Circuit racing or rallying?

[bluepony]

I want to start competing - I've always loved watching the WRC on tv and having driven a WRX on loose gravel a few times loved it - however track days have also been great fun and maybe circuit driving will be fun also?

Budget: Maybe £10k ish for a car and same again for the season. Next year £20k plus for season..

Thoughts?

[anonymous-user]

rallying is very labour intensive, not only do you require a co-driver but you will need a support crew, sure you can do with a few hands circuit racing but its not absolutely essential.

i think you need to explore the many race and rally series that are out there, single seaters, saloon cars, GT-esque, historic etc before making a big decision.

[bluepony]

Good point - circuit driving - was thinking production BMW or Porsche club (like in a 944 or similar).

[BertBert]

My impression is that porky racing will be reasonably expensive. If you are not sure, why not try a couple of races in say a rented Caterham. Go in at the bottom of the grad racing and you'll see if you like it.
Bert

[NJH]

Depends on the model and which championship/series you run it in. The cost to run a 924 for example in Porsche drivers for a whole season is not far off the cost of a single race in a 996/997 cup car ran in the PCGB gt3 thing. There is also a sizeable cost differential between competing in the PCGB club championship and the CSCC Future Classics or Deutsche Marques series even in the same car.

This question is also complicated by many other factors, not least the extra effort from those competing to win the club championship. You hear wildly different estimates ranging from less than £10K a year to turn up in a 944 (I was quoted £8K spend by someone who ran in class 2 a couple or 3 years back), doing all the races supported by your self up to several times that by some of the front runners.

There is a 3rd dimension to all of this which is not about money, the club championship is extraordinarily competitive. The past couple of seasons now has seen a grid chock full of former champions including this guy;
http://history.fiagt.com/driverinfo.php?drivername...
not to put to fine a point on it but a rookie on a budget is going to get their arse handed to them by those guys. Maybe better to start elsewhere and move on up?

[anonymous-user]

to be honest, if you are leaning towards circuits, my advice would be to keep your options open and not pin your choices down to a particular marque or model, have a hunt around for a secondhand car that fits the budget, where spares are affordable and easily available, that offers good sized grids and where you get a good deal of track time.

you might also benefit from a day at something like the palmersport experience trying a few different things out, clios, caterhams, sports cars and single seaters to see what you prefer as you can get all four for your outlay/season budget.

[Piglet]

Have you raced at all?

I'd have thought starting with something like the MSV Trackday trophy would be a good starting point. Lots of rookies, well controlled driving standards and lots of support http://www.trackdaytrophy.co.uk/

Or something like PBMW if you're interested in Beemers - a really nice club feel, lots of support and big grids http://www.pbmwc.co.uk/news/news001.php

Run by the same club (Project8 Racing) is Project 8 Racing Saloons - previously TTRS again a really nice club feel, driving standards enforced by a driving standards committee and lots of support.

There are similar series around but these are all good places to start.

[andy rob]

I'd buy a cheap proven stock hatch car, learn to drive it then, get used to the scene, then buy a proper car.Learn with a low power but good handling car & this will help you lots
I circuit race too & like rallying but rallying costs a fair more for a similar car & you need a lot of people to help you + when you go off @ say brands hatch you end up (usally) in a gravel trap & have a freindly marshal to talk to for the rest of the race, if you have an off in rallying you normally hit something put there by nature thats very solid, & after wrecking your car you are miles from any help

[bluepony]

Good points all round. I'm looking into the grass roots stuff as we speak.

[mat205125]

pablo said:

to be honest, if you are leaning towards circuits, my advice would be to keep your options open and not pin your choices down to a particular marque or model, have a hunt around for a secondhand car that fits the budget, where spares are affordable and easily available, that offers good sized grids and where you get a good deal of track time.

There are plenty of simple, reliable, and servicable cars available to get started with, and a huge variety of series and championships to use such cars in.

Put aside the constraints of a one make series, or getting tied into a whole championship, and buy a car that can be used for a number of series, then cherry pick some rounds to get involved in on a variety of circuits ..... There are still a good number of the old honda engined Rover 216 GTis getting around for relative peanuts, for example.

[NJH]

To be fair though low end Porsche doesn't cost the earth to run and maintain, I did the sums the other night comparing buying and running a 944 S2 in CSCC to a MKIII MX-5 in the Ma5da cup. The numbers come out more or less the same and I know from being around those cars for more than a decade how robust they are, this is why they cost so much to buy new in the first place.

[tristancliffe]

You could get a tidy single seater for £10k, and run a season happily on £10k, and then have £10k spare in your second year too.

Various 1000/1600/1800 and possibly 2000 cars for sale, with decent spares included for the money.

Obviously requires a bit more work to run a single seater, but it is a proper racing car, and will drive as such.

[ProCo2020]

Well I should be biased here as I'm a rally co-driver and have been involved in the sport for 16 years but if it's a Subaru and gravel you crave your budget is not going to be enough to purchase a competitive car, if that's what you want.

But if you want to go for something smaller, FWD, then you'll be able to get something competitive and I'd strongly recommend a 1400cc car and compete on the Silverstone 1400 Championship that runs on the BTRDA Championship.

The problem with your post on this forum is that this is a forum of roundy roundy arse chasers rather than dirty rallyists so you'll get their biased opinion rather than the biased opinion of a rallyman.

I suggest you go to www.britishrally.co.uk and post the same question there.

Rallying is dirty and you'll love it!