MM Club Racecar

[Senor_Taylor]

Hello all,

We've been messing around with the idea of collecting some money and buying a club project car to use in some kind of "cheap" racing series. I'm very open to getting this under way and getting the project started before I graduate, so we need to figure out the logistics.

We would need:

-The money to buy the car and get it running. <$1000, which can be reached quickly with everyone throwing in some money. I'm not opposed to using some of the money we've raised over the last couple years to help, but not primarily fund.

- Someone to actually own the car, again, I'm not against having it in my name but I know it's not that simple.

- Somewhere to store it. We have people in North 38 with garages for now, but we'd need to set some rules in place as to how storage is handled.

- Who gets to drive it? - Needs to be discussed

- How to get it to the track? - Needs to be discussed. Can you tow with a JMU Van? Seems like the best option to keep it regulated over years to come and get everyone to the track.

- What kind of races to do with it? I think the most simple would be SCCA-Rally or autocross. Chump Car seems most probable.

- What else needs to be figured out?

I figure we can get it all started for cheaper than usual because we'd have the entirety of the club's resources working on it. Parts donated from alums, 30 pairs of eyes looking for deals, etc. This may be a pipe dream, but we should definitely give it some thought. I have some changes to make to the constitution and get ratified, so if we did get this hashed out well, we could add an article in there to set these guidelines in place.

[Jake]

I like the idea (duh) but some points given we have discussed this before and never seen much come of it...

1. You need to pick one series and buy/build the car to that series' rules and specs. I vote for Chump Car, it's a great mix of competition/skill level/seat time and the rules are such that you can have fun with whatever budget. E36 325i/328i's are cheap enough right now and do well in the series. SCCA Rallycross is fun, but you can honestly do it in a rental car, and the abuse that a built car takes is really, really high. Autocross is also something that can already be done with members' cars, so why have a "build" for it? Go lofty, build a damn racecar and have something that every student can help own. Some can drive, some can wrench, some can crew, some can feed everyone, some can do PR with your sponsors, etc etc etc.

2. I would look into local storage facilities that can have ownership transferred around. They have to be cheap enough in Harrisonburg that it would be simple enough. The problem with an apartment garage is that it's tied to one person and if they move, you're screwed. You wouldn't have to work on the car at the storage place, so if they prohibit it, no big deal. I'm thinking of a U-Stor-It type of place with a private garage/storage unit the car would fit in.

3. Come up with a plan for how the car is both owned and would be sold/disposed of. I would assume that if I donated $100 to the cause to purchase the car as an alumni, I'll never see the money again and any proceeds from a sale would go back to the club way down the road.

4. You need a contract for whoever would be driving the car in a race or at a test weekend. I can find the one I signed for my Chump team. The short summary is basically - you break it, you pay for repairs. You total it, you owe $X.

5. Funding. Figure this out without relying on any sponsorship, but definitely explore sponsorship from everyone who's helped with the car show and otherwise.

6. Towing - JMU would absolutely not let you tow with their shit, the liability is too high. Enterprise and other rental agencies also expressly say you may not tow with their trucks. You have enough alumni and students who own pickups and SUVs that you could make the transport bit happen with little fuss. UHaul trailers are cheap to rent if you can't borrow one.

I've put together a Google Sheet after we started talking about this, that will run you through basic costs of getting this off the ground. It's a big concept with a lot of cost, but would be do-able if you have a good proposal that can convince people to buy in.

Google Sheet

[JPolen01]

Oh dis gonna be good

[Mike]

Oh dis gonna be good

:beer: :beer: :beer:

[ViPER1313]

Biggest thing is insurance / liability in my mind. The #1 thing you need to figure out is how to protect the club and university if the unthinkable should happen.

Edit: think about it this way - if you have the car in your name, and new member Red Mist McCrashface dive bombs the crash barrier at turn 1 of summit at 80mph because a member of the club didn't tighten a brake line during the last wrenching session, are you going to sleep well anytime in the foreseeable future? Who is gonna get sued by McCrashfaces parents (hint.... everyone)

[.RJ]

This one has been around the horn more than once.

tl;dr its a bad idea go karting instead

[*insertusernamehere*]

This one has been around the horn more than once.

tl;dr its a bad idea go karting instead

I am all here for karting

[EclipseTurbno93]

I think there would have to be some sort of rule set that requires a certain amount of training and experience to be done before being allowed to drive in a race. Not just anyone should be allowed out on track for sure.

