When i can drive...
Discussion
Sprints and Hillclimbs are definitely the cheapest way to get involved in competetive motorsport. You can enter in your road car (that can also be used on track days), there are regional series across the country, entry fees are cheap (however not on a £ per mile rate), and there are classes to suit all cars.
Stock hatch is one of the cheaper circuit series, but (forgetting the cost of buying / building a car) the costs will be several thousand for a years entries, accomodation, and fuel to drag your car across the country.
Stock hatch is one of the cheaper circuit series, but (forgetting the cost of buying / building a car) the costs will be several thousand for a years entries, accomodation, and fuel to drag your car across the country.
Sprinting and Hillclimbing is mega bucks for sod all mileage.
I think a hillclimb near me a few weeks ago was around £70 to enter and for that you got 4 (5?) runs at a 500yd long hill.
Rallying is the way forward. Road rallying costs about £70 - £80 to enter and you get 100 miles in Wales or 150+ miles in England for your bucks!
And like sprinting/hillclimbing you can use a standard road car.
I think a hillclimb near me a few weeks ago was around £70 to enter and for that you got 4 (5?) runs at a 500yd long hill.
Rallying is the way forward. Road rallying costs about £70 - £80 to enter and you get 100 miles in Wales or 150+ miles in England for your bucks!
And like sprinting/hillclimbing you can use a standard road car.
Is karting not classed as competitve motorsport now?
Karting is the entry point for most drivers, widely known fact, but don't think of it simply as a stepping stone to other forms of motrsport, as it is a sport in it's own right. Karting will teach you race craft, car control, hopefully bring you out of any novice habbits, give you an understanding of the importance set up and much more. Mistakes in karting will cost you very little, the same mistake in a car may cost you a fortune (relative to karting), so it may be worth considering karting. What I would reccomend doing is going down to your local circuit, and watch at least 3 meetings, find out what the costs are, what classes are racing etc. (of course the same applies to any other form of motorsport, this is to you making the mstake of buying a kart/car/whatever and then finding out you can't race it). Then once you've finished with karting, you may decide to move onto other forms, or from watching the meetings, you simply may decide karting isn't for you, and that you would rather do cars, just don't rule it out straight away.
Here's a few site's for you:
http://www.karting1.co.uk
http://www.karting.co.uk
Other than that, here's a few car racing series that may appeal to you:
http://www.fiatracing.com/
http://www.fordracinguk.com/xr.html
http://www.mr2championship.com/
http://www.golfgti-racing.co.uk/
http://www.veecentre.com/
Also another really good site is http://www.motorsportads.co.uk/ some very useful information, it may be worth having a good look through there.
Cheers, Paul.
Karting is the entry point for most drivers, widely known fact, but don't think of it simply as a stepping stone to other forms of motrsport, as it is a sport in it's own right. Karting will teach you race craft, car control, hopefully bring you out of any novice habbits, give you an understanding of the importance set up and much more. Mistakes in karting will cost you very little, the same mistake in a car may cost you a fortune (relative to karting), so it may be worth considering karting. What I would reccomend doing is going down to your local circuit, and watch at least 3 meetings, find out what the costs are, what classes are racing etc. (of course the same applies to any other form of motorsport, this is to you making the mstake of buying a kart/car/whatever and then finding out you can't race it). Then once you've finished with karting, you may decide to move onto other forms, or from watching the meetings, you simply may decide karting isn't for you, and that you would rather do cars, just don't rule it out straight away.
Here's a few site's for you:
http://www.karting1.co.uk
http://www.karting.co.uk
Other than that, here's a few car racing series that may appeal to you:
http://www.fiatracing.com/
http://www.fordracinguk.com/xr.html
http://www.mr2championship.com/
http://www.golfgti-racing.co.uk/
http://www.veecentre.com/
Also another really good site is http://www.motorsportads.co.uk/ some very useful information, it may be worth having a good look through there.
Cheers, Paul.
