recommend a budget race series

[andye30m3]

Hi

I've been sprinting this year but quite fancy entering a race series next year. What would you recommend based on the following

- RWD, quite fancy this as a challenge
- prefer single make to avoid being beaten by a newer / more expensive car
- budget would be around £6k for the car.
- must be a series which is going to be around for a while, don't want an obsolete car at the end of the year
- prefer as close to standard as possible with little adjustment to the car available as i simply have no experience of setting up a car.
- I'm based in the south east so a series with favors the more southerly circuits would be good.
- Ideally cheap to run.

Considerations so far are

- 750mc MR2
- Mx5
- low class of the kuhmo bmw championship

any other ideas / options.

Edited by andye30m3 on Wednesday 16th September 23:02

[1]

andye30m3 said:

Considerations so far are

- 750mc MR2
- Mx5
- low class of the kuhmo bmw championship

any other ideas / options.

The only others I can think of are 750mc Lo-Cost and PBMW. If you do a search for "Budget Racing" you will find each series discussed at length.

[Graham]

mg midget challenge, class C in TVR Challenge.

[BobM]

You might also want to look at the 750MC RGB - maybe a bit of tinkering required but they're all standard bike engines so you don't get the cheque book tuning/rebuild issues of some of the formulae. Class C Fireblade engines can be had for £500 or less, second hand cars within your budget and cos the cars are so light running costs in terms of brakes, tyres etc. are reasonable.

We're usually running grids of 26 or so cars so looking pretty healthy. Friendly lot too

[chris_w]

Hi Andy, you're making the jump that I made this year, albeit using our sprint car.

Your series spec seems to almost completely fit with the Prod BMW series, not sure about costs but they appear to be fairly limited in terms of spec:

http://www.pbmwc.co.uk/

Calendar is mixed and not exclusively SE based but you can also do Toyo Tyres rounds as well by the looks of it.

In terms of staying local, the obvious series is the SEMSEC saloons which is largely based at Lydden with a couple of rounds at Brands. Then there are the BARC SE two series, the Dunlop Motoring News for more developed cars running slicks and the Tin Tops series which would suit your spec better (and you could run a PBMW in Tin Top rounds if you wanted to pick and mix your rounds - I'm sure there are a couple of PBMW cars already running in the series).

http://www.rodbirley.com/

Edited by chris_w on Friday 18th September 09:31

[Britcar David]

Porsche 924 Championship.

Ready to go cars available for 4k with trailers. Running costs, 1-2 sets of tyres for a year (£280ish a set) £300 entry fees for qual and 2 x 20min races. Great competition and a good crowd of drivers.

http://www.porscheracingdrivers.co.uk/

[ginettajoe]

Britcar David said:

Porsche 924 Championship.

Ready to go cars available for 4k with trailers. Running costs, 1-2 sets of tyres for a year (£280ish a set) £300 entry fees for qual and 2 x 20min races. Great competition and a good crowd of drivers.

http://www.porscheracingdrivers.co.uk/

...... but he stated something that is going to be around for a long time!!! The 924's will be superseded by the Boxter series which is well above his budget! MX5's with Ma5daracing is the ideal championship! Good hospitality at every round, television covereage at every round, and ready to race cars for £4500 - £5000. It just so happens I have a race ready car for sale

[andye30m3]

Cheers for the replies, gives me a few things to think about.

I did look at the 924 championship but as said above was slightly concerned it will be phased out once the boxster championship is up to strength. I don't really want to spend too much until I know if I going to be competitive and the boxster engine reliability / replacement cost would slightly concern me.


I'll have a look through the various regs and entry fees over the next couple of days.

[VX Foxy]

I'd say PBMW if cost is your main consideration. Great fun despite the relatively low power of the cars - it's very competetive and closely scrutinised. It is the ethos of the series to keep costs down and remove the chequebook racing element.

[stacy]

As several people have said, PBMW.

If I was starting out again, it's what I would be doing.

S.

[andye30m3]

Thanks again for the replies,

I'm thinking the PBMW could be the way forward, just need to sell the old stockhatch 205 to make some space.

[stacy]

You could run the 205 in TTRS alongside the PBMW while you're hunting around for a car, there are a couple of ex Stock Hatchers doing the same.

Still get the £100 entry fees (£200 for double headers), proper circuits and all the rest of it, and still in with a shout in your class.

S.

Edited by stacy on Friday 18th September 11:40

[cytefx]

I have enjoyed a very good year in the Kumho (class d) 318is and definatly it could be done cheaply, I did not spend everything on it, but there was some decisions that would of made it cheeper for me, I missed the first 4 races, but still managed to do the rest (so far)

[stacy]

Kumho's a good series, but an outright winning budget is /at least/ 20x an outright winning budget in PBMW..

S.

[MattB13]

Hi, you could also consider MaX5 Racing. Not quite as populated as Ma5da, but still great fun nonetheless. Plus, we're a great bunch and we promise you'll have a great time!!

Have a look at the site....

www.max5racing.co.uk

[VX Foxy]

MattB13 said:

Not quite as populated as Ma5da

You could say that! http://www.oddballracing.com/uk_motorsport_grid_si...
To be fair, I'm sure the table's out of date.

