The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Newcomers → This racing thing is expensive
I know of teams charging $1300 per seat, per race.
KT
I know of teams charging $1300 per seat, per race.
KT
WHAT?!?!? Pfffftttt!!! Are you SH@#$%NG me? One of our prospective drivers balked at $650!
Of course, you do get what you pay for...
One of our prospective drivers balked at $650!
Of course, you do get what you pay for...
Perhaps you shouldn't start your sales pitch with that avatar photo. Save it for somewhere in the middle.
trekkor wrote:I know of teams charging $1300 per seat, per race.
KT
WHAT?!?!? Pfffftttt!!! Are you SH@#$%NG me? One of our prospective drivers balked at $650!
Of course, you do get what you pay for...
Your car has a history of bad things happening to it, so you have to sell the car and seat together which isn't worth as much. Now if you only charged for the seat like the other team, you might get some takers. 
Our Kirky Racing seat cost $380.00 and we charge people $500 to $600 to sit in it.:D
I am completely new to Lemons and have found the initial investment to be expensive. My first race will be at CMP with the topgear team. I guess I am lucky that the team leader already purchased the car, and safety equipment for the car (cage, seat...) , but buying all of the personal safety equipment is not cheap, and then entry fees, splitting gas etc.
If you are used to racing in NASA or other organizations you may be used to far greater expenses and Lemons is a deal to you, but to others on a stiffer budget I can see where it could be seen as expensive.
any form of motorsports is a relatively spendy hobby, especially if you want to be competitive. even "cheap" racing is a hell of a lot more expensive than bird-watching.
I know of teams charging $1300 per seat, per race.
KT
Depending on the car...this is reasonable....if you are racing an old school american iron with a (cheater) V8 that needs 100 octane....you could spend $1500 on fuel....easy...$7.80 per gallon adds up QUICK...
Even running our kinda fuel efficient V8 at 10 gallons an hour....we still spent $740 in gas for 91 octane @ $4.40 a gallon
Serious race machines can burn 20 gallons an hour easy
We ran from a starting of $500, to $600 (w/ 6 drivers), and still have about $400 in unpaid expenses that I'll have to mix into the budget of this year.
Even with a caged and running car that could go out and run again with some rod bearings, I'm changing to a larger engine, adding a supercharger, changing some suspension bushings, tires, and maybe a brake upgrade. Won't be any cheaper probably, evil if Jay lets me put a standalone ECU on the car.
I believe in something that I call rationaliztion accounting. Here are some examples.
1. Racing is much cheaper than boating, any time I think I am paying to much for my hobbies I ask some poor slob with a boat what he has spent lately. I look like I have taken vow of frugality compared to them.
2. I don't usually buy new cars. When you drive off the lot you loose 5k therefore I just saved 5k. I can now spend that.
3. I don't have a car payment right now. Most everybody else does and all that payment does every month is pay the depreciation. That payment I am not making paid for my new helmet, nomex undies and race suit this month.
4. RACING IS MUCH CHEAPER THAN A GIRLFRIEND especially if you have a wife.
I ran SCCA & IMSA for 15 years plus several seasons of pro-rally. When I finally married and moved into a new a house I showed my wife a stack of finish results sheets from all the races I had run telling her 'honey, if I didn't have this stack of papers we could have paid cash for the house".
She asked 'did you have fun?' .... I knew I married the right girl.
She has no complaints about Lemons. It's only once or twice per year and WAY cheaper than any other form of car silliness that I've engaged in.
A year and a half ago I had the opportunity to buy an '06 Mustang GT for significantly less than what it was worth. I decided not to buy it because it was going to really tighten up our family budget. My wife told me to buy it. She's wonderful and I let her drive it on occasion.
"Sparky" Pete wrote:One of our prospective drivers balked at $650!
Of course, you do get what you pay for...
Perhaps you shouldn't start your sales pitch with that avatar photo. Save it for somewhere in the middle.
or leave the photo in and charge some extra for flight training ............
mharrell wrote:"Sparky" Pete wrote:One of our prospective drivers balked at $650!
Of course, you do get what you pay for...
Perhaps you shouldn't start your sales pitch with that avatar photo. Save it for somewhere in the middle.
or leave the photo in and charge some extra for flight training ............
From where I sit, the avatar is a good thing...If you're not upside down, you're not trying hard enough...
I am completely new to Lemons and have found the initial investment to be expensive. My first race will be at CMP with the topgear team..
How did you happen to get the TOPGEAR from england the hate the USA?
Maybe you guys have heard this one; I read it a few years ago:
"A race car is a very efficient machine for turning money into noise."
Wow, first Lemons race cost us (5 guys) $922 ea. May have to find an alternative to pulling the car with a motorhome that gets 5 miles per gallon! Also, figured to lower costs on next race but now we're gonna need head resurfaced, head gasket, clutch, radiator and maybe a tranny! YIKES!
We've gotten in down to about $450-500 ea. per race, but we've been doing this for a while and have plenty of 'sunk' costs that we have amortized over the last 3 years...
This time it is only a water pump and a u-pull axle shaft, the less-contact rules have considerably lowered our body shop frame rack bills!
If I was going to offer a seat, it would be $6-700 depending on what the potential driver brought to the team. But yeah, racing is expensive- we've turned $25k+ into noise and rubber dust over the last 3 years, along with hundreds of man-hours of 'yeah, bring the welder and some pop rivets.'
I have two Spec pinata guys on my team, and they think that Lemons is the bargain of the century. We're not exactly money wasters, but we each had about $1200 into the initial build and personal safety gear. We'll start the amortization this year, and the per-race cost comes down as you go.
I think $1200 to own a share of a car and get to race is pretty freaking awesome.
Another way to get the wife to stop complaining about racing: addict the wife to racing. That's why my husband did - smart dude. Now I'm the one that gets pissed when miss opportunities to race. For example:
Me - "What do you mean we're missing the Dallas race? I heard that track was epic, damn it!"
Husband - "We already have plans."
Me - "What, is your mother coming to town? Can't we just... stuff her in a hotel somewhere?"
Husband - "No, we're missing it because I'm taking you to France to see the *real* 24 hours of LeMans!"
Me - "You are the best. husband. ever."
I'm in need of an independently wealthy mistress who sees no greater excitement than road-racing a TON of different types of cars, and also happens to find me completely endearing. You got a clone or something somewhere doctawife? 
I'm in need of an independently wealthy mistress who sees no greater excitement than road-racing a TON of different types of cars, and also happens to find me completely endearing. You got a clone or something somewhere doctawife?
No clones... And I hate to break it to you Serj, usually with mistresses *you* pay *them*. What you mean to say is, "I need to become a boytoy to an independently wealthy woman who..." 
Tonight one of my residents asked me how much I thought we had spent over the last two years of racing. By the time I got through one year of math, I quit. Putting an aggrigate number to this sport sucks the fun away.
So I refuse. Take that, fiscal responsibility! I poop on you!
Hey Doc, what's this "aggrigate" you speak of ? Btw, if anything ever happens to your hubby....:)
Tonight one of my residents asked me how much I thought we had spent over the last two years of racing. By the time I got through one year of math, I quit. Putting an aggrigate number to this sport sucks the fun away.
So I refuse. Take that, fiscal responsibility! I poop on you!
LOL, I give my enduring spouse a number at the beginning of the year, and then we just deal with it. I've never been the financial brains of the operation at home, I just make the money. It's kind of funny that it took me so long to find an efficient way of spending it!
Another way to get the wife to stop complaining about racing: addict the wife to racing.
tried that...didn't take. but she lets me do what i do, which is a win in my book.
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