JSM Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Someone asked me if I was interested to race coming up in Sebring for the Chumpcar race. On the surface, this looks to be a inexpensive, however, after reading the rule book on the roll cage that looks to be some serious money to spend on the cage. Am I wrong here? I understand the need, but I don't think this is as cheap as they are trying to make it out to be? Plus clothes, etc. Thoughts, advice? http://www.chumpcar.com/events.php http://www.chumpcar.com/chumpcar-rules.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m4xwellmurd3r Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 I don't know much at all about cage building, but it seems like they call for a decently built 6 point cage with door bars. Doesn't seem too hard core to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h4nsm0l3m4n Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 (edited) Someone asked me if I was interested to race coming up in Sebring for the Chumpcar race. On the surface, this looks to be a inexpensive, however, after reading the rule book on the roll cage that looks to be some serious money to spend on the cage. Am I wrong here? I understand the need, but I don't think this is as cheap as they are trying to make it out to be? Plus clothes, etc. Thoughts, advice? http://www.chumpcar.com/events.php http://www.chumpcar.com/chumpcar-rules.pdf I agree. People get the impressions you can start racing for peanuts when, in reality, its not as cheap as one would think. Between the car, tires, brake pads, car fluids, roll cage, radio, race suit/helmet, race entry frees, towing/traveling expenses, lodging, and gas (in 8 hours an rx7 consumes quite a bit) it really adds up. This does not take into account spare engines, new/replacement parts, spare engines/parts, tools and other crap. If your car makes intact through the race (awesome!) chances are youll need to at least replace a few of previously mentioned items. Keep in mind the race fee wont get much cheaper for your 2nd, 3rd, Nth race. If your car breaks down (ours has 3 times.. in 3 races) youll probably be looking at even more parts/engines to replace/rebuild. If your car gets into a wreck and gets totaled (ours has once) you start all over from the beginning. You can see this is definitely more than 500 bucks. However, after all that I still say its totally worth it. I think you'd really struggle to find a more fun atmosphere to race in Edited June 21, 2011 by h4nsm0l3m4n Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neverdone Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Mr. Moleman is definitly correct on this. A big part of the cost is getting all of the proper safety gear. If you don't have any, it can be expensive considering that you and your buddies can't just buy ONE race suit and share it, I believe you need a minimum of 3 for refueling purposes. Helmets are also not cheap. Expect 150 dollars for even the cheap ones. Then you need a race seat and harness, new tires, new brake pads, a roll cage (if you can build it yourself you save a lot of money, but you still have to build it correctly) Then you have all the fuel you're gonna burn during the race, which if you're good, is a lot. I've gone through all the costs for a brand new team with no equipment, but ability to create their own cage, and you're looking at around 5-6000 dollars to field a car. This number goes way up if you can't make a cage on your own, have to rent a trailer to get your car there, buy replacement parts, get high quality...anything. It's not cheap, but it still is one of the cheapest forms of car racing out there for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
josh817 Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 I've worked several Lemons races and to be short, on the outside it appears to be fun but with the money and the rules, it quickly goes away. It depends on how many drivers you have so you can split the entry fee amongst you guys. The $500 is all that can be invested in the car, that's minus safety gear, brakes, tires, etc. I was talking with someone who was running a station wagon and he saif realistically there is around $3000-$4000 in the car, plus entry fees. Another clever way people get around the price limit is that for Lemons, I don't know about Chump Car, the $500 is per race. What I mean by this is the first race weekend, you have a $500 limit. Say with this $500 you can only manage the bare minimum. If you join a few months later for another race with the same car, you can now invest another $500 into the car. You wind up getting these cars with well over $500 into things other than safety because they keep showing up to each event. The thing that turned me down the most was the stupid games they play. "People curse" and **** like that where if everyone voted against you, you get black flagged and punished for no reason and in bad cases, they give you 30 minutes to pull everything you want to keep and they crush your car. When I learned about that, I declined the offer even though I would only be paying an entry fee. It makes me livid to think that your team can be working so hard to place well and then a ridiculous black flag is given which ruins everything and you risk losing your car that presumably has your $3000 into it. And you know damn well you can't pull everything of value in 30 minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h4nsm0l3m4n Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 (edited) Chumpcar rules differ a little bit from Lemons. Our team leader is a member of the chumpcar staff and has always said that your car must be "worth" $500 and whatever money you spend is not really factored in. Cars are classified as being "worth" a certain amount of money and various additional parts are added to the total. If that total is still sub-500 youre within the rules. They also dont really require you to have themes (though it helps to have one) and dont have things like the "people's curse" or other strange things that Lemons does. $3-4000 invested in a race car is totally realistic, it might even be on the cheap-side. The way I justify it is that, split 4 or 5 ways its not too horrible and its real wheel to wheel racing and I dont have to worry about blowing up anything I care a lot about. Edited June 21, 2011 by h4nsm0l3m4n Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
josh817 Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 My only beef with Chump Car is that they planned an event in July to run from 4PM-10AM at a track that has no lights and is out in the country so animals are out there at night... I got the work call for that event and had to decline because it was just too ridiculous. Not only that safety issue but they also wanted as few workers as possible, I guess to save money. Each turn will only have one worker now, through the middle of the night with no lights. Not a bright idea, no pun intended! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony D Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 "CHEAP" and "RACING" are RELATIVE terms. The LeMons rules said the cars were to be no more than $500 (excluding safety equipment)... Our $500 car was more like 10X that... And yeah, for RACING, that IS cheap! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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