Ok...what's your story, how'd you get started?

[PDenbigh]

I'm hoping that once it is ready I will be ready for competition school (3/4-years away??) Gaining my comp license and entering the GTS Challenge...maybe with Pete :twisted: with a 1986 Gti VR6 at about 2200 lbs. Is this a realistic plan OG's?

I hope to hear more stories. Motivation and nostalgic thoughts were just crossing my mind.

I'm not going to be as detailed as you probably want. If you want to follow my thought process check my website. But here are a few of my thoughts from my experience:

It's great building a car for the track. When I first compete, I'm going to get rolled hard core by race prepped M3's and very good drivers, but I accept this. Heck, when I advance to HPDE 3 I'm going to get schooled by pleanty of sub 200hp cars. O well! I'm in it for the fun and for the personal advancement, not to see who has the biggest balls.

Building my 1985 XR into a car that is every bit as fast as most of the cars I'll meet is an awesome challange! And a rewarding one. Note, it is not a cheap one though ;-). However, your VR6 has to have a better aftermarket scene than the XR4ti. For your sake I hope it does! I have learned SO much about automobiles from building the XR. This past Saturday Sean and I changed the headgasket of a 92 Cavalier in 9 hours, including new plugs, wires, O2 sensor, all the top end gaskets, and throughly cleaning everything. The car started right up, no leaks, and the owner reports that it has not run that well in his ownership. 2 year ago, I would have NEVER thought that I could do this, given 9 hours or 9 days!~
I feel it also helps me on track. I can "see" what the car is doing. I can see how the suspension loads, how the brakes grab (or don't if you're RJ's student), and what I can do to help the car do what it does. And, when you're alternator falls off at an AutoX you can snag an exhaust bolt from your buddy (thanks Sean) and get it put back together enoguh to make one last run and the 2.5 hour drive home. Quite handy.

Timeline is good. Don't take it too slowly though, I feel momentium is important. 4 years is too long IMO, 2-3 is more feasable. Conversly, I'm going to have an expensive season if I want to hit my timeline. I hope to be racing the XR in GTS3 by the begining of next season. That means a ton of track time and car/driver prep this year.

If you are really interested in GTS3, check out nasaforums.com and the GTS website at http://www.gtschallenge.com/. It will explain all the rules and which class you'd be in.

Hope that helps!

Peter