Cobra4B

Personally... I'd have never modded my car for power or wasted any time on R-comps etc. I'd have left my '01 Z06 alone other than the following mods:

* Stand alone oil cooler
* T1 sways
* Wilwoon SL6R front brakes
* Track seat
* Spare stock wheels w/ something like a Nitto R2 or Toyo RA1 etc.

I'd drive it to/from the track and really focus on getting the most out of the car as it was. It took me a long time to realize that stickey tires and more horsepower really didn't increase the fun factor, but it sure did increase the cost/maintenance factor.

It realy hit me when I was doing all kinds of prep to my car and my father just bled the brakes in his stock Z06 and headed to the track.

Now that we have the Panoz track weekends are labor free and the car is easy on the budget, but it required a trailer and it's more of a production to get to the track.

Anyone else?

Everett Ogilvie

I would have started a lot sooner...

I like your points about doing the "right" mods to the car and learning to drive.

Todd Z

Buy a car that somebody already built and they take the bigger hit. Better yet just race an RC car or a kart and have more money for vacations.

63Corvette

I would have bought a 67/427 in 1967, and a 69 L88 in 1969.........Oh, I guess I did that.
OK, then I would have bought a 63 Z06 in 1963, instead of 1975.

Z06_BluByU

Started with a C5 z06 instead of the C4...

for the record - I still love the C4 - GREAT car!! 200k miles and ran great..


.... just not ideal for the track!

FredSM

That's for sure.

I'd have bought a low mileage C5Z instead of a new C6 and used the difference to mod the mucous out of the Z. Or, I would have sold a kidney and hired a good divorce attorney and then have gotten the C6Z!

Love the C6, though, and since I own a huge amount of depreciation, I'll just keep it and continue to mod it when the wife ain't lookin'. Track time and consumables are eating up all my mod money, though!!! Speaking of which . . . ThunderHill tomorrow!!!

FM

wallyman424

I would've robbed at least 2 more banks.

that one just wasn't enough.

StealthLT4

I would have started AutoXing my civic in high school. I'd be much better now that I have a decent car.

mgarfias

Having raced RC cars at a decent level of proficiency i'd have to disagree. When I was racing, I'd go through $2-300 a weekend in tires for a big race. Thats if I was racing one class. Motors were $70/ea, I had a nice battery sponsorship, and would pay 1/2 price. Still dropped $300 on batteries every 6 months.

Then I had basically another car in spare parts. At the 2000 on road nationals I had a strange glitch in the radio system. I changed out all of the electronics in the car from spares ($100 server, $200 speed controller, $150 receiver). That doesn't count the other class(es) that I ran. Each basically had enough spares to build 1-2 other cars.

Racing in any form is seriously not cheap. And if you're going to spend the money, get seat time from it. At least drive a Kart (although I've never raced Karts, so I can't talk from experience).

Oyishdog

bigger money tree...maybe the lotto.

THe only thing I would have changed was not selling my c5 z06 and just taking that car to Phoenix instead of buying the c6, then buying the c5 coupe and building it out. Although, I like the coupe look better now and I like having a unique color on track versus 1 in a million black cars.

One of those panoz cars with a little more power for ST2 would be sweet too.

I would always trailer my car no matter what I end up doing in the future. I have had a stock car break at the track and the trailer paid for itself 10 times over.

Like I have said before, if I didnt want to w2w race, I would find a c6 z06 and just change brake pads and fluid and go...that car out of the box is just so freaking amazing on track

AU N EGL

stayed with sports car racing in 1977 and after vs gone back to bicycle racing

This time around, used windshield tear offs.

95jersey

After spending $40k + another $10-15k on modding my 01Z, then selling that and spending $65k + $5k modding my C6Z, I would have just spend $80k outright, and bought a used world challenge car strait out. I probably would be less in the hole money wise and would have had an amazing SAFE and fast car for about the same amount of money with probably less depreciation than two used street cars.

