How to race as cheaply as possible? (Page 1 of 2)

You are missing a few things, a cage for one. It’s racing for cheap cars, not necessarily cheap racing.

Cheapest way is to buy a seat. Teams are always looking for more drivers, so you can be an “arrive and drive”. Typically this is around $700 per race.

If you want to run your own team, then Buy an already built car. You can buy them for pennies on the dollar.

Race gear can be rented. Racesuitrentals.com. Will be cheaper in the long run to buy your own stuff, if you plan to keep on doing it.

Thanks for the tip on renting gear. I semi-intentionally omitted the cage as I'm not really sure what it's going to cost yet, but since I work at a shop I don't think it's going to cost me much more than the cost of tubing and plate.

Perhaps the title should have read "How to get into a Lemons race as cheaply as possible"...

Great...now go read it 6 more times and print out a copy to keep in the bathroom.

Nothing sucks more than seeing a team get told they can't race this weekend because of some small detail they overlooked.
Usually this happens when you get someone to build a cage that thinks they "have a better way"..this never works out well...

The cars may look like shit,and the drivers may look like out-of-work circus clowns,but safety is taken VERY seriously....
You theme may be rockin',and your driving suit may look sharp,but if you don't pass tech,you don't race.......

And don't be shy about coming in here and asking questions.We were all rookies once,too......

No such thing as chap and a race car.  Lemons is probably the cheapest league to race in but you will have $4-5,000 into your car before you hit the track. We paid $3600 for the cage alone. It is much cheaper to buy a finished car. Look on c-list, ebay and racing junk. If you aren't picky about what you want to drive. That said it is a lot of fun....

Buy a car that has been raced multiple times. You’re saving hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars in building costs. Find out how many races the car has finished. Ask what it’s weaknesses are. Use your unspent time and money fixing those things.

I'll forth buying someone else's car. I sold a class winning, consistent top 10 on the West Coast car with spares for $2500. Our build cost on that car was at least 3 times that.
Another car that we sold was just bought back with a blown motor for $200. I don't like the cage on that car, the reason it was sold in the first place, but there is $1500-2000 worth of suspension on that car and that I couldn't pass up.

I hear you guys but TBH I'm looking forward to picking out a car and making it race ready more than anything else. Also, I'm getting a nagging feeling I'm missing something about this roll cage thing. Are most people here just not big on welding? It seems like if you have a welder/angle grinder/tubing bender you should only have to pay for materials themselves right?

Oh, and if you're unsure about something email Pagel.  He's incredibly helpful and he will have the final say if you get to take your car on the track. 

There was a debate if removing my truck bed was legal or not.  I emailed him.  After hearing about my theme he wanted to learn more about the truck as he had just failed another team at a race with the same theme.  That team spent thousands of dollars to show up at a track and be told you're not racing with us.  The organizers guys want to see you succeed and be on the track, they may call you a fool, but they are cool with you if you are cool with them.  Be smart and email him any  questions before you glue it all together (not afterwards like I did).  We got lucky, but we also studied the rules closely before the build and attended a race as a spectator.  The harder you work on your theme, the more lenient they are towards you in almost every aspect (not safety wise, they're strict as shit).

Right now they don't have spectators, but you can crew for a team.  I recommend attending a race before you start building.

Also consider checking craigslist and looking for project cars.  Plenty of unfinished projects out there that you can get a good deal on.

https://frederick.craigslist.org/cto/d/ … 21388.html sick, I wanna buy this, easy to find spare parts. 
https://richmond.craigslist.org/pts/d/r … 52480.html Its a Fiero, people will like you for that.  Buy this car if you like to wrench on cars at races.
https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva … 50283.html if you want something to save on Gas, use something like this.  If you put a big fuel cell in it, you wouldn't need to stop as often. 
https://fredericksburg.craigslist.org/p … 29086.html
https://richmond.craigslist.org/cto/d/r … 65076.html
https://frederick.craigslist.org/cto/d/ … 21388.html

I understand that. I had the same reasoning for getting my car. Let us know what you get.

Also, FWIW, the best thing we did after getting our car ready was go to a track day two months before the race. We uncovered issues that would have taken us out of the race early, and we got to practice our pit stops a bit. Well worth it.

For most people it's the fact that if you are not 100% confident in your ability it is not worth the risk that you do it wrong and hurt a team mate should you find yourself in a crash that requires the cage to work. That's the blunt answer.

If you've never built a cage before, it's more complicated than you think, but it is completely doable. I've built 2 now. One all from scratch, one from a kit. Getting the cage to fit nice and tight to the car so that you have the required head room takes a lot of time and planning. Building door bars that both protect you as much as possible but allow fast egress in an emergency takes time and planning. You also need to be confident enough in your welding to do it laying upside down with 1 arm in a stupid position while barely being able to see. And never, ever, take an angle grinder to a weld or tube on the cage. Ground welds are a fail. Ground tubes are a fail. Read all the rules many more times.

I also enjoy the car prep almost more than the racing. It just took a long time for me to research everything I needed to on how to build a cage, and practice my welding enough to be confident that I could build a cage that would protect my family should it ever get tested. (my team is my dad, my siblings, and me). I was ambidextrous with a MIG welder before I even thought about trying a cage. Crashes in Lemons bad enough to test your cage do happen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rRqRKC0nG8

As for doing this as cheap as possible, I applaud the idea, but please do not skimp on safety. Buy a cheap car, use on hand parts, do dumb things with motors, use cheap tires, build anything yourself that you can, whatever. But do not skimp on safety. Brakes are often overlooked by new teams. BUY GOOD BRAKES. That video I liked of the crash at thompson? They were using cheap street fluid and boiled it. Having also boiled brakes, it's terrifying and rarely gives you warning. Put real race fluid in your car, buy a moisture tester (they are like $20 on amazon), and test your fluid before each race. Buy good pads. ST43s are the magic pad for this, but they will cost a bunch. They are worth it though. Buy a good set of belts. Cheap belts are almost impossible to get tight enough which puts you at risk. Crow makes a nice set that doesn't hit Scroth levels of money. Buy good gear too. Personally fire scares me more than anything else in racing. I'm happy to have bought a nicer suit to replace my cheap intro one that was just heavy cotton instead of nomex. Basically I'm trying to say don't let your pursuit of doing this as cheap as possible end up making you compromise on the safety of you or your team mates. Lemons is cheap racing, but it sure isn't cheap.

Yes, I got a roll cage components kit for my E36. It wasn't the Lemons one, it was an E36 specific one with some extra pieces that I wanted. I'm one of the few people who had bad experiences with them. My kit was missing some pieces and the door bars were not what I asked for. Never got a response to any of my requests for making it right. Ended up just making my own pieces. Was years ago at this point. Most people have nothing but good experiences with roll cage components.

The Saab I built the cage from scratch. I did it backwards. I bought the kit for the BMW, then built the Saab cage, then installed the BMW kit. Should have done the other way round, but life had other plans.