MattB13 said:

Have a look at the site....

www.max5racing.co.uk

Have you visited recently - think it's down

Edited by VX Foxy on Friday 18th September 22:58

[stacy]

Table is a few rounds out of date, but nothing disastrously misleading...

S.

[ginettajoe]

MattB13 said:

Hi, you could also consider MaX5 Racing. Not quite as populated as Ma5da, but still great fun nonetheless. Plus, we're a great bunch and we promise you'll have a great time!!

Have a look at the site....

www.max5racing.co.uk

I think you'll find that series has died. The race at Thruxton a couple of weeks ago was cancelled due to lack of entries,........ a grid of six cars is like watching paint dry!!!

Edited by ginettajoe on Saturday 19th September 01:45

[stacy]

MattB13 said:

Hi, you could also consider MaX5 Racing. Not quite as populated as Ma5da, but still great fun nonetheless. Plus, we're a great bunch and we promise you'll have a great time!!

Have a look at the site....

www.max5racing.co.uk

... and here is what I think is wrong with motorsport in the UK today - too many fiefdoms driven by social gathering and not competition. If the regulatory functions worked, or even could work as intended, this discussion wouldn't have taken place. Max5 put on 5 cars at more than one circuit this year and peaked at 9 once.

Clearly it wasn't profitable enough to sustain the circuit costs, and yet it struggled on in the hope of "jam tomorrow" when there was a clear place elsewhere for the cars to run unmodified.

The MSA can't police it because the committee that was tasked with doing so, which we haven't heard from in a while, was staffed with the organizing clubs who represented the very fiefdoms whose interests were served by the maintenance of the status quo - either through social circles, profit, or something near a gang mentality. The end result is a plethora (over 100) club racing series, of which near 50% don't make 20 cars.

Not only does this detriment all of us in terms of show, entertainment, and a lack of clarity of structure, it ultimately threatens the sport we know and love. At sub 20 cars the entry fees need to be high to stay afloat, and many only just wipe their face. These are often subsidised by clubs spreading the load from their more successful championships. This artifically increased footprint conflicts with the reduced number of race days open to us, and ultimately a non profitable business will close - if BARC/MSVR (heaven forbid) left us I'm sure some of our favourite circuits would end up as housing estates.

If club racing has a 10-20 year view there needs to be some serious change in how series and championships are managed in the UK. My personal belief is that there should be a set of permanent protected series, and the rest produce 20 car grids as a minimum or are /forced/ to merge. This requires buy in from the circuit owners, the MSA, and the organizing clubs but it shouldn't be beyond the wit of man to achieve. In fact we can't afford for it to be beyond the wit of man to achieve..

Right, that's it - I'm off the soap box and off for some breakfast.

;-)

S.

Edited by stacy on Saturday 19th September 10:45

Edited by stacy on Saturday 19th September 10:45

[anonymous-user]

stacy said:

MattB13 said:

Hi, you could also consider MaX5 Racing. Not quite as populated as Ma5da, but still great fun nonetheless. Plus, we're a great bunch and we promise you'll have a great time!!

Have a look at the site....

www.max5racing.co.uk

... and here is what I think is wrong with motorsport in the UK today - too many fiefdoms driven by social gathering and not competition. If the regulatory functions worked, or even could work as intended, this discussion wouldn't have taken place. Max5 put on 5 cars at more than one circuit this year and peaked at 9 once.

Clearly it wasn't profitable enough to sustain the circuit costs, and yet it struggled on in the hope of "jam tomorrow" when there was a clear place elsewhere for the cars to run unmodified.

The MSA can't police it because the committee that was tasked with doing so, which we haven't heard from in a while, was staffed with the organizing clubs who represented the very fiefdoms whose interests were served by the maintenance of the status quo - either through social circles, profit, or something near a gang mentality. The end result is a plethora (over 100) club racing series, of which near 50% don't make 20 cars.

Not only does this detriment all of us in terms of show, entertainment, and a lack of clarity of structure, it ultimately threatens the sport we know and love. At sub 20 cars the entry fees need to be high to stay afloat, and many only just wipe their face. These are often subsidised by clubs spreading the load from their more successful championships. This artifically increased footprint conflicts with the reduced number of race days open to us, and ultimately a non profitable business will close - if BARC/MSVR (heaven forbid) left us I'm sure some of our favourite circuits would end up as housing estates.

If club racing has a 10-20 year view there needs to be some serious change in how series and championships are managed in the UK. My personal belief is that there should be a set of permanent protected series, and the rest produce 20 car grids as a minimum or are /forced/ to merge. This requires buy in from the circuit owners, the MSA, and the organizing clubs but it shouldn't be beyond the wit of man to achieve. In fact we can't afford for it to be beyond the wit of man to achieve..

Right, that's it - I'm off the soap box and off for some breakfast.

;-)

S.

Edited by stacy on Saturday 19th September 10:45

Edited by stacy on Saturday 19th September 10:45

top comment, i have been saying something similar for years... too many championships set up by people with a deeply vested interest in it for their personal gain not the longevity of club motorsport