Mark in Baltimore

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by Anir:
<strong>
Mark,

Please forgive me for not addressing your father's story in my earlier post (I was pretty sleepy at 04:30 am). I'm sorry for your loss. It must have been a horrible experience for you and your family. Losing a loved one is always tragic (my mother spent the last year of her life with my wife and I dying from lung cancer), but somehow more so when it's in the prime of life due to a freak accident.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Anir,

You are a gentleman, and I appreciate your sympathy, although I only mentioned my dad to let you know that while it seems as if it only happens to the other guy, it can actually happen to you. That was one of the many lessons I took from the incident. Again, despite what happened, I will continue to do DE's, albeit with a roll bar.

I, too, am sorry about your mom and know how hard it is to have to take care of someone you love and to have to deal with the end of their life. It is a true rite of passage, along with marriage and kids. You have MY sympathies.

On a more fun note: I did my first DE at Putnam park and loved it; a great place for a beginner with the great sightline and lack of walls (except for the straight.)

E. J. - 993 Alumni

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by Jason C.:
<strong>I made the big switch from PCA DE's over to SCCA. I didn't go PCA club racing as cost was a huge barrier...converting my 993 to full on race trim-no way!.

Send me an email if you'd like to get my opinions on which SCCA class might be right for you. I've run CSR and now am in Sports 2000.

Jason</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Cool Jason, not many SCCA guys here. I got my license last year and will be racing SRFs this year and will buy in a few years - my growing family requires my attention now. Mark (former 993TT) and DJ (stil has his 993 for sale) in LA race their identical Radicals in DSR (I think, maybe C) and my friend here whom I met through Rennlist got his license with me last year and already has the SRF - so we are looking at double weekends and enduros together. Should be fine. Like you, I thought about converting my 993, but the cost was way too high to be competitive.

Good Luck,

E. J.

Mike in Chi

Anir

I know that front straight is long at Putnam, but 140 -- wow!!!!

So was that in the rain? <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

There is no substitute for horsepower.

We'll have a great time at Road America. You bring the Turbo, I'll bring a bungee cord to attach to my car.

Anir

Jason,

Thanks for the offer to e-mail you. A spec series sounds like a great way to truly evaluate my driving skills (or lack of them <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> ), while keeping costs somewhat reasonable. I'll e-mail you to see how you went about it.

Mark,

I appreciate the kind words. It was an honor to care for her during the last year of her life. I feel fortunate to have had that time together.

I agree that Putnam is an ideal place to get your feet wet on the DE thing. Putnam seems like a long way from home for you!

EJ,

Are you going to buy a new SRF, an older example, or do the arrive-and-drive lease thing? I've read that you can pick up a used SRF for around $20K and sell it for not too much less when you're done, because they haven't changed the format in 10+ years.

I'd love to run a Radical, but alas, that will have to wait until the skills catch up to my emotional attraction to that gorgeous, lightweight machine. Greg recently showed me one of the videos of either Mark or DJ running around some Cali track. Amazing.

Mike,

I'm looking at possibly joining Eric and Jeff at RA over Memorial Day. Could you come? I'll bring the bungee cord.

I actually know that my car could go a bit faster than 135-140 mph on Putnam's front straight, but I run out of nerve with turn 1 approaching. BJ Zacharias drove my car in 2001, and hit closer to 150 mph by the end of the front straight. It was amazing to ride with him on his first time out in a 993TT. It didn't take a half-lap for him to figure the car out.

He was very complimentary about the car's natural abilities, even with the supposedly suboptimal Eibach springs on stock shocks and, at the time, regular S-02 tires. It handles a lot better now with the wider P-Zero C rubber. A good driver could probably better 150 mph at Putnam in it now. What a great car - right out of the box.

Mike in Chi

Anir

I'll be there. Just not sure what I'll be driving yet. At least the Funhawg. Already have my room reservations.

Hopefully we'll have lots of rennlisters, may even make it an official RCFC meeting.

Mike in Chi

Oops --sorry everyone, double post

FlyYellow

Anir,

I'm surprised that nobody pointed this out, so I will.

A harness bar (assuming you are using a harness) is a real real real BAD IDEA without a roll bar. Think of it this way...

Should the car roll and you have regular seat belts on, then you can move your head out of the way.

Should the car roll and you have let's say a 5pt harness - you arenot moving at all! This is really dangerous IMHO!!!!!! Don't even think of a harness without a roll bar.

Cheers,
Boris

Flying Finn

Guys (E.J., Jason, Greg etc),

I tried to gather, and some information about scca racing but could some of you summarize a bit for this dumb Finn what would be required to

A. Get a licence (do I need a race car?)
B. What classes would be good places to start, especially when money is an issue?

E.J. Did you bought a race car already or how are you going to race (this is the third question), I've had impression that you can share a seat with someone who has a car &/or buy a seat, how?

Thank you a million on advance!

P.S. Maybe an e-mail or PM rather than posting here so that Anir's post won't be totally 'robbed'
(sorry Anir!) and yes, put that DAS thing in your car!

