New Driver needs help.

[Big Mark]

So all tests passed, all clothes bought, bugger new I'd forgotten something CAR!!!

Love the classics (capri, anglia anything 70s/80s)
Any idea's on where to get ready prepared car for litttle cash I can dream cant I.

Dont think for a second that a cheap car is going to be hot at the from of the grid but I have to learn and I am sure initially any car is going to be capble of more than I am.

Can't afford a full season this year but would love to do a few later in the year

Any words of advice please feel free to email me.

lotusmark2@aol.com

Thanks

Mark

[vaughan jones]

Look around for XR challenge car,most of them are round your area, because the series is based round NW tracks,lots of cars not used at present,contact the BRSCC,they might put in touch with championship co-ordinator,if you decide to race they certainly take your money????

[ss_collins]

I know of a good car but I'm not telling cos I want it!

[Big Mark]

Well thats just mean SS.

I am more interested in 70's clasic racing than XR's but thanks for the suggesion Vaughan.

[Chris Y]

Classic racing is always going to be a bit more expensive to get into, than slightly more modern saloon machinery.

If you're only doing a few races, then why not consider hiring a car? Best thing to do is identify what series you'd like to race in (check out the websites of the BRSCC, BARC, 750MC, etc) and then contact the championship co-ordinators of each series and find out if there's cars for sale, or hire..

If you need help identifying co-ordinators of championships, post here again and we can usually tell you, or point you in the right direction.

I race a Mighty Mini with the BRSCC. Generally considered low-cost for a BRSCC championship. Not exactly 70s cars, but the Mini was around in the 70s! There are some cars available, but they're generally between £2.5k - £5k for ready-built ones. There may be a hire car available at some point this year though.

I also race an MG Maestro. Perhaps not one of everyone's favourite cars, but they make excellent racers, and they're bloody cheap to buy and maintain! Considering you can pick up a fully prepared car for less than 1k, and the entry fees are almost £30 cheaper than the BRSCC (registration fee is much cheaper too), it's one of the cheapest saloon series around currently. It's the BARC/MGOC championship I'm referring to, and there's Maestros, MGZRs, MGFs, MGBs and Midgets. I know there's at least 1 or 2 Midgets/MGBs for hire, and a few Maestros for hire too.

Actually, a Midget would be a pretty good buy. There's a fair few championships you can enter with one, and they're fairly cheap and simple to maintain, I think.. Er, someone from a Midget background help me out here?

[imull]

SEMSEC run a championship at Lydden hill for Imp engined cars. Its non championship I think, so does not matter if you can or cant make all rounds. Basically open to: Imps, Clans, Ginetta G15

try http://www.clanownersclub.com/ there is a for sale list with several Clan Crusaders that were built for motorsport (Prodsports I think) and the club seems to be very helpful with a large stock of spares etc. they seem to go for between 1k and 2k.

Its fibre glass so no rust, very strong, simple and pretty quick in the right hands. I think there is also a couple doing 750MC races and pretty much every other form of motorsport too.

[binky]

How about a kit car, such as a Sylva Striker or a Westfield SE? You could pick up a track ready car for about £5 grand, fast, forgiving handling, and fun! Most already have a decent roll cage, and a battery cutout switch & fire extinguisher are cheap & easy to install.
Look in the Kit Car magazines, and perhaps CCC or Motoring News.
Insurance is very cheap, if you were intending on using it as a road car too, or entering a road legal championship.

[zefarelly]

Im scraping beans together to get my test done and race suit etc . . . . .Ive got a car . . .in bits . . . .I reckon with a few careful purchases of new and second hand stuff I can build a MK1 Cortina GT for about 4-5 grand

I paid £400 for the car to start with, could you not look at doing something like that? even keeping it road legal until its fully prepared if you havent got a garage?

[simon drabble]

when i started i raced in HSCC 70s Roadsport and for teh first 2 or 3 races hired a Lancia Fulvia off Richard Thorne (his contact details are on the website). It might not have been the quickest car but he was very helpful, showed me where to sign on etc.. and generally showed me the ropes. It is a very friendly series and they race at good historic meetings at good tracks rather than some of the more obscure ones!

[gfm]

Big Mark - please give us some sort of starting budget to focus upon. Some idea.

[Lee Janotta]

You could always build yourself a Locost.

[Big Mark]

Hi all
Thanks for the suggestions keep them coming.
ne slight problem is that I am 6ft 8" tall so that rule out kit cars/locost and other small cars.
Looking to get into a first car for £1000-£2000 find out if I really enjoy it before I spend a fortune.

[simon drabble]

Realistically I dont think you are going to buy anything for that so renting would be your only route, expect to pay in region of £500/750 plus insurance per race. Good luck!

[gfm]

I'm sure Peter Mallet (poster hereabouts) will suggest an early Capri 3 litre. Take a look in Motoring News, the newspapery one. Loads of competition prepped cars there and be prepared to do plenty of work yourself. Not a bad way to get started, and you'll fit.

[simon drabble]

for £1000/2000 and it will pass scrutineering?? not sure I would want to go on a track in one!

