Students Who Race

[Jake]

Your affordable set of cars are not particularly simple, heavy, and not necessarily slow. It's a completely different recipe that kind of blows for this kind of thing.

You make a good point, for sure. The NB Miata is thankfully still on the cheap/slow/simple train and readily available on the used market. NC Miatas are getting cheaper, but the rollbar implementation on one can be a pain if you want to retain the soft top.

How much did you guys consider "future proofing" the cars you selected for the sake of eventual race classing? I think that is a big thing that keeps the HPDE list of cars to consider very short. It does make sense to buy once, build once over time - but you can HPDE in anything.

For people considering HPDE --> TT or W2W racing, the short list of candidates includes NB Miatas, E46 330i/ci, and Mustangs. No idea what is newer and fits into Honda Challenge that isn't an S2000, but I guess some Civics could work.

[Mike]

Your affordable set of cars are not particularly simple, heavy, and not necessarily slow. It's a completely different recipe that kind of blows for this kind of thing.

How much did you guys consider "future proofing" the cars you selected for the sake of eventual race classing? I think that is a big thing that keeps the HPDE list of cars to consider very short. It does make sense to buy once, build once over time - but you can HPDE in anything.

It was certainly something to consider, but I wouldn't worry too much about it. Classes change, your own interests change, cars end up in walls, etc. Luckily, most cars that "make sense" also have a good place to race because enough people have already figured that out. I'd look at what race classes exist, investigate the base vehicles you can start from for them, find folks who are able to drive their race cars to the track (is that even a thing anymore? regardless, those are generally cars that work well for collegiate HPDE), and work from there.

[Jake]

You see people driving TT cars with rollbars and seats/harnesses to the track. Anything with a full cage is a dumb idea to street drive, and is illegal in VA (can't have cage in front of the front seats) anyway.

But yeah, easy enough to end up all the way in TT or advanced HPDE and either throw a spare set of wheels in the back of the car or on a small tire trailer (Maeng to the white courtesy phone) alongside your basic tools and clothes for the weekend.

[G.Irish]

I'm of two minds on the whole 'buying a car that you will eventually turn into a racecar'.

On one hand, it's always way cheaper to buy a racecar that someone else has already built, than it is to build it yourself. So when the time comes to actually race, just buy something that is finished and let 'er rip. It also means that you can buy a car that fits into a class you want to race in right now. Trying to forecast what class you'll race in 3-5 years from now can be tricky.

The only major downside is that a car that has already been racing awhile may be close to fundamental failures (suspension, transmission, etc.) and you may not know that the previous owner built something the stupid/unsafe way until something bad happens. But you can mitigate that to a degree with a detailed inspection and meticulous race prep.

When you buy something that you will eventually build into a racecar, you can finance the base car to start with, and build up to racing on your own timescale. If you're doing stuff yourself over time you can become more knowledgeable about the platform and you can kinda watch forums, vendors, and ebay for deals on parts. Hopefully by the time you're ready to race the class you want to race in is still well-subscribed and hasn't been fubar'ed by idiotic politics.

[Tyler.M]

The dilemma is real though, if you want to race in college, what do you do? Assuming you don't want to risk your daily and want to get a cheap platform to learn on, your options are pretty limited and people will still steer you in a lot of the same directions: NA or NB miata, E30's, E36's, E46'S. Nothing wrong with any of those really, but they are getting old now, the first two pushing 30 years in some MY. If it was 2008 and I asked you what would be a good, cheap race car to learn on and you told me that something from 1978 would be a decent option, I'd try to find your orderly to escort you back to your room and give you a pill. But, on the other hand, "cheap" racers don't exist like they used to. Options sort of dried up in the 90's and 00's save for a handful of cars and most of those are collectors cars now (looking at you Supra and FD RX7). I still blame SUV's and Fast and Furious for the decline of the sports car in the 2000's.

A lot of you raceguys picked a platform and invested in it for like what, 5-10 years? Jake, you built your miata over several years and DJ, you've been racing your E36 for as long as I've known you. Both cars were/are pushing 30 years old, right? I just can't think of too many other newer platforms that would offer that sort of longevity that can be picked up on a college student's budget anymore. When I was in school it was everything I could do to afford my '98 M3 as those seemed to be quickly appreciating in value and I had to sell it once I realized that I never had the budget for the parts to drive it on the street let alone track it (I also had 0 mechanical skill on a car that needed an owner with at least LvL 1 wrenching ) S2000's are way too expensive now, Mustangs need some serious suspension work to be decent, and besides the C5 corvette (which is not a good first race car), good luck finding anything from GM that would be "fun". Of course you have Miatas or you can do what Ryan did and turn your economy 4 door into a track car (which is still one of my favorite builds on here because of the ingenuity), but the options still seem a lot more limited. If you don't want a NB Miata or an E46 for a first track/daily car, you'll be hard pressed to find any other racers on a college budget.

So what does that leave you? A perfect first track/daily used to need be 4 things: Reliable, sub $5000, have good road manners, and have a wide availability of parts. Miata's and E36's fit the bill when I was in school but for current students, I'm not sure if either would be good options anymore. E46's may not be bad, but I think the 330ci is still pretty expensive (for a college budget) for a decent example if I remember correctly. That really only leaves you with the Miata, which is usually what happens in these discussions. In reality, I'm not the most qualified to answer, this thread just brought back memories of my struggle with trying to go full-ass on racing in school only to realize that it's not really viable until you get a big enough budget.

TLR Find a Miata and autocross.

[G.Irish]

I think an E46 325 would be more than enough to get out on track and have fun, no need to spring for the 330. An RSX-S,2007-2011 Civic Si, GTI, or even a Mini Cooper S would also work if you're willing to do FWD, although it's hard to find clean examples of some of those and Minis can be a pain to deal with. 350Z's can be had for not too much money as well.

Only a couple of those options translate into good racecar candidates but you could drive 'em on the street and do track days.

[Jake]

I'm with Gerald, that whole list is pretty solid.

Tyler - I owned the Miata for five years (2008-2013) and have had the E36 M3 for four. DJ's white E36 lasted about 4-5 years, then he did a year in a Spec E46, then what, 1.5 years in the white E46 M3.

[ScottyB]

2007-2011 Civic Si

mine was a PITA to find because i needed a sedan, which are more rare.  if you can do a coupe, they're all over at decent prices.  if a high-strung FWD is OK with you, they're super fun to hoon and a dead realiable DD.  easy to make quite fast.

just sayin....
http://www.roadraceautox.com/showthread....HS-prepped

[*insertusernamehere*]

If anyone is truly ambitious feel free to SI swap a Fit and/or show me what you did/sell it to me. A Fit SI would do some damage!

Sent from my FRD-L04 using Tapatalk

[JPolen01]

If anyone is truly ambitious feel free to SI swap a Fit and/or show me what you did/sell it to me. A Fit SI would do some damage!

Sent from my FRD-L04 using Tapatalk

Been done
https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-acur...t-3003000/