5KTQ Race Car Prep

[Scott Fisher]

--- Haydn Taylor <haydn_taylor at hotmail.com> wrote:
> At present I am keeping my options open regarding
> what type of racing I intend to do.

While that seems reasonable now, be warned that it can
get expensive fast if you do the "wrong" thing for
where you want to end up.

If all you want is a track-day toy to wear out a
couple sets of soft tires a year and blast by people
in vastly more expensive cars, go for it -- do
whatever you want.  Just make sure the battery is
bolted down, you don't have any leaks, and your wheel
bearings are tight (oh, and have an up-to-date helmet,
of course).  I spent Saturday morning as tech
inspector at a marque-club track day at Portland
International Raceway, and saw everything from rusty
hulks with immaculate motors and suspensions to
full-on SCCA race cars with semi-professional drivers
out for a cheap test-and-tune day.

On the other hand, if you decide to compete in a
particular racing series with a sanctioning body and
rules and the rest, don't change anything on the car
except the color before you look over the rulebook.

Case in point: I got the General Comp. Regulations
(GCR) for the SCCA last week, and have been reading up
on the allowed modifications to the CGT that I'm
starting to prep for Improved Touring class B.
Coilovers -- highly recommended by a number of folks
here on the Q list -- are explicitly NOT legal in ITB.
 (And the class in which they ARE legal is a lot more
expensive to prep for.)  Likewise I can't change the
cam, run an NF cylinder head, or install a 5K turbo.
Not for ITB, anyway; the IT philosophy is minimal
modifications to keep down the cost of entry.  But I
bet any (or all) of those bolt-ons would make my car
into a kick-ass track day toy.

So for me, the answer is: I want to compete in a
series where everybody is singing out of the same
songbook and we all compete regularly for year-end
points, and be part of a community of drivers that I
see race after race, against whom I can judge my own
development as a driver while I get back into the
game.  Right now, that's what appeals to me, given
where I've been in motorsports in the past and what I
think I'm up to at the present.  But I drink my coffee
black, too, and that has no more bearing on how you
drink YOUR coffee than what I want to race has on what
YOU might get your kicks from.

Because there were a lot of people at PIR on Saturday
who have spent a lot of money making more or less
sensible mods to more or less interesting cars in an
effort to make them more fun, more reliable, and safer
as a kind of self-propelled roller coaster, for no
purpose beyond the delight (and occasional controlled
terror :-) of the folks with their hands on the wheel.


As always, you pays your money and you makes your
choice.  But giving a little thought ahead of time to
where you might end up making your choice can save you
a heck of a lot of money.  AND it can let you have a
lot more fun, depending on what qualifies as fun for
you.  And the only person who can answer that question
is you.

Best,

--Scott Fisher
  Tualatin, Oregon




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