[Chris Y]

Like I said earlier, you can buy a fairly well prepared Maestro for about £1k. £2.5k would have bought you a proven race winner at the end of last year! Maestros are ridiculously cheap to maintain, too.

Check your PMs

[ss_collins]

yeah simon drabble, a racing car is not that expensive £2k will buy you a decent car, good enough to win championships.

[Peter Young]

Hi, email me for details and pics of our race prepared 82 capri. It is road registered too! We need to sell as we are losing storage space! It looks great too!
Regards
Peter peter.young27@ntlworld.com

[simon drabble]

given the intrinsic cost of building a race car I am very surprised that it is possible to get on a track in anything competitive for £2000. However I clearly stand corrected!
I guess you can only base these things on previous experience and I am not familiar with the dynamics of Maestro racing

[ascarracinguk]

look in this weeks autosport there is a fiat for sale for around 2500.... could be your thing... good racing too

[simon drabble]

I saw that as well but if you look at the original comments his interest was in Anglia's etc.. In fact there is one for sale for £8995 but this will be an ilegal car in 12 months time, so in 60's saloons I still maintain it will be tough to get out onto the grid for less than £10 000 and then you will be at the very back of the grid. In which case renting for first few races would be a better solution.

[Stacy]

Originally posted by simon drabble
I saw that as well but if you look at the original comments his interest was in Anglia's etc.. In fact there is one for sale for £8995 but this will be an ilegal car in 12 months time, so in 60's saloons I still maintain it will be tough to get out onto the grid for less than £10 000 and then you will be at the very back of the grid. In which case renting for first few races would be a better solution.

I'd have to vehemently disagree with that.

If he wants to go into Classic racing there are a number of options open to him;

2-3k would buy a competitive car in it's class in historics - from a Morris Minor in pre-66, to an XR3 or VW Golf in Pre-83. That Capri would be a great starter car as well by the sounds of it.

The plus point of the more stable classic areas are that a) you have top competition levels (Brian Steven's, Nigel Garrett, Skid Scarborough et al) with a sane lack of panel damage, and b) the stable regs mean the residual prices of the cars stay high. For example a fully competitive Escort RS2000 in Pre-74 and Pre-83 could be had for 6k, and in 3 years time you'd sell it for, er, 6k.

From experience I can tell you that classic racing is no more expensive than more modern machinery, as the variables which push the price up are the same in both arena's - Racing will swallow precisely the amount of money you're prepared to throw at it.

One other benefit of Classic racing is that if you have a Pre-74 car for example, you can run in both pre-74 and pre-83's and get two races per day. If you have a pre-83 car you can run in pre-83 and Classic Thunder.. A cheap way of getting extra races.

Mark, for more info see the clubs website at www.classictouringcars.com, or if you're interested see mine at www.thirtyfive.co.uk

My contact number is on there too if you want to chat.

I've no loyalty to the club other than believing it's the best place for me to spend my time for weekend escapism. You're guaranteed an honest view. It wasn't long ago I started racing myself so can remember what it's like..

Cheers

Stacy

[simon drabble]

well as a Morris Minor is regularly raced at Goodwood if you are right this could be the cheapest way to get a Goodwood entry!!
I can only speak from experience and say that I have not raced against any car that I think cost £2000. That is not to sound in any way elitist but just to stop Mark going out and buying some shagged out car that will fail at scrutineering

[Stacy]

Originally posted by simon drabble
well as a Morris Minor is regularly raced at Goodwood if you are right this could be the cheapest way to get a Goodwood entry!!
I can only speak from experience and say that I have not raced against any car that I think cost £2000. That is not to sound in any way elitist but just to stop Mark going out and buying some shagged out car that will fail at scrutineering

I don't think anything gets "raced" at Goodwood. An invitation is extended to a select number of people to take part in the staged procession though.. ;-)

As for Mark my advice would be to pick your car and championship to suit your budget. Obviously you don't want to buy a five shilling ****box, but on the other hand with the current fashion of classic racing there are a number of people asking stupid money for rather average cars. A race car is definitely not worth the sum of the parts..

You could never build a car for that money I agree, but you could buy one which was solid and passed scrutineering. A number of the cars in our club are raced on a very tight budget, and I did that myself before finding myself fortunate enough to spread my wings a little.

I'd say if you wanted to spend 2k you could find a car for the smaller engine capacity classes in the Classic Touring Car Racing Club's series - An XR3 would run in Group 1, my old Golf GTi from 99 is for sale and you could probably get it for 3, or indeed I've seen a couple of Fiat 127GT's in the past that would be very competitive I think in the 1300cc classes.

What you don't do of course is try and buy a 2k Mustang...

I agree with Simon with one fact though - It's easy to buy a shagged out wreck, so you must must take someone with you that knows not only about cars, but race cars, and indeed - the type of race car you're looking at.

Cheers

Stacy

[ss_collins]

You could easily build a car for 2k (I've done it), get it through scrute without a problem and it still be competetive and safe, highway saloons, road saloons, ford saloons class E, stock hatch etc etc.