Single Seater racing on the cheap

[andy97]

That should have got your attention! We all want cheaper racing, I'm sure.

Although we all know that racing of any sort is not truly cheap I just want to bring to your attention a couple of opportunities that I try and take part in, that are probably cheaper to compete in than most others and yet which do not get too much coverage, The Monoposto Clubs 1800 Class and the BARC-SEC's single seater series.

Some people will already be aware of the Monoposto Racing Club but the Mono 1800 class is not well supported, yet. The Mono 1800 class allows FF Zetecs (upto 2001), F Vauxhall Junior 16V, and FF 2000 cars. FF Zetec cars can be bought for about 6-10 Grand whilst FVJ's can be had for 4-5 Grand (and second hand F Ford tyres from the National teams can be had for £10 per tyre). Entry fees are competitive with other clubs but Monoposto has a race at Spa. Come and join in, its a very friendly club, visit www.monoposto.co.uk

The BARC-SEC single seater series runs at Lydden, Snetterton and Silverstone Stowe. Its a sort of F Libre for up to 2 litre cars (including front engined mallock type clubmans chassis)and the track time and entry fees make it particularly good value - usually a 10 min practice, a 10 min race and a 20 min race for £100 at Stowe last year. Membership of the BARC is not required. Visit www.barc-se.co.uk

I am sure that more people would join in if they just knew that buying a car did not cost many thousands of pounds. Give it a go.

[loadsaaaTOP]

....forget all that, buy a jedi and you can race in the jedi challenge, mono or the BARC ss's or all 3 if you want!!

[andy97]

No problem with Jedis and the like - they are quick cars - but they can be 1.5 to 2 times as expensive to buy second hand as a F Vauxhall Junior or older FF Zetec. There must be loads of people with older Zetecs in their garage who don't realise that there is a place that they can race them. Similarly, there must be loads of people around who think that they will never be able to afford a single seater but who do not know exactly how cheap they can be to buy. Good luck with your Jedi and enjoy, but I could not have afforded one when I decided to get a race car just over 12 months ago. 5 Grand bought me an FVJ, a trailer, wets and slicks, spares, quick lift jack, slave battery and petrol can. Everything I needed to start out, in fact.

[ActiveMS]

Indeed both mono and the BARC-SS are excellent fun. Will hopefully be doing more BARC stuff this year, so see you all there.

[halecmini]

my father bought a 600 jedi last year,i have just bought a jedi 600, with few spares very tidy car and trailer, will be on a very tight budget this year but will hopefully have lots of fun, the jedi's are great cars!!! the mono club is good as is the jedi both racing is very clean and great fun! enjoy..

[Bob Pearson]

Cheap single seater racing isn't only generated by the choice of formula it is also a factor of how it is approached and how good the driver is at doing his own work.
We run BARC Renault cars for £3-4k per season per car and that is everything. That price is probably comparable with mono, jedi etc. Another interesting calculation is to look at your entry fees ( mono take note as I think you run with BRSCC)and work out the cost per mile on a race day, that gives a good pointer. I worked out BARC Renault's on a thread on 10/10ths some time ago and I believe the only thing that beat it was F Vee.

[RMR]

bob, what costs are included in 3-4k? any chance of a breakdown of engine rebuilds/tyres/entry fees/replacement damaged parts etc?

[Bob Pearson]

RMR,
Engines run for about 3 seasons and cost about £400 for a rebuild if you do it yourself.
Tyres can be found for about £10 a tyre from the TOCA Reanult boys. ( bear in mind my son won and broke the lap record at Oulton in 2002 on just such a set so they are still good)
Entry fees were £165 last year but a lot of the events are double header which brings the entry fee down.
We make a lot of our replacement parts ourselves, but a full set of wishbones to someone who can't produce them is about £1000. I realise that a lot of people aren't in a position to make their own kit, but I put the £3-4k figure in to demonstrate that it is possible as that figure includes petrol for transport and somr B&B and testing fees.
Of course a bad run of accidents would strain that figure somewhat, but we have had 42 car/starts over the last two seasons with testing at about 50% of those events with 3 car damaging offs.