Accelerator

I raced long before I did a DE or an Auto-x and I could certainly have a pretty nice race car for what I have put into my DE vehicle. I considered going back to racing again but the thing that killed it for me was how any series I explored seemed to be geographically spread out quite a bit. That would mean a lot of towing hours and extra days out of the office. I'm not one who would be fulfilled by running a half-dozen races per season. When I factored all that in to the equation, it just didn't make sense.

I can do 15-18 DE's a season without towing over 2.5 hrs. so that works for me.

Professor Helmüt Tester

Racing & DE cost what you're willing to spend.

Racing can be competitive AND be the same or cheaper than DE. How much ARE you guys paying for race entry fees ??!?!?! Typical SCCA race weekend - $200-300. Car & tire expenses ? You've picked your own poison...don't complain that your uber-carbon fibre Porsche pine tree air freshener costs more than the $1 pine tree air freshener I got at 7-Eleven. Boo hoo. Find less expensive poison.

DE ? How many hours are you on the track each DE ? Probably a whole lot more than racers. You're burning more gas, eating more brake rotors/pads, wearing rotating whirly-gig parts out more. If you actually are seeing any better speed from those Hoosiers than from a Baldini Rock-Hard GT tire...that means that you're probably seeing the same wear rates as a racer...and you're spending more time doing it each DE. Besides...if you're DE-ing on weekdays....if you're DRIVING, you're not EARNING. Maybe you're a Trustafarian...but if your a Doctor-Dentist-Plumber-Lawyer, that means you're not WORKING. Lazy, selfish bastards.

Der Professor has several friends who race...competitively...who are "functionally unemployed" (a term of art that only I get to define, so don't argue). Not Trustafarians, not retired. But they always manage to scrape together enough $$$ to pay an entry fee, buy two cans of gas and go racing...and will not be "tail end Charlies", either.

"Extra car" to go racing, since you can DE your street legal car ?
Buy a race car, beat it for a few years and sell it.
Buy a street car, beat it in DE's for a few years, sell it.
Who takes the bigger bath ? Honestly...don't even try to argue this one. Don't try the "crash damage thing". Like all crash damage, you can choose the "NOT" box when it comes to race car repair. Most are unlikely to do that with a street/DE car.

I look at Porker drivers at DE's...and estimate what they are spending to do DE's in their street cars for a season. I KNOW that 1/3 the paddock at an SCCA race weekend is spending less to go racing for a season. I KNOW some racers in competitive IT classes and spec classes who run multiple seasons on that one-season Porsche DE budget.

Nobody is really answering Brian's question: Why the hell are people buying Hoosiers for purely DE ? It's a really good question, and IMO doesn't impugn the dignity, honesty, character, appearance, smell or taste of the DE community.

Too many people are looking for a reason to be offended. Lots of buyers and sellers for that "victim status".

But that's just my opinion. What the hell do I know ?

LVDell

Lazy? I would have to disagree. Last time I checked, not a single lazy person was able to graduate from medical school and complete a residency program.

I guess I can assume you are not any of those professions listed?

SundayDriver

The perfessor is just trying to be humorous. It doesn't always come across that way to everyone but he has problems telling left from right and suffers hallucinations ever since he tried to high jump a Formula Atlantic in his SRF.

Professor Helmüt Tester

Larry - See ? Another "victim-in-training".

I WAS KIDDING. SARCASM.

Yeesh.

You lazy, shiftless bastard.

I DID successfully high-jump that Atlantic, dammit. Could have stacked 2-3 Atlantics, and I still would have cleared them, according to the nearest flag station.

The bastard didn't have his video system running. BASTARD.

(KIDDING, for you hypersensitive sniffle-bunnys)

Bull

Hey Profie you old dog (respectfully)...that is because the answer is so simple...because I want to and can. No matter where you go, there you are.

Member of The Hardcore Unemployed

M758

Race in NASA and a weekend (Sat & Sunday) with two races costs $329 (Maybe $349 for Nasa So-Cal).

I know in Az the extra racer cost is $20 per weekend.

Seems to me if you want to spend less don't run with the POC.


Yeah the Professor is right. So much of the talk about cost comes from DE guys looking at the big haulers thinking that is the only way to race. They look at 250 hp 944 Turbo and think that car is too slow to race.

Well if you want to race a 300+ hp car and just sit back and have people bring you cool drinks all the time it WILL be expensive. If you race like most racers (ie not Porsche guys) you will see it takes very little to race.

My 944 was purchased for $1400 and built at home. I have purchased 2 parts cars over the years for a combined cost of $1500 not including parts sold off. If I do that I am pretty close to $200 for both cars. I have run the same car for 6 full seasons of racing. The most body work I did was to replace a door about 3 years ago. Then I repainted it at home since the orginal paint was getting really bad.

The car carries no insurance and is not street registered. I trailer it on a 20 year old 16ft open utility trailer that I converted to make it easier for car duty. The car runs 91 pump gas and I go through 2 sets of tires in season.

Considering contingencies, support I give to the local region during the weekend(ie work exhange for lowe fees), and since the tracks are local racing costs me $150-200 a weekend. And I am a top 5 car in the most competitive region in all of 944 spec. (16 cars in class last sprint race)

Sure not all of you can do it for that little, but pick the right car and get creative and you CAN make the costs reasonable.

Professor Helmüt Tester

A Buckaroo Banzaii quote. Cool.

SundayDriver

Yeah, I should have been clear and given you full credit for clearing the FA. How did that landing work our for ya?

Bull

I relate, for I too am a particle physicist, neurosurgeon, rock star, comic book hero and race car driver. But I don't look down on anybody...well, VR most of the time....but doesn't everyone?

Professor Helmüt Tester

Like the airplane guys always say..."Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing". Though...I wish I could have "stuck" the landing (gymnastically speaking) like THIS guy did:



That took some work...

LVDell

Sniffle-bunny reporting.......I got the humor now. I really need to not read some of these post prior to having my friday night maritni's!

pat056

As usual. The professor has put in terms I can understand.

SundayDriver

I know him. Marty Williams at Buttonwillow. Car went off track, dug in an did a bunch of endos. On the final one, he stuck the landing. Then he and the safety crew had to figure out how to get the hell out of there. The water and mud were certainly deep enough that he could have drowned if the car had landed or tipped upside down.

Now that I think of it, I know a lot of people who have performed spectacular crashes (and high jumps).

Bull

It is the overachiever syndrome....