Mike in Chi

OG

Trust me on this, and pay very close attention. This is a friend talking.

DO NOT RACE your TT. I'm sure it's a beautiful car. Keep it that way. For an astonishly SMALL amount of money, you can buy a great, Porsche built car that is a delight on the track. Here in the mid-Fly-over-land, a number of us have converted to waterpumpers. They are great cars, great for developing your skills - I started in formula cars, but love F Troop. If cost is a consideration, nothing else makes as much sense. E-mail me your number and I'll tell you chapter and verse about the advantages.

As Mark said, it's the ultimate rush, and there is no going back once you've raced.

And the kids can still go to Harvard.

OldGuy

Mike I will email you in la morning with the Phone#'s I really dont want to race the TT. It is beautiful. I love the thing. I dont want to crash it.
BTW the way my boys are going instead of Harvard its gonna
be Cal State University in the Middle of the Flippin Mojave! if they dont get their grades up! But hey only one is starting High school, the other still has a chance

Chris-- Eyal is trying to talk me into the same thing!

Cupcar#12

My vote is for a Kart (i'm probably really late here - but is a lat opipion as good as a late Apex? )
the RM-1 is a really cool little spec kart (keep you from going nuts on the mods ) and you can race in the same series World wide - humm maybe those red bull dudes need a mid 30" slightly overweight F1 driver. I promise not to Shewiee pass if i can help it, well at least not more than 3 times a weekend
these things will hit 75+ (even with me onboard) on the short straights

Crashing really nice cars sucks, BTW....I stuffed my Cup car and am now stairing down a 30K repair - so it's off to the Kart track for me. Put my whole vintage racing plan on the backburner for a few years. Mexico would have been cool but it will be there when i get realy for it

Robert Henriksen

Tip: don't park one on the back straightaway during the rain!

Robert Henriksen

SRFs:
==========
safe (big crumple zones around the driver, comparatively heavy, closed-wheel - no 'airborne ranger/lawn dart' experiences)
cheap
easy to work on
buy some of your parts at Wal-mart, O'Reillys
fun

Wings & Things:
===========
more expensive
more dangerous
faster
fun

Hey, if you start racing SRF you can have mucho bragging rights at the LSR DEs when you finish ahead of me at the race

Robert Henriksen

Did 13 actually put out a yellow before the crash? The previous lap when I went by, the Radical being parked out there took me completely by surprise, between the spray off the cars ahead of me & the complete lack of a yellow at 13.

Robert Henriksen

Ohhhh.....

DJF1

The only way i can afford to race is because of the job that I do that limits me to 1 or 2 races per year. Once you start you do not want to stop and like Kevin said its a great temptation to "upgrade" Heck I'm still spending a ton 'upgrading"
Mike's suggestion to play around with a 944 its a sound one. More economical for sure and the general advise i heard when i started was that if you are not prepared to throw your car over cliff and not worry then dont race... Easier said than done for sure
Much like you though I wanted to race a 911 and a 993 at that. Nothing else would do it for me. Maybe the tradition, the sound of the flat six singing on the track, the challenge driving fast a 911 made me look and think at nothing else. For sure it would have made great sense to get a 944 or a 968 but my brain was stuck on a 911.
So I looked at ready made track cars but found it a challenge to finance them. So I tracked down a nice high mileage 993 for a great price, called then what is now Capital One financing and they send me a check for 25K , with monthly payments of abour 400 bucks. So without upfront costs I was ready to take the plunge. Had to budget for suspension work, tires, brakes safety equipment etc and did not have to touch the engine. So for about 10 G's i was race ready for D stock class. Granted a 964 Cup car rules D class but at least I could be on the track even with measly stock 17" cups. The expenses that I have gone through after that were completely optional and not needed. Yes the famous slippery slope In reality though i was really impressed with the 993 when Robert H and I made the trek at Putnam last year. The car was running with both drivers non stop really for three days at racing speed ( well at least with Robert on the wheel ) and the engine did not miss a beat. We went through a set of pads and a set of tires, some ATE fluid and that is all she wrote... I do not think you find many cars with such reliability.
So in short my way of doing it could be indeed very affordable, trouble is that when you get down the slippery slope what you have is not enough and you end up having the following script on the bumper : Cash Injected