Gotta agree with the last post, I wanted to get involved a few years back but being a poor student couldn't afford much, managed to find a local karting team who I rent a kart off and have had loads of great racing and great value for money!
Also don't look past things like autograss and your local motor clubs. A few local mc's to me do autotests, small hillclimbs etc for as little as a tenner entry fee!
Suppose it all depends really on what your budget is and how much mechanical know how you have!
I've also done the odd road rally and their great fun that you can use your normal road car for if you can find a lunatic to read the maps!!
Also don't look past things like autograss and your local motor clubs. A few local mc's to me do autotests, small hillclimbs etc for as little as a tenner entry fee!
Suppose it all depends really on what your budget is and how much mechanical know how you have!
I've also done the odd road rally and their great fun that you can use your normal road car for if you can find a lunatic to read the maps!!
Stock hatch is cheap if you don't mind being tail end charlie.
If you're at the pointed end, expect panel damage, and a lot of setup time on the car to keep it up there. That's where the costs pile up.
One of the cheapest formulae to run in is the "road saloon' category of the LMA Eurosaloons. There are only a few cars in the class, so it's not uber-competitive, and you get to run in the same race as Super Tourers, Thundersaloons, and other cars that will blow you into the weeds! (safe huh?)
There are a few other saloon championships that offer VFM. The BARC-South Eastern's Dunlop Motoring News Saloons is good too. Cheap entries, full grids, pretty good atmosphere too. Again, it's pretty well run-what-you-brung with classes catering for near road-going spec up to mad things.
But as has been said, Karting is cheap motorsport, and a lot of fun too.
If you like trees, then "endurance rallying" (as they call it these days) is supposed to be quite good too.
There are soooooo many different genre's in the sport, there isn't enough space on here to give you quick resumes of them all. We all have our favourites, mine is tearing around the oval at Rockingham in an ASCAR, but I also love my thundersaloon too. I'm just power crazed.
Choose wisely and you'll have lots of fun!
If you're at the pointed end, expect panel damage, and a lot of setup time on the car to keep it up there. That's where the costs pile up.
One of the cheapest formulae to run in is the "road saloon' category of the LMA Eurosaloons. There are only a few cars in the class, so it's not uber-competitive, and you get to run in the same race as Super Tourers, Thundersaloons, and other cars that will blow you into the weeds! (safe huh?)
There are a few other saloon championships that offer VFM. The BARC-South Eastern's Dunlop Motoring News Saloons is good too. Cheap entries, full grids, pretty good atmosphere too. Again, it's pretty well run-what-you-brung with classes catering for near road-going spec up to mad things.
But as has been said, Karting is cheap motorsport, and a lot of fun too.
If you like trees, then "endurance rallying" (as they call it these days) is supposed to be quite good too.
There are soooooo many different genre's in the sport, there isn't enough space on here to give you quick resumes of them all. We all have our favourites, mine is tearing around the oval at Rockingham in an ASCAR, but I also love my thundersaloon too. I'm just power crazed.
Choose wisely and you'll have lots of fun!
You would be fine, I would of thought. For example; a Rotax Max has a minimum weight of 162kg, a Rotax Max kart roughly weighs 80kg, and 13 stone is 82.5kg, so add them up and it would be 162.5kg, so you would be fine for the most popular senior kart class at the moment. Even then there are other senior classes such as Prokart, Biland, TKM Extreme, TKM 4, World Formula etc. etc. and the 6Ft part really isn't a problem, there are taller people than that, that race.
sprinting is cheap and requires no additional cost but time on track is limited. you need make no modificaion to the car to run in road going classes. helmet and probans are £100 each (people will say you should spend more than that, "you only have one head etc" but in a tin top on a circuit you will probably only hit the same speeds you would on a clear motorway and we dont wear helmets on the M4 do we?), license £25, away you go...
