M758

Yeah it seems really strange, but I believe racing has saved me money vs DE. Here is how.

I started autocross and DE in 1998 in my stock 944 Turbo S. It was great fun, but I was new to all this. However in time I wanted more. Mostly for autocross since the Turbo S was not wel suited to tight courses. Plus I wanted a more raw feeling car. I could not do that to my turbo S and still keep it nice for the street.

So I built up 1984 944. It was junk when I got it, but perfect for my need. Decient body, but needed work every place else. So my father and began a father/son project to make this 944 into cheap autocross weapon. So that meant massive weight reduction for as little money as possible and stock everything else. The only paid performance mod I installed was a set of 225/50 R15 Victoracers. I even ran stock shocks and springs.

That car was a blast when I first ran it in 2000. However i wanted more. Time for suspenison mods under the guise that once buy them I won't need to pay money again. I could build a fancy motor, but if that means frequent rebuild it will get expensive fast.

So from Oct 2000 to April 2002 I modded the car little by little and found more speed. This car was faster in an autocross than my turbo and faster on a race track. The thing that kept me going was looking for new speed each event. By April 2002 I chose to race to keep things intersting. I figured the costs would not be much more. In fact they were not that much more at first.

That changed in Nov 2002 when I spun a bearing the motor and needed a rebuild. I was mid season and had another race a month away. So my father and worked hard to rebuild a spare block. Had it been DE I might have parked it for a year.

Still once I did that rebuild and did my final suspension tweaks the car has been the same since. I have run the car with virtually no component upgrades since Jan 2003. The car was basicly locked down by the rules. Here is where the 944 spec class forced my hand and kept me in budget.

The class rules have been very stable and limit mods to gutting, simple suspension work, safety gear and require stock motors. Given that my car was already 95%. So no new mods to stay in class. Since 2003 the only major upgrades have been to safey like a HANS & Fire bottle and to fresh paint I did myself. The rest has been just keeping up with maintenance.

So here is where the cost in DE would have killed me. I had great sucess in class in 2003 winning 15-20 races straight. So by sping 2004 I was getting a bit bored. I know had I been in DE I would have been bored even before then, but by 2004 I had dropped my lap times to 95% of optimal and there were no big time gains to see from driving. No major learnings. Heck I had already won alot too. If this had been DE I would had probably gone for a different car with more hp or stuffed a Turbo motor in my NA. Instead I took some time away from racing and by the time I got back my class was more competiitve than ever. Since then I have had to struggle for each position and each tenth. That has peaked my interest greatly.

Lately my focus has been on learning how to test and really fine tune a chassis. I used to just show up and drive. I was afraid any change to the car could make it worse. Well after way too long of doing that I am really into fine tuning. I will make small chaange and then determine the impact on track. This kind of thing helped me run the fastest lap of any 944 spec at Nationals in the Saturday warm-up and helped me lead the 1/2 the championship race. Still my racecraft was not perfect and that cost me dearly putting me donw to 4th by the end despite being on 2.5 seconds from first after 40 minutes.

So the point is that new challengers in racing and the narrow rule set has forced me to constantly develop and thus never get bored. As soon as I feel like I am getting bored I just look up and see that a 944 spec can lap PIR 0.5 seconds faster than me. I still have to find a way to do that. Or just say that rat bastard friend of mine got by me... I need to stop that.

If I was just lapping in a DE I would year to "improve" and since DE has nothing past instructor group improvement would mean better lap times. With nothing limiting me I am sure I would now be running hoosiers with at least 100 to 300 more hp than I have now. Keeping up with the Joneses in DE is hard, but in tightly regulated spec class you can't throw money at it.

Jason Judd

Why would you ever try to figure this out?

It'll only make you crazy...

dp35

Good points. Despite the traffic problems at DE's, the Atom is still a hell of a lot of fun. Its those few open laps that you remember. I've moved on to racing my Atom and also run it at open testing days for pure track enjoyment. DE's are now social events with uninterupted laps considered a bonus.

Sad but true - most Atom owners don't have the traffic problem because they drive way below the car's capability.

Jim Clark

Honestly, if you have to ask how much to run a Porsche you probably shouldn't do it.

KRA993tt

Where do we amortize the eventual engine/transmission rebuild?

Papamurphdog

My grandfather once told me... "its a bell curve, the more you make, the easier it is to find candidates, but the harder it is for them to qualify, the less you make, the easier it is to qualify the candidates, but its harder find them..." er, was he talking about a mistress?!?

bobt993

I think he was talking about parking spaces.

dbryant61

I never add this stuff up. If she asks, the answer is "I don't know".

NaroEscape

Jim I disagree. The PCA racing program was originally set up to allow the average guy/gal make some safety modifications to their car and take a step up from the DE weekend to wheel to wheel racing. And while there has gotten to be an element of "keeping up with the Jones' ", someone that wants to go out and run a race can definitely do it on a budget. Heck, with some of the 944's, 914's, and now spec Boxsters, you can build a race car for very little money. So, no, you don't have to be in the 'money is no object' or 'if I have to ask I can't afford it' camp. I think many of us on here have a racing/track budget. The question is, does that budget run out after one, two or many track weekends.

John H

I think the "if you have to ask" idea is definitely true for the GT classes, not the stock classes (unless your goal is to win).

Lemming

I have a very understanding wife. That is, she doesn't understand how much my racing habit actually costs

SAM DACOSTA

Ironically, my wife is happy that my mistress is a 964. She even calls her a '*****' due to the time and money spent on her...