Used Race Cars 4 Sale Listing???

www.race-cars.com

 

I believe ebay has a special section under motors dedicated to race cars.

 

google up all terms you can think of.
try the same on yahoo.co.uk


look for links on motorsport.com

if you can, go to Border's or Barnes and Noble books and buy a british racing mag, there are tons of places in them.

 

Steve -

What's up? Tracking the 308 not enough anymore? What class are you looking at? (Vintage Formula Ford looks like fun...)

Pen

 

Oh, and besides racecar.com, look up road racing club web sites' classified sections, especially the club(s) that runs where you plan to run - you could find a car that has already been set up for your local tracks, connect to race prep shops, people in the club, etc.

 

Steve - I took the 308 "track car" I bought in late July to the track the first time this past weekend. The only mods it has are 16" wheels, fat anti-sway bars and about 200lbs of stuff removed from the car. I used 245/225 Yokohama street tires (ES100) that I could tell were, not surprisingly, not too great for the track (what tires do you use?).

Car handled great, engine is nice and strong. With the roll cage and helmet, I have very little room to move, due to my height (6'1"), so I wish the ergos were better. I added a 2" steering wheel spacer which helped a little (and allows me to actually see my tach!). I have heard of tall people doing floor pan mods to get the seat lower - sounds expensive!

While I was certainly not the slowest guy out there, it is indeed humbling when those damn well-driven Miatas crawl all over my ass! I think the main thing that made me slow was that I wasn't using my brakes hard enough, I was using the gas pedal to slow down instead of the brakes.

Because my car is a 1976 model, I can actually go vintage racing with it. In SCCA racing, the car would just get creamed in it's class unless heavily modified. So I may just do the vintage thing and see how I do, since I already have the car.

Part of me wishes that I never even bought the 308 and just went straight ahead and bought a real race car. I could have bought a Lotus 61 Formula Ford for $20K, and could have had a purpose-built race car and a Lotus at that!! And being a Lotus, it will alway increase in value. Or bought my first Porsche, as there are tons of 356, 912, 914 and 911 race cars out there for sale.

One downside to an open-wheeled car (besides your wife's concerns) is that usually you can't take them to non-racing track days.

Anyway, the reality is that ANYTHING will be a cheaper car to race due to the absurd and needless costs to maintain a Ferrari.

Anyway, even though it was stupid, I enjoyed flogging my 1970 365GT 2+2 out there on the track – it did suprisingly well despite its 4,000lbs and huge sidewall tires! Maybe I should just strip THAT car down to it's bones and turn THAT into a vintage racer/track car!!!!

Anyway, keep us posted!

Pen

 

Check in the classified section of each of these sites. Various sub sections are also very informative.

- Nguyen

http://p081.ezboard.com/bdsrforum
http://p206.ezboard.com/bsportstoyotaforum
http://p081.ezboard.com/bs2racing
http://www.apexspeed.com/
http://www.racer-net.com/index.htm
http://www.icscc.com/ads.html
http://www.racecarsdirect.com/

 

You're on the right track (no pun intended!)

Any purpose-built race car will make any street car, even one stripped and race prepped, feel like a beached whale, even a Ferrari. Formula Ford is a good choice, and no more dangerous than a production racer IMO.

 

steve,

please consider a fia papered sports racer. a chevron or a lola t-212 (may be the best option) can be raced anywhere at any event. $75-125K, depending on log book and history.

they also race in the fia class where you will get to run w/ lola t-70's, mc larens, gt-40's and other ferrari and porsche sports racers...you know...the real legendary machines!!!

if you do go the open wheeled route, you should look into a late 70's ralt rt-1. super fast and super sounding! you will not spend more than $50k but will not have as many places to race it as the chevron or lola options...you decide.

Good luck!

 

Autoweek has race cars for sale classifieds.

 

Steven:

If the open wheel aspect does not appeal to you or your wife, but you still want a true inexpensive race car, look at Sports 2000. Full bodywork, room for a passenger if you are good friends, a very good vintage group (VS2000), plentiful cars of good heritage - March, Swift, Tiga, Lola and a very good safety record.

 

I would also recommend a sportsracer. They are just as fast as an open wheel car but you will save time and money by not breaking your suspension on every impact. Also avoiding the tire to tire collisions, and being shot into the air, has always appealed to me. They also provide more body for cool paint jobs and sponsors.

 

You guys beat me to it, S2000 is the better way to go. Faster, and none of the "wheel to wheel" problems of the open wheel types.




Chris

Sync Speed Inc.
Racing Communications.
610 659 1033

 

And I'll throw one more point to think about about that I already touched on a little: decide what type of club you want to be a part of before you buy a car.

The SCCA is the big national amateur road racing club, with chapters in cities big and small across the country – a huge community. NASA is also a race organization for contemporary cars, but I don't know if they're more of a Western U.S. thing. I have also found in So Cal several other clubs, some designed for "touring" car racing (coupes and 4-door production cars), and some brand-specific car clubs hold not just track days but organized racing programs (Porsche is the biggest on this, and out in L.A., the Alfa club actually has a race series!). Even though these clubs are intended for contemporary cars, you will see many older cars in certain classes. Some SCCA chapters even have "classic/vintage" classes. The one SCCA class you may be most interested in is "Club Ford", designed to be a place to run the outdated older Formula Fords (but not so old to be considered "vintage"). The great thing about this class of FF is that the cars are in the $7-10K range, whereas the average vintage FF is more in the $15-$20 range.

The other way to go is vintage racing. Do some research and find out the clubs that race in your area. HSR may be up there - they also have a great west coast chapter.

With as much track day experience as you have, all this may be old news to you and you may already be very familiar with the various racing clubs in your area.

For my tastes, vintage racing is the way to go just because I'm a huge fan of classic cars and just love to see all the cool eye candy. I think it would be very cool to be a part of it. Also, in my travels, the two main vintage clubs out in L.A. (VARA annd HSR West) just seemed to have a better vibe than the SCCA, but that's a subjective thing. The couple SCCA races I went to just seemed to have such a hodge-podge of cars (some new, some old and a lot of pretty used-up, in-between cars) – it just wasn't that interesting. In contrast, on any one of the vintage club race days you can see breathtakingly awesome sports racers and immaculately prepared production cars. (and some great beaters with fascinating stories!).

I'm just saying that you may want to let the club itself – since that will be such a huge part of your racing experience (your "home") –*dictate what kind of car you buy, as oppsed to getting a VD just because it's convenient. Decide where you want to be and what kind of experience you want to have and then choose the best car to fit those needs and wants. Just a suggestion!

And, yeah, having a track-prepped Ferrari is not a bad "spare" by anybody's measure!!!

Oh, and what tires are you running on the 308!!

Pen

 

Formula Mazda would be a good way to go open wheel racing without spending a fortune.

And the cars are quick- one holds the local track's record lap. A 333SP is second place.

Find a class that has a number of participants since racing the clock gets boring after awhile.