| So you want to race your car? That's great, but you | | | | increase the spend. |
| need some information before jumping in. There are | | | | Once you have your class defined, the next step is |
| many things to consider from what type of car, | | | | finding the right car. Depending on your motivations, |
| what type of tracks, what your budget etc is. The | | | | there are different ways to look at this. If you want |
| most important things to start with are what your | | | | to win, do some research to find out what cars are |
| budget is. Both the up-front budget to acquire/build a | | | | dominating the classes and go for one of those. If |
| car, and secondly your ongoing annual budget. Once | | | | you want a particular model, then find where that |
| you have your budget defined, you will need to | | | | model fits, and build/buy to that. Note that not all |
| determine what kind of racing you want to do. There | | | | cars are guaranteed to be competitive in all |
| are several large racing organizations around the US, | | | | classes...usually just the opposite. |
| with SCCA and NASA being two of the largest. | | | | I would highly recommend finding the online forums |
| There are also racing groups around particular | | | | for whatever group you wish to run with, and get |
| marquees, like BMW CCA Club Racing, Porsche Club | | | | active. Read what other active racers are saying, ask |
| Racing etc. Lastly there are many regional groups like | | | | questions, learn about the group. One big mistake |
| Midwest Council Sport Car Club. | | | | that we see a lot of folks do is everyone thinks they |
| In each of these organizations, they all have a GCR ( | | | | can build a car cheaply for racing. This just cannot be |
| General Competition Rules ), which is what you need | | | | done. I would highly recommend looking to buy a |
| to read cover to cover before doing anything. This is | | | | pre-built proven car over building one nearly every |
| where most folks go down the wrong path. They | | | | time. Building a car is typically 2-3 times more |
| decide they want to race, go buy a car of their liking, | | | | expensive than buying a built sorted car. |
| buy a bunch of go fast goodies, bolt them on, and | | | | This was just a very small primer on racing. Hard to |
| they contact the racing organizations. They show up, | | | | go into all the important areas but the biggest items |
| are ready to race, and then find out that they can't | | | | are to define clearly what you want to get from |
| do much as their car is full of non-allowed | | | | racing, what you want to spend, and where you |
| modifications. In the GCR, you must first find that | | | | want to do it. Armed with this info, you can more |
| class that you wish to drive in. They all typically have | | | | easily pick your organization, class, and car that you |
| various classes from a Stock (or Stock like), to full | | | | wish to race. |
| out Mod (highly modified) cars. This typically will also | | | | |