[GTBrandon]

I think there would have to be some sort of rule set that requires a certain amount of training and experience to be done before being allowed to drive in a race. Not just anyone should be allowed out on track for sure.

I agree with this knowing full well that I would probably be the one to go into the tires

Also:

How many total people would be officially involved including wrenches, drivers, and any other team members?
Would anything need to go through JMU officially?
Any other legalities that need to be covered?
Do we have any contacts that can sponsor or get us started in Chump?
What steps need to be taken other than raising the money and just going for it?

[G.Irish]

I think you would have to get a group of friends together to do this and not run it officially through the club. Liability wise it is something that would be a hard no from the university.

Bear in mind that JMU's liability lawyers were going to veto the club when we originally started it because of liability concerns about autocross. We brought in someone from SCCA to tell them how safe autox was to no avail. It was only when we made the argument that if they blocked us they'd have to revoke the charter of other existing clubs (e.g. horseback riding, spelunking) that we got a reprieve.

You could still do it and I would be willing to chip in, just don't do it with club funds.

Biggest thing for you guys is that it's going to cost a lot more than $1000. You need to put on a roll cage to start with, and that's not something to cheap out on. Then you'll need to budget for replacing weak points on the car and wear and tear. Still doable but just be prepared to spend a few thousand.

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[ViPER1313]

Set a go fund me of 3000 and get this - <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/mld/cto/6005889971.html">https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/mld ... 89971.html</a><!-- m --> . Rescue Boobies E30. Still has an MM sticker on it.

Yea, I know it says $5000, it's been sitting forever... but it does have a real roll cage.

[*insertusernamehere*]

I wrote a long ass post then deleted the entire thing lol. Basically, the way I see it is this. The car/team is gonna need to be owned by a main 3 or 4 who will front the most of everything and accept labor/money/parts from everyone else whilst keeping track of contributions. Then sells back spots on the team to members to race every year or whatever. (That's where club funds can come in, fundraisers to sponsor a seat for a member). Those 4 are the ones that need to sit down and workout the proposal Jake mentioned of how all this will work. Otherwise I don't see this thread coming to an end. Too many people throwing ideas around. So, whichever 4 want to spear head this, speak up, band yourselves together and make a full proposal of how it should work and present it to the rest of us. Don't leave questions unanswered.

[GTBrandon]

I feel as if it needs to be the youngins as to have this worked on for years to come rather than being a one time thing


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[rherold9]

[Mike]

This one has been around the horn more than once.

tl;dr its a bad idea go karting instead

in case you missed it.

[WRXtranceformed]

Yeah we talked about this years ago, I think I even threw a little money at it (was maybe a chump car we were discussing?) But it never happened due to the above comments. A kart makes more sense to me but how many places are there where you could drive your own kart?

[CaptainHenreh]

This one has been around the horn more than once.

tl;dr its a bad idea go karting instead

[ViPER1313]

I think with the expanded alumni base, the club could probably field a car and the insurance at this point, but it would be a serious undertaking. It would likely require a 10k+ fundraising goal. I would happily donate to this cause, but I would want to see a real plan put in place. What is the long term storage plan, transport plan, insurance plan. What events will it run? How do we decide who can use it?

This could be a great visibility booster for the club, BUT it is no small undertaking.

tl/dr - go karting unless you want to put in some real work

[G.Irish]

If you do a kart you can run it at autocrosses but the nearest kart track to JMU would be Summit and I'm not sure what they're doing with their kart track. They do run sprint karts on Main and Shenandoah though. Next closest tracks are VIR and Maryland.

Karts are nice because consumables are really cheap and entry fees are stupidly cheap. Transportation and storage are obviously a lot easier too.

[JPolen01]

I think SPK moved all of their operations to SPK Baltimore in Whitemarsh