Hmmmm ... interesting

 

austin, good to hear what a realistic cup price budget is from someone who knows them well.

 

you already trailer so you got that taken care of.

you need:

wife support.
money, a lot of it, i dont think 60k/year is enough to run a full racing schedule with cup car.
but if you drive a full on race car, like a factory cup, a street GT3 is a POS. i have a lot of track miles on my 996gt3 and RS and drove cup car 3x. the cup car is they way to go. but i dont have the money to run it and my income (or should i say, my wife) will leave me.

 

It's completely impossible to say the budget for racing a Cup without disclosing what series we're talking about and how the effort is setup. The figures mentioned are completely taken out of the air.

 

FWIW I think the e36 m3 route is correct. It was what I was planning until very recently when it became apparent I've got too many other commitments and I'm not willing to sell the RS. Hence selling the m3 that I've dumped a load of cash into and is heavily prepped for racing. (n.b. not trying to sell to you, its in the UK and I have a buyer!)

The main reason if I'm honest is that I don't really have the time to run the car myself, and nor do I have the funds to pay someone else to do it for me. Every time I am on the brink of starting racing, I realise I'm not willing to make the financial sacrifices that it would require on my current income. Keep going back to doing some karting - can learn a lot of race craft but it can be very frustrating. Especially as the series I did a few races in seemed to not scrutineer properly so people cheated on ballast etc. No fun being massively outdragged by a 4ft munchkin!

 

Let's say I want to race and the GT3 (street) I currently have is either getting a full cage and everything else it needs, or it's going to go (I dont need it for the road - I've got an RS4 for that). And let's say I can afford a Cup Car, but want to stay married, and only want to do 5 (PCA) race weekends next year, and probably the same in 2010. Maybe up to 10 thereafter. So, three choices:

1. Stock J class for the GT3 - $15k ish of mods
2. Sell GT3 for $75ish and get an '05 Cup Car for $110ish.
3. Keep the GT3 as is for practice and do 5 "arrive and drives" next year.

Given the operating costs of 1 and 2 are likely to be considerable (2 being double i would imagine), maybe 3 is the way to go??

 

If your source of "arrive and drive" cars provides decent cars at the places you want to race at then 3 would be the better choice.

You'll have just as much fun racing a car lesser than a GT3 Cup, especially if you have other people to race with.

You also have to consider what happens if you stuff the rental race car. Do you pay for all of it? Is there insurance?

I would only race a car that I could comfortably cover financially in case something goes horribly wrong.

 

To be competitive you are going to need more than 15K in mods. Unless of course you are well on your way and the rest if just come "cleanup" requirements to race (ie, cage, electrical cutoff, full fire suspresion, etc).

Again, depends on if the car is totally stock or has has considerable work done recently.

This is the "easiest" way as I have looked into it. However...............

Have you priced an arrive and drive program for a cup?

 

I'm going to guess and say that a 5-race Cup program would be in the range of $75k, which might not even include test days.

 

Bingo.

 

15k will not be enough mod money. you can bet on that.

your price for arrive and drive is about right. it's a tad higher. not much.

 

I mean $15k from where I am already...I have the suspension, exhaust, flywheel and wing...just need safety stuff like roll cage, kill switch, fire supression..and a few other thinks like Motec/AIM, transponder and quick fill cap.

 

ok, you are getting close then.
when you say motec, do you mean just the motec dash or you plan to run full motec management. i dont know the class rules, but i do know full motec engine management and ancillaries can really blow your 15k into pieces.

not trying to put water over your party. i looked at it many ways, it's just $$$ no way around it. and unless GT3 street cars get into a big popular class, a ripped up GT3 street car will not have any value while cup cars get most of your money back. two friends of mine had their cup for 2 years, doing DE and few races. they sold them for 10k less than what they paid for... NOW that's a deal. (not counting running cost of course)

 

Yes, I'm starting to think that's the way to go. Cup Car doesn't depreciate as much, but has way higher running costs. But if I'm only going to do 5 or so races, probably b/e vs. the street GT3, considering resale.

 

fryd, someone heard you.

https://rennlist.com/forums/porsche-cup-cars/446979-imsa-gt3-cup.html