Commander Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 I've got a persistent itch I need to scratch, and it comes in the form of racing cars... I've been looking at some of the low-end race series (cos I'm not rich or fast enough to race a 'proper' race car) and the Production BMW series looks like it's winning... You can pick up a race-ready banger for £3,500 and for another few hundred quid a weekend, you can go proper racing. The bit that worries me is, what are the REAL costs like? Is it actually competitive or even in series where you can't mod much, or do people still plough £10k in to their cars so they can win? Has anybody got any experience of running in a 'cheap' race series? Care to share your stories of glory and tragedy? Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 I've yet to race, however I've come close to doing so and it was purely funds that put me off. Myself and a mate were going to share a drive in the MR2 Championship, in a mk3 MR2. We bought the car, we sorted it out in terms of parts, and then we did the figures for the racing. By the time you add up accommodation and travelling costs, plus the entrance fees for the race, plus consumables (set of tyres and pads each race at least), plus budget for damage, plus a couple of track days for testing, we were looking at sums that were getting daft just to tick the 'I've done a race' box in our lives. You need to allow for all the time spent away at race meets as well as time working on the car too, and that's a lot of your year taken up. It's why I've started ploughing money into trackdays instead. I don't doubt it's not half as thrilling as racing, and yes it's something I still very much want to do at some point, but unless you've got a solid budget as well as the time then for me it was a non-starter. On the other hand, there's people like MrLizard who have had huge success and some cracking tales of racecraft in the recent past, and he will give you the other side of things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhackyWill Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Done a fair bit of circuit racing and Rallycross worked at the Racing School at Brands, also ran a few Teams. Still run a F5000 in the Derek Bell Series for Tony Trimmer. Just a hobby now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus01 Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Part of my business is Motorsport based and I have customers in the Production BMW series. It is a relatively cost effective series to run in, there are cars at the front spending up to the budget you mentioned but most of the field are not spending heavily. The series runs Marangoni tyres and 1set will last the season, as with any form of Motorsport winning will cost, taking part and running around midfield is achievable on a sensible budget. Did you know there is a new Mazda mx5 budget series starting this year, 5 club racing organised by Alyn Robson. £5000 will buy a competitive car. The other formula that may interest you is the Lowcost Champs, plenty of cars to race , cars around £4000, Yokohama road tyres, low entry fees, restricted mods so don't need a big budget to be competitive. I have plenty of contacts, so just shout if I can help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docwra Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Autotesting and hillclimbs are a good bet to start with as it doesnt get a lot cheaper and you can suss out if youre happy and able to put in the time and money. For me its the time that makes it a non starter, for a 10 race season thats 10 weeks of travelling on a Friday night and losing the whole weekend, Im not prepared to do that, I certianly dont want to spend £5K confirming it ........... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu_2424 Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Hill climbs and sprints are a great way to spend weekends. Can even enter road going class and use your daily to keep costs mega low. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brillomaster Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 would love to do racing, but have always considered the costs to be prohibitively expensive - cost of car can be very cheap yes, but you'll need at a very minimum fia spec cage, seat, harness, fire extinguisher and so on, and very likely the car will need suspension, chassis stiffening, wheels, tyres etc etc to be competitive. And then the cost of racing entry and accomodation again is quite a lot for what you'd get - maybe an hour of practice, a 20 minute qualifying session and a couple of 20 minute races? Therefore i stick to trackdays... still the same buzz of driving a car flat out on a track, but with considerably lower cost of entry, less chance of damage repairs and you can start with any car, and modify it as and when budget and talent dictates. I have a friend who does autosolo events in his MR2, which is also very cheap, but he rarely gets into second gear, which isnt really my thing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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