I think overall, buying a late model used race car would be the way to go as you can not only do HPDE, but also race once in a while if you were so inclined.

Bill Hetzel

Bought one race car and one C2 in the 70's instead of 2 - C2's.
Kept the 63 Z06 instead of keeping the 67.

Declined the sponsered ride in the 25 hour endurance race in a boring Miata and paid to drive something that at least felt like a race car.

97C5inSD

Would have started out alot sooner but what do you expect when you live out in a farming community and the nearest trackes are over 300 miles away and no one around you dose it. or that you know of. Lol i started out doing car stereo competing in USACI just cause we had a guy move to town that did it. Oh only if. lol

fatbillybob

It is always cheaper to buy a faster car than build a faster car but not necessarily more fun.

If the "smile on your face" from your very first day on the track lasts until the "next day" start buying the best equipment you ultimately will own because that is way cheaper than buying cheap stuff you know you will replace.

Aardwolf

I would have picked up an LT1 car but really I am quite happy. I too enjoy being able to drive to the track.

GettReal

Tough to say.. I bought my vert brand new 7 years ago. The first 5 years I modded the crap out of it but mainly for small improvements and personalizing (love that saying..haha) I did a bunch of auto-x and it held up great for that. The last 2 years it started seeing track duty and required a whole new set of mods.. The only things I've replaced twice was the CAI, headers and a cam, but those changes made me learn something very valuable. Dont settle because of budget, you will end up spending more in the long run because you WILL upgrade! So now I just wait a little bit longer and do it right!!

Sometimes I think, I wish I had a Z instead of a vert for the track, but to be honest, I love, love love the open top feel. Thats why I went with a total pro and had a great 6pt bar welded in.

so, what would I do differently. I wish got instruction (HPDE format) on how to drive this car properly when I bought it. Its amazing how much I've learned in the last 2 years about how to drive! For years, I never knew this cars true ability.

TedDBere

Nothing...

I was a member of CF for 3 years before buying my current car and here's what I learned:

1) Learn to drive what you have first. Let a national champion drive your car once in a while to prove to yourself that it's not the car that is slow! (This has saved me a ton of $$$$) By the time you figure out how to drive, the "car to have" will have changed.

2) Stay in stock class to save money.

3) Buy a used C5Z that you want and mod it to the limits of the rules. Third owner, $34k used and $5K in mods makes it nationally competitive in stock class. Alignment, front bar, shocks, extra set of used wheels, filter, exhaust, and A6s. You're now in a 3000 lb rocket.

4) Get a new open trailer with the options you want. In 5 years you are going to sell it and steel prices will have risen so much that you can sell it used for what you paid for it new.

5) Have fun and make friends, because unless your name is Danny, Pat, GJ, or Junior, there will always be someone faster than you out there! How do they make my car go soooo much faster than I can make it go????

jwt1603

We're doing this a lot more than we thought we would so I probably should have bought an enclosed trailer instead of the open. Now I'm trying to sell the open (nice time to be trying to sell anything) and buy an enclosed.

That and I should have decided what class to be in instead of making mods and having to change classes without really knowing what needed to be done for the class.

Oh well, live and learn.

gkmccready

I would have gone to the trouble of getting my race license much earlier and always having a reliable race car to take to the track and race rather than constantly messing with my street car/daily driver and trying to build any kind of compromise vehicle. I wouldn't have turned up my nose at some of the slower, lower cost classes early on, I should have done them to get the time and experience rather than always trying to wait for something better to come along. And I would have spent even more time crewing for other folks.

Having said that, I'm on my fifth compromise vehicle because it's "easier." Yeah, right... and I still haven't got my butt out w2w other than a couple of ice races because the car was built from one of my compromise car donations.

And now I have a 90% complete RX7 TurboII racecar which was my street car (caged and all) in Canada sitting in the garage that's going to be slower than my C6 was stock in the end, I think. :-/