rallying costs bucket loads, think of all the additional costs like service crews, accomadation and car prep...racing is probably the same, tow car + fuel, car prep, etc people already involved do tend to forget these "sunk costs". when i looked at the mighty mini series, i was told a season can be done on about £3-4K which got me excited, then i was told to build a car and get everything ready for the FIRST season, tow car, trailer, race car build, safety gear, ARDS, etc, i should budget £10K. so i went marshalling instead.
cheapest way into motorsport, join your local motor club, be friendly to everyone, ask if anyone is willing to let you share their car and offer to share the costs of consumables, be friendly, offer to help out at events, marshal etc, someone will accept your offer and away you go, be friendly, you might get a one-off you might get lucky and get a season...
rallying costs bucket loads, think of all the additional costs like service crews, accomadation and car prep...racing is probably the same, tow car + fuel, car prep, etc people already involved do tend to forget these "sunk costs". when i looked at the mighty mini series, i was told a season can be done on about £3-4K which got me excited, then i was told to build a car and get everything ready for the FIRST season, tow car, trailer, race car build, safety gear, ARDS, etc, i should budget £10K. so i went marshalling instead.
cheapest way into motorsport, join your local motor club, be friendly to everyone, ask if anyone is willing to let you share their car and offer to share the costs of consumables, be friendly, offer to help out at events, marshal etc, someone will accept your offer and away you go, be friendly, you might get a one-off you might get lucky and get a season...
heres the 750 mc web site for stock hatch, with over 120 registered competiters it one of the most popular
http://www.750mc.co.uk/racing.php
http://www.750mc.co.uk/racing.php
One of the factors that affects the cost of motorsport is the level of preparation required to your car, any of the power events - racing, sprinting, hillclimbs, etc - put the emphasis on the outright performance of your car and horsepower costs.
Other factors are the cost of entering, the cost of safety equipment (helmet, fireproof suit, roll cage etc), and the cost of repairing any damage.
There are two forms of motorsport in which outright power is not a factor, there is no requirement for extra safety equipment and the entry fees are a fraction of those for the events mentioned above.
They are Autotests and Autosolo
Autotests involve following a course around cones usually in a car park, the route usually involves the need to stop astride lines and reverse. Autosolos also require you to follow a route around the cones but this is all forwards.
Autotests are run at all levels from local club events on grass to international team events. The grass events mean the transmission does not get the punishment that it does on tarmac. Handbrake turns and reverse spin turns improve your times as you develop the skills.
With no stopping and reversing, the mechanical components have a much easier life with only the tyres tending to wear. Autosolo events are growing in popularity and there is a reasonable coverage around the country. Your car must be road legal and be driven to the event and we see everything from small hatchbacks to large saloons as well as sportscars.
As with club level autotests, you do not need a competition license to enter an autosolo.
I am running an autosolo on July 20th near Rugby, if you would like more details take a look at http://www.warwickshiredrivers.co.uk/
Other factors are the cost of entering, the cost of safety equipment (helmet, fireproof suit, roll cage etc), and the cost of repairing any damage.
There are two forms of motorsport in which outright power is not a factor, there is no requirement for extra safety equipment and the entry fees are a fraction of those for the events mentioned above.
They are Autotests and Autosolo
Autotests involve following a course around cones usually in a car park, the route usually involves the need to stop astride lines and reverse. Autosolos also require you to follow a route around the cones but this is all forwards.
Autotests are run at all levels from local club events on grass to international team events. The grass events mean the transmission does not get the punishment that it does on tarmac. Handbrake turns and reverse spin turns improve your times as you develop the skills.
With no stopping and reversing, the mechanical components have a much easier life with only the tyres tending to wear. Autosolo events are growing in popularity and there is a reasonable coverage around the country. Your car must be road legal and be driven to the event and we see everything from small hatchbacks to large saloons as well as sportscars.
As with club level autotests, you do not need a competition license to enter an autosolo.
I am running an autosolo on July 20th near Rugby, if you would like more details take a look at http://www.warwickshiredrivers.co.uk/
Fiat Racing Challenge is a good place for entry level to motorsport and running costs are about as cheap as you are going to get. Whereabouts are you in the country? We are on this Saturday at Oulton. Failing that if you are in the midlands area please feel free to contact us and we would be willing to give you more information about it or meet up for a chat.