dave993

One class you may want to consider is a spec/club Formula Ford. I started racing in the cars 15 years ago and also raced Formula Atlantics and am currently racing a Swift DB5 S2000 in SCCA Nationals.These are older cars with at least one of the suspension systems outboard. You can find really nice cars for $9-10K ready to go. They are not as fast as a 911/993 but they are just as quick. At Summit Point (east coast track), a Club Ford lap times are as quick as a GT3 Cup car. Biggest difference in a purpose designed race car and sports car is corning abilty. My old Formula Atlantic would pull 3g's in turns and over 2.5g's on the brakes. You would have a blast in these cars for not alot of money. To get any type of Porsche to go this quick, you will spend cubic dollars. Good luck.

Dave Shaver
1995 993 C2
Swift DB5 S2000

OldGuy

Dave I have seen the formula fords and to be honest those and Formula continentals are the best way to get into it. I saw one Formula car with extra motor extra tires and enclosed trailer for 15K ready to race. They just do much for me though. But you can not beat that price!

DJ that was some great info!!

swftiii

OG, Kary, and others,

This is a perfect thread and an imperfect time as I really want to start club racing, but am not in the position to start it right now. I agree that if I'm going to race, it will be a Porsche. Racing anything else just doesn't do it for me.

History: Mark (in Balt) had me talked into racing my C4S and starting this year (I have all the DE experience needed and most of the safety stuff already - DAS, seats, harnesses, PSS9s, etc.). In the end I just couldn't talk myself into racing the C4S as it is in great shape, not the right car to race, and I just couldn't forgive myself if I balled it up.

Now: I've started researching how to do this more cost effectively and my current plan is to continue with DE this year and next year and then jump into the CR ranks the following year with a 964 or early 993 (in researching a reasonable 964 can be had for around 20k or less). All my safety stuff will transfer to the race car without a problem, so most of the setup costs are complete. I will need to do suspension & oil cooler along with a couple other low cost safety things, but all in all it won't be that expensive.

As for ongoing expense, YES it can be very expensive with a lot of the modifications others have mentioned, but if you really want to race and want it to be economical, stay in stock class. You can improve your times and become more competitive with self improvement more than equipment improvement. You can spend 20k to race prep a car, or you can spend 7k, or even less.

Good luck and let us all know what you do, but you do need to get your car to the track and enjoy the DE experience. You will be surprised how fun and challenging it can be. Before you can even think about Club Racing, you need to get 12 DE days under your belt and be signed off to solo.

-Skip

ca993twin

Oldguy,

Great advice here, but don't start shopping for a car until you've gotten some experience with a car on the track. You may find that you hate it . Run your TT in a few DE events, and once you're convinced that you are reasonably skilled and can't live without wheel-to-wheel racing, then you can start shopping. Meantime, you may find that DE in the TT will be sufficient, especially if you move into the experienced group with unlimited passing zones.

OldGuy

Steve the way my wife explained the finances to me and we got the "not only NO but HELL NO" outta the way it looks like maybe 1-2 years in DE THEN we go shopping for a Race car. so that 'toe in the water' is gonna be more like toe, ankle, calf, thigh, before the race car shows up.

kev

Haha...not very nice Robert. Tempt me knowing that would only ever happen if you lose another wheel bearing.

OldGuy

OK first of all I want to thank everyone for all the great information! Here are some common points I have taken out of this not in any order:

1. first and foremost Cash is going to be involved.

2. there are others like me who want to race Porsches and Spec Miata's probably aint going to do what we are looking for, or provide what we want to experience.

3. There are other ways to get into racing, like the spec miatas or Open wheel racing or karts that are MUCH cheaper and DO satisfy what some people want out of racing.

4. no matter what path is chosen, DE's are going to be a requirement AND are a good way to whet the palate, while one determines his or her path.

5. Cash is going to be involved.

6. If you want to stick to Porsches Stock class is the way to go (least expensive)

6A. a 914 or 944 or 964 are good ways to get started down the Porsche Pathway

7. Most knowledgable racing enthusiasts suggest NOT to race your nice 993 because the downside of balling it up outwieghs the upside of bieng on the track. But you CAN use your nice 993 for DE's

DId I foget anything??