NASA prototype

Looks really interesting.

 

Lol. It is just another shelby can am. This model was run effectively in the past by the scca...it was called sport Renault or later spec racer. Race package was approx $12 k.

At the price mentioned, Nasa offers a shelby can am ugly car at a considerable investment. It will fail Imo.

 

cheapish, fastish, and closed cockpit. this thing will be popular, even if it is a bit homely.

in a few years you'll see 20 of these on the 25 hours of thunderhill grid.

 

Caught my attention. It's like a cheaper uglier praga.

 

At 60k a copy you will see them sell. Prototype racing on a budget. That is forward thinking.

 

Indeed.

 

The spec series has never prevented wallet trumping driver.

Additionally this car is even uglier than a Daytona Prototype. There is nothing nasa is attempting here that has not been done before. It reminds me do much of the Shelby can am debacle. Both ugly. Both not by any means the cheapest point of racing entrance.

Once a trailer and spares package are added...> $100k.

 

Still a bargain for a road racer. SCCA Formula Ford can set you back that much and then some.

 

Pro racing has never been cheap but there is zero chance that I would make an investment in a nasa spec racer and a nasa pro series. That car will be a joke and beyond the initial subsidized sales, will be a poor seller and filling a grid will be a struggle.

The car will have no suitable home to race with any degree of competitiveness outside of nasa.

By the way, a pro ff or f2000 is a true thoroughbred unlike this élan abortion. Sorry to be so hard headed but I have been to this fire before.

 

here's why I think this time might be different (I know, I know...)

-NASA has grown significantly in the last 5-10 years and IMO is rapidly replacing SCCA as the "go to" club racing organization.
-within NASA there's been a lot of demand for faster cars, as historically it's been production based GT cars, and they're now branching out into sports racers and so forth.
-the sports racer type car has had a resurgence all over the world, especially US and UK, thanks to the popularity of the Radical.
-there's a trickle down effect from pro endurance racing to switch from open cockpit to coupe prototypes.
-Carroll Shelby isn't involved in this project.

time will tell of course, but I think now is the time for a project like this to work.

 

I looked into Radical's as you can get some good used examples for the High 30's, but the problems is the Radical race series is almost non existent and the only thing I've found that lets you race them competitively is through SCCA Narrc/Sarrc classes. You're against other open wheels as Star Mazda, FF, etc.

 

Radical racing is very location dependent...very big out west and in SE/Florida. In the SE they run with NARRA or PBOC. it's not very big in the midwest or NE that I'm aware of.

you can run some Radicals (SR3, I think) in SCCA but yes, due to field size you'll be clumped together with a hodgepodge of classes ranging from SRF to S2000 to all sorts of open wheel stuff.

 

Radical East's website is no longer up and running and the radical cup from NARRA is no longer working either but the actual Radical website shows it working. Its very weird, I thought there would be a bigger demand for them given the price and availability. They're fairly easy to work on as well.

Up here the only place that has them is Monticello and well...we know how that is for us normal folk

 

Good points and perspective Chas!!

 

I agree. Too much politics within SCCA has forced racer into other series where racing and costs are kept in line. Racers are tired of over priced equipment and are now finding ways to contain costs. Racing isn't cheap but you don't need to bolster someones bottom line simply because of off track politics. Hope it has a following and the market grows. Would be nice to see regional 12 and 24 hour events. Racers would get more driving time for their entry fees and that has to be a plus for them!

 

I think one of the long term benefits of crap can racing (Chump and Lemons) will be a resurgence of endurance club racing with proper race cars

NASA already has a Western Endurance Series (which culminates with the Thunderhill 25) and host a few east coast endurance races, most notably an 8 hour Road Atlanta race in December; and SCCA does a 12 hour at NJMP and a 6 hour at VIR, plus "enduros" with PCA/POC/BMW club, and a few vintage groups. I expect that will grow, as gentlemen drivers increasingly align themselves with endurance sports car racing, especially with GT3 specs becoming a global standard. so with low end entry level endurance racing in abundance, and top level semi-pro endurance in abundance, I see a resurgence of mid-level club racing endurance in the next few years.

 

just a comment in support of turbo and Chas...I feel scca went wrong back in the 80's when the gt cars were allowed to go full tube chassis. that kept my gt-2 z car from being competitive when the big money efforts were able to go to a new performance level.

so...peter goes to imsa firehawk. that was GREAT...until the factory cars came to play and multi car teams took that to another level. racing is expensive period and sadly there is ZERO ROI model to cite. I hate that the scca and imsa are not what they were

 

Well that's what we need. More blue collar series where guys can run 10-15k cars competitively for 1500$ a weekend. People can't afford to drop 75-100k on a car plus 3-5k on a weekend. Its too much.

PWC is the cheapest series they have that I've seen that's professional.

 

my all time favorite SCCA story was the guy who got the racing bug, went out and got an SCCA license through Skippy (took every course they provided at the time too), bought a NEW FA car (Swift IIRC), spares kit, truck, trailer, hired a crew...

....and the chief steward wanted to park him because his "member number was too high".

sadly, SCCA is an "old boys club", and they're getting really old...I know very few people under 40 who race in SCCA and lots who race NASA. SCCA is in for some bad years soon unless they start embracing new drivers, younger drivers, start competing for grids with NASA, etc.

 

I'd love to see a series of 6-10 hour races with 3 drivers using Scion FRS, Mustangs, Camaros, etc. splitting costs amongst the 3 drivers would make it easily doable (and honestly not that much more than a 12 or 24 hour Lemons race when you factor in travel/hotel/equipment costs)

 

I was a NASA NE member years ago but they seem much more organized now. Back then they only had a handful of events. Its definitely something to look into more, plus their licensing is much better than SCCA. They do it in house.

 

The press release is so silly only the naive or newbies will believe it.

Those of you who have early adopted a new car/new series know what I'm talking about.

 

their website indicates they've sold 14 chassis, with a map of where they've gone...

not surprisingly, most are on the west coast.

The NASA/Elan NP01 - NASA PROTOTYE (NP) SERIES | The NASA/Elan NP01 - NASA PROTOTYE (NP) SERIES