For an idea of costs click on the below link.
http://fiatracer28.blogspot.com/
For an idea of costs click on the below link.
http://fiatracer28.blogspot.com/
mgbgt said:
One of the factors that affects the cost of motorsport is the level of preparation required to your car, any of the power events - racing, sprinting, hillclimbs, etc - put the emphasis on the outright performance of your car and horsepower costs.
Other factors are the cost of entering, the cost of safety equipment (helmet, fireproof suit, roll cage etc), and the cost of repairing any damage.
There are two forms of motorsport in which outright power is not a factor, there is no requirement for extra safety equipment and the entry fees are a fraction of those for the events mentioned above.
They are Autotests and Autosolo
Autotests involve following a course around cones usually in a car park, the route usually involves the need to stop astride lines and reverse. Autosolos also require you to follow a route around the cones but this is all forwards.
Autotests are run at all levels from local club events on grass to international team events. The grass events mean the transmission does not get the punishment that it does on tarmac. Handbrake turns and reverse spin turns improve your times as you develop the skills.
With no stopping and reversing, the mechanical components have a much easier life with only the tyres tending to wear. Autosolo events are growing in popularity and there is a reasonable coverage around the country. Your car must be road legal and be driven to the event and we see everything from small hatchbacks to large saloons as well as sportscars.
As with club level autotests, you do not need a competition license to enter an autosolo.
I am running an autosolo on July 20th near Rugby, if you would like more details take a look at http://www.warwickshiredrivers.co.uk/
outright power will not win you a sprint or a hillclimb, the ability to be quick "out of the box" is far more important. having marshalled at a lot of sprints, its the people who are smooth and do not need numerous laps to get up to speed who are quick. sure, power helps but its not everything. plus, in class structure based motorsport, you are hard pushed to ever have much more horsepower than anyone else and in sprints, only a very small majority are what could be classed as "trophy collectors" and spend ££££ on a car just to win.Other factors are the cost of entering, the cost of safety equipment (helmet, fireproof suit, roll cage etc), and the cost of repairing any damage.
There are two forms of motorsport in which outright power is not a factor, there is no requirement for extra safety equipment and the entry fees are a fraction of those for the events mentioned above.
They are Autotests and Autosolo
Autotests involve following a course around cones usually in a car park, the route usually involves the need to stop astride lines and reverse. Autosolos also require you to follow a route around the cones but this is all forwards.
Autotests are run at all levels from local club events on grass to international team events. The grass events mean the transmission does not get the punishment that it does on tarmac. Handbrake turns and reverse spin turns improve your times as you develop the skills.
With no stopping and reversing, the mechanical components have a much easier life with only the tyres tending to wear. Autosolo events are growing in popularity and there is a reasonable coverage around the country. Your car must be road legal and be driven to the event and we see everything from small hatchbacks to large saloons as well as sportscars.
As with club level autotests, you do not need a competition license to enter an autosolo.
I am running an autosolo on July 20th near Rugby, if you would like more details take a look at http://www.warwickshiredrivers.co.uk/
I'd thoroughly recommend the Fiats and, despite usually giving Racing Pete grief (plus most of my toolkit usually) in the Ginetta G20's, I'm returning to the Fiats at Oulton this weekend...
I have no idea whose car I've actually borrowed yet but that's a benefit of the series in that they're friendly enough to always help out in order to ensure that the action is on track and not stuck in someones garage.
Pete - if you fancy a challenge - why not join them as well (or I'm happy to take PH sponsorship if you're feeling generous?!).
I have no idea whose car I've actually borrowed yet but that's a benefit of the series in that they're friendly enough to always help out in order to ensure that the action is on track and not stuck in someones garage.
Pete - if you fancy a challenge - why not join them as well (or I'm happy to take PH sponsorship if you're feeling generous?!).
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