Kristoffer

Well I have the BK Truss and let me start off by saying I LOVE it!! I would like to have a roll bar in my car for added safety for that matter I would like a full roll cage but not at the expense of loosing my back seats. Although the seats are small my two kids still fit back there & they love driving in "Daddy's Porsche". And they are still to small to ride in the front seat. I can install or uninstall the truss in less the 10 minutes. That fact still remains that we are not (or shouldn't be ) racing at the DE events and yes we get up to very high speeds there really shouldn't be any high speed contact with anyone or anything. Yes things can go wrong but unless your throttle sticks by the time you get the wall how hard do you think your going to hit it? I would be more worried about some idiot on the street hitting you @ 60 MPH or putting you into a tree/pole. Now when I build a race car that is a differnet story but for now it is called a street car for good reason.

Greg Fishman

Kristoffer,
While I agree that bad things are more likely to happen on the street, please don't try to minimize the potential dangers of driving on the track. You hit a wall at 60-100mph and you are in a lot of trouble. I have gotten lucky a time or so but believe me tires are just as succeptible to blow outs on the track as they are on the street. BTDT.

Edit: I agree with Kim 100% and the type of situation he listed is much more likely than hitting something solid.

Kristoffer

If you’re that worried about it then why stop at roll bar after all that will only protect you from rolling. Why not do it right & install a full race cage to protect you from a side impact or a full speed head on contact with the wall.

All I'm trying to say is if you only spend 5% of your time on the track you need to weigh your odds. And if you are that worried about it then do it right & install a full race cage. And lets not forget the racing fuel cell & halon fire extinguisher. And I'm not talking about the little bottle you keep in your car but a full fire system & a fire suit but now we are getting a little out of hand for a DE event.

Like I said earlier I would love to have a full race cage in my car but ask your self "how practical is it"? And yes a harness truss is better then nothing & a roll bar is better then a truss & a race cage is better the a roll bar but then not driving at high speeds on a track is even safer then that but then we wouldn't be having this conversation would we

Greg Fishman

Kristoffer,
I agree with what you said in the second post. If you are going to track your street car you need to weigh the odds and then make a personal decision in regards to safety.

My only point was that a track can be a dangerous place and you are fooling yourself if you don't think something bad can happen at a DE.

E. J. - 993 Alumni

Anir and Finn. I was going to sell my 993 anyway this winter to buy a truck and SRF car to race. With the baby we're growing, that is out. I rented a SRF from a CSR (customer Service Rep) to do the school and get the license. My good friend is doing this thing with me and he bought a car already, so now this year we are trying to find double race weekends and enduro races where we both will have to drive and we can share his car. I should get about 3 races this year this way. Renting a SRf can get expensive, here is what it cost me: $1400 all in for a two day school with tons of track time. A two day race weekend will cost about $1800-$2000 depending on who you rent from. Anir is right that a good SRF can be had for $18k - $20k (sometimes including the trailer) and at $2k a pop, it doesnt make much sinse to rent if you think you are ever going to buy one. Just buy it now and enjoy it. As previosuly stated though, I am a few years out and happy that my friend is generous enough to offer me his car sometimes.

There are cheaper cars you can run, and of course more expensive ones. I am drawn to the SRF beacuse of the spec nature and the incredibly large and competitive fields. In our region we can get 60 cars on the track at once for one weekend. They are true race cars that pull about 1.3 gs on street spec tires. There is no comparison between a real race car (whether it be a SRF with only 100hp or a CART car with 700hp) to a street car or street/track car. Is the srf as fast as the 993 was on the straights - NO! Is it 20-30 mph faster in the turns - YES! Can any idiot drive fast straight - Yes! Can any idiot drive fast turning - NO! and that is the attraction. Of course comparing the SRF to a street car like Greg's race car which is not a street car at all, but a converted one is different. Remember that my 993 had the school bus suspension. I think overall at a tighter track, the SRf is about the same times as my 993 and slower than Greg's race car. At a bigger high HP track, the srf will lose out to even my lowly 993 street car. But with that said, the SRF is 100 times more fun to drive than the 993 is and that is what really made up my mind for me. To have a $20k car that is that fun to drive and is very safe and races nose to tail and mirror to mirror with 50 other cars at once - you cant get that anywhere else. Just try it once and you will be hooked, I swear. I got done the first day and called some rennlisters immediately on the way home from the track to see if they wanted to buy my 993 on the spot. I'm not kidding.

There are some cheaper ways to go SCCA racing - Spec Miata is a big class right now. But they are converted street cars, but you can get one for about $14k.

I suggest you start your search <a href="http://www.scca.org/amateur/club_racing/guide.html" target="_blank">here</a> on the SCCA site and let me know via email if you continue to have questions. To me there is no comparison to driving your street car on a track at a DE and actually racing a race car on the track. Its awesome.

If you go <a href="http://www.paceglobal.com/encontrolmeter/ej/srf/" target="_blank">here</a> you can watch a video of me spinning in front of my buddy at the school in the SRFs. We should have a video of the whole 3 practice races up soon.

E. J.

Flying Finn

Thank you E.J.!

And thanks for the links also, although I shouldn't look into this further as I know I will be hooked just by watching (well, I'm already and know nothing).

We've been talking with my buddy buying an old Porsche & go from there (this is more like a dream, not plan at this moment).

We'll see, I'll check things more & shoot you an e-mail if/when questions arise.

Kristoffer

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by Greg Fishman:
<strong>Kristoffer,
I agree with what you said in the second post. If you are going to track your street car you need to weigh the odds and then make a personal decision in regards to safety.

My only point was that a track can be a dangerous place and you are fooling yourself if you don't think something bad can happen at a DE.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">I totally agree with you. I was not trying to imply otherwise.