including the cost of the car? Or, $15K on top of the car cost?
Originally Posted by LateBreak
Says you.
I don't make a ton of money, but I can afford to race and still live in a nice house with decent cars and a social life. I built this car and race it competitively in amateur endurance racing at various venues across the country. Total build cost around $15k and maintenance is very reasonable. Costs $9-10 per lap total to race it, including fuel, tires, tow fuel, entry costs, etc, with entry cost averaging about $2 per lap for most of our races. If you drop off a car and a blank check at a shop and tell them to build you a car, you'll most certainly pay a big chunk of money, but racing needn't be prohibitively expensive.
I don't make a ton of money, but I can afford to race and still live in a nice house with decent cars and a social life. I built this car and race it competitively in amateur endurance racing at various venues across the country. Total build cost around $15k and maintenance is very reasonable. Costs $9-10 per lap total to race it, including fuel, tires, tow fuel, entry costs, etc, with entry cost averaging about $2 per lap for most of our races. If you drop off a car and a blank check at a shop and tell them to build you a car, you'll most certainly pay a big chunk of money, but racing needn't be prohibitively expensive.
I raced against this car with my MR2. Running a detuned motor and
"street tires" makes this vette reliable. It increases the safety factor engineers design into the loaded parts. Torque through the drivetrain is less, and chassis loading is less with street tires, even though they are quite fast withing the last 2-3 years.
Expensive being a relative term. Dropping a grand just to do any old track weekend strikes me as F'n expensive, but doing an entire season of Grand-Am/ALMS/Le mans to Seth Nieman is just a modest amount...
'Grass Roots Motorsports' does an annual feature on low buck race cars, with the limit around $2k.
LeMons cars theoretically have a $500 limit. That's before the cage, brakes, tires, wheels, exhaust, seat, etc, etc, etc.
Both ignore the operating costs involved on a per event/per season basis. Big deal that the car only cost two grand... Amortize a real race car over 10 seasons and the car cost is insignificant compared to the operating budget.
Entry fees are a fixed cost, tow is a fixed cost, food and lodging too. Every other track expense is dictated by your choice of car.
If you add up budget+race car, the answer (sadly enough!) is not Corvette. sadder still... the answer is MIATA.
12-08-2015, 01:39 PM
How-To Tuesday: Build a Budget Track Corvette
