C.J. Ichiban

1. Fire wife if she's unwilling to be pit crew member. Hire pit crew.
2. Hire Brazilians as necessary
3. sell gt3 to prevent destroying it in Club Races
4. buy "race car" that you can afford, put on jumpsuit/helmet, dive into bank account head first

insite

anyone else think it's a little nuts to start your rookie season in a GT3 or Cup? i would think that racing in a lower class car w/ low to medium power for a season or two would make you a much better driver. LOTS cheaper, too......

LVDell

Moving from a GT3 to a GT3Cup is not nuts but rather a more logical progression. With that said, I would make sure and do quite a bit of DE type events to get familiar with the car first and then go racing.

P.J.S.

from discussions with cup drivers and a little homework, I have found that purchasing the cup car is the "cheap" part of the cup equation...

fryd

You might be right, but I've been driving the GT3 for 4 years and have over 100 track days in it, in Canada, US and the UK. And have been signed off by both PCA and PCGB in this car.

For me, being comfortable in the car, knowing it's limits and yours is where i want to be to learn the "racecraft" part of things. Which will be a steep learning curve in any class.

But I take your point in that it might be steeper in in GTC than lower classes.

C.J. Ichiban

lets be honest, you can win if you're good, have good support, and set the car up right. that's just less likely but it's PCA clubracing we're talking, not rolex or ALMS. More likely is you learn a lot by watching the people in front of you race, and don't finish first at all. And that's okay unless you've got a Ricky Bobby mentality.

he's not counting on paychecks to feed people...it's just for fun and running a cup car will sure as hell be fun!

btw buying the car IS the cheap part.

Club Racing priorities:
Learning/Fun- tie>budget>safety

DE:
Fun>Learning>safety>budget

Pro/National level Racing
Winning>Winning>Budget>fun>winning>budget>Learning>safety

C.J. Ichiban

if you're worried about $$ you're not buying a "disposable" 100-200k race car.

Rassel

If you keep on taking too small steps you'll be driving a RSR when you're 75...

Heh, well if you got some talent and is up for the competition - do it. You can't wait all life. There are 16 year old kids driving cups really fast. The harder the competition the more to learn from it. No one said you have to finish first, the first time. Just make sure you don't end DFL all season, that will kill the spirit.

944TURBOS

Don't sell it! come out to J class and play with me!

DanH

All depends on how much money you've got. Its all the lifed parts on a cup car that would bankrupt me. 30 hours on engine, whats it on transmission? camber arms, ball joints, everything is lifed...

Then paying support crew etc. Annual budget has to be circa 100k USD a year?

Seems an expensive way of learning race craft, but if you've got the money why not I guess!

Phokaioglaukos

One of the cup cars in our club is going on 160+ hours on the engine. Shifting below 8400 seems to make a big difference.

DanH

Well as long as it doesn't explode then if he's lucky it will simply be slow and uncompetitive!

Austin

Sure enough, the recurring thread pops up again.

My advice is keep your GT3, it's done depreciating.

Do buy an already log booked ready to go $20k race car.
Spec Miata is popular, but kind of slow.
BMW E36 M3's are light, fun, reliable, and inexpensive to buy and operate. They move pretty well and have plenty of classes and clubs to race in, spares are easy to find and you can play full contact motorsports without having your heart ripped out. They also hold their value well and are easy to sell. I'd recommend that or the Boxster route if you're super partial to the marque.

If you have $110k for a good 996 Cup + $60K operating budget and do your own crew work, then do the Cup route.

fryd

Lots of good (and divergent!) opinions here guys...thanks.

amaist

BMWCCA E36 M3 in IP class prep.
Fast enough to be interesting and lots of people to race with.
For 20k you can get a very nice one ready to race.

That's my plan. This way I get to keep the GT3. If I race the GT3 it will cost me the same as buying the bimmer. If I get a Cup it will cost me a lot more to race it. I can change engines in the BMW every season and it will still be a lot cheaper than the Cup unless I drive the Cup only two events a year.

And geographically I am within 6 hours of driving of 5 BMWCCA races per year. Only 2 or 3 PCA races are within the same distance.