Like a good number of people on here, I have an interest in motorsport. The weekend before last I went out to watch the beginning of rally. I met a young guy who was very into the rally scene, but when I asked him if he raced, he told me "no, it's too expensive for me".
How much do you think basic racing costs?
[ Edited on 22-5-07 by pete wood ]
i think a cams license was 200... but that was several years ago and it may have been for something else. my dad got one so he could officiate for S.O.R.R.A. so ive put my money down on 500
How ling is a piece of string......
You can go cheap and expensive. Iam looking at it next year, and once i have the car sorted, looking at about 1k per QRC round (more for ARC rounds), plsu additional for major reapirs. Most "budegt guys" work on 15k a year......(once you have the car and gear)
If you find an old wreck, source free bits, racing in motorkhana's will cost about $50 for your L2NS lisence and then about $20 to $40 entry per event, and about $10 woth of fuel..... so for 5 events thats.... $300 a year....
To run targa (thats once you have a car at spec and all the suits etc) jsut entry and running costs, work on 7k entry, 2.5k service crew,1.5k tires, 1.5k accom, 0.5k fuel, 2k transport, 1k food and drinks for crew....... and thats the cheap version,
Buying a car 180k (Garwoods 996 turbo is 180k atm), plus about 5k for gear per crew, plus reapirs and ungrades........ for your first year your looking at approx 250k to get running in a 996 turbo.........
I have no sympathy for my car, only the wallet that pays for it!
Go hard or go home!!!!
Hi Pete
I used to do a bit of club level motor sport in my youth, when it was cheap, a tank of fuel was about $10 and insurance premiums were low, which kept entry fees etc low.
I had a group of friends, we were all apprentices so money was tight, we raced on the weekends hoping that our cars would still make it to work on Monday. My mates all ran Cortina GTs or Falcon GTs, on apprentice wages as well, I ran a bug.
One of my friends from the old days got into Karts a few years ago, he pays almost for his racing when he quit smoking and he reckons bank for buck that what we should have got into Karts years ago.
So bang for buck, buy a Kart
Steve
I bought a Kart a little while back, a 5 year old Monaco with Yamaha S. All up with a suit, helmet, gloves and a few spares it set me back around $1600. It costs around $65 to do a practice day including tyre wear fuel etc.
Without a doubt the most fun you can have as a casual 'racer' and will get your skills sharpened up quick, I'm still crap though.
Kev
Ok. Now lets live in the real world.
For $200 a year, you can join a CAMS affiliated club, get a basic licence and enter 4 motorkhanas. Motorkhanas require no special license (beyond the basic one), no helmet, no extinguisher and teach you real car control in YOUR OWN CAR.
If you want to enter more, the events cost about $40 for the entry fee and I used less than a quarter of a tank of fuel for 9 different runs.
Motorkhanas are run on dirt, wet tarmac and dry tarmac. The fastest cars has small engines and are often fwd.
$200 is less than most teenagers spend on their mobile phones each year.
[ Edited on 21-5-07 by pete wood ]
I guess it all depends what car you have to start with, I'm guessing my Corolla wouldn't be as much fun as a track car, and I would miss the rib cage bruises from the kart!
http://forums.aussieveedubbers.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif
Kev
Definitely. I know what you're saying. I'd much prefer to take all the seats out of my buggy but the driver's seat and make it a dedicated racing car. Trailering it to races would save me worrying about breaking things. However, because it's the car I drive of the road, I can learn a heck of a lot by driving it in a racing format.
I guess I worry about the amount of the 'chrome' (or 'rust' for rat owners) mentality in our VW circles these days. I'd say this forum represents a good cross section of the community, but there is only ONE subforum for offroad VWs. VWs created the offroad racing universe as we know it? So what gives. There are TWO competing F-vee drivers on the forum, FOUR competing circuit racers and TWO competing rally drivers (three if you include me). The number of serious drag racers on the forum is probably only about 10 or 15 although there is thankfully quite an amount of interest in this side of motorsport.
The reason is, I think, people think it's prohibitively expensive. Guys, open your eyes. It's not. Eastern Ck street drags costs $45 dollars and you can go as slow as you like. Motorkhanas are very cheap and many clubs run "Come and try" days for around $60. Neithers of these will even get close to hurting a sensibly maintained car. What's the problem? Near stock VWs have been successfully raced in all sorts of arenas from drags to ice racing. Have a go...or maybe you're just too chicken? :P
We raced the kombi in a DYOB drag racing at Heathcote costing $60 for the both of us. The missus ended up taking out a runner up females trophy, beating quite a few V8's and turbo's. That is DYOB, not heads up. A lot of fun.
Another reason,Pete,is that a lot of people simply are not interested.They have nothing to try and prove,they drive there cars daily and enjoy simply driving them from A to B. They are content with what they have and the enjoyment of use they get from their vehicles is enough to "satisfy" them. I used to rally drive and cost was not an issue.While it still intrests me I'm basically over it. I've taken the Manx down the strip a few times in years gone and enjoyed it as well....wota buz.....but I can't see myself doing it again. I'm not "chicken" as you say but I've moved on.
tssnq.com.au
people having no interest in motorsport?! ....mmmm, sorry just can't see that. :P
guess so mick
The opening sentence assuming most people on here are interested in motorsport is probably flawed. Theres a few of us who are hard core devotees, some that would go to watch a race if it was at a vw event, and what I assume is the majority, those that just dont care for it. I dont see that as a problem. Some people dont care for water cooled/rats/ICE/toys/bling... or is that just me who as I only care for aircooled and racing... actually I care very little for drag racing too even though I have been reasonably successful at it, far more so than at my beloved hillclimbing.
The initial startup cost is pretty steep. Car club membership, basic licence, and entry fee will cost you $198 for your first run at Huntley hillclimb, (which as far as I know is the cheapest one) and then you look at the back end and see you have had just 4 minutes of track time. You also have to factor in a helmet and fire extinguisher. To me that sounds like a great idea, but I can see that it doesnt look like value for money.
If you have anything more than a passing interest then you should give it a go. Drive any car, you dont have to win something to get enjoyment from it. Taking off hard from the green flag is no different from taking off hard from a traffic light because you are missing the big brother eviction or you have to try and get across to the right hand lane before the next intersection. For bracket drag racing you dont need any power at all. Dave Birchall has a few trophies and his most powerful car was an auto wagon.
[ Edited on 22-5-2007 by amazeer ]
The key to racing is motivation. It's not money, track time, location, etc - it's how much you really want to give it a go.
The reason why I started VW Warwick?
For $100 you can race all weekend, including your licence, insurance and camping.
Open practice of 4 hours on Saturday saw one driver rack up 20 passes. Sunday is two hours of open practice and then round robin racing, another guaranteed 8 runs (without breakages - I can't help you there). This is more passes than some do in a whole season of open meets.
If you're really keen and switched on, you can always find a way to race, drag, rally, hillclimb, etc.
I think BIX hit it on the head....how long is a piece of string.
I used to race karts..it started out like chickenfillet...just out having fun...but then the competitive bug gets you.
After 2 years of competitive racing I got out because it was getting to expensive. Those who have endless supplies of money take the fun out of it.
Now I've discovered drag racing (as a driver). For less than $50 you can go out and have a blast at your local drag strip and your ususallly guaranteed atleast 4-5 runs.
I could imagine going around corners is somewhat more expensive, but most car clubs have days where they can run around the local circuit pretty cheap.
At the end of the day it's competion that costs the money. (and trying to make a volksy go fast)
