[ Closed ] Looking to tent out seat (Page 1 of 2)

Lemons does not current race at a track in Kansas.

You need a completed, tech worthy car to charge for rentals and that takes 2-12 X longer than you think.

All that said, we can talk theoreticals.  You have no on-track pedigree so no one knows if you (more important than the actual car) are capable of taking the green and checkered each day....this is for the track whores who might be wary of this unless they have multiple rides lined up.  The car is complicated and difficult to work on at the track due to the packaging of everything...so a lot of the "fast" adventureous drivers will take this in combination with the former and likely take a pass until it has a track pedigree.

So now you are down to the core of arrive and drive drivers...newbies looking for a first ride and guys whose teams could not get it together for that specific race.  A big'ish pool.

For five drivers I would say likely 750-800 each max.  In short, you will cover your consumable costs plus MAYBE (likely not) $400 for the weekend.  Which is 1/15th of your build cost most likely.  If you and the car prove reliablen over time, that can creep up to $900...but likely not in Kansas if Lemons ever goes back.  Make it a consistent class A/overall competitor, both the car and the team, some people go over a $1000.  It is all a calculation of how much money per race you are willing to loose...not make.

I initially read this ^ as "2 1/2 X longer"; clearly, my mistake.

OnkelUdo is known for his clarity - this is another example, and a reminder I needed.

But I'm going to define the money aspect not as "losing", but as "spending it to participate in an activity I enjoy."

(I know it's a rationalization, but it'll make me feel better.)

Do I just bring Bill of sale and cleared check as proof  of cost since I didn't buy a street car and then ship and build it?
All I got to do is exempt  stuff  put bigger seat in  clean and inspect  parts stuff like that

What's that's supposed  to mean??   Squidrope

Let me note:

each of 350z's first posts in each subheading specifically asked about seat rental estimation help - nothing else.

There's additional information about safety equipment, but that may be merely to indicate the car would be eligible for, and can likely run in Lemons so that he can sell seat time in a HOT car at a Lemons race.

Lemons staff stalker
I looked at buying pre race Lemons car but all was way out of my budget and would have been many many laps down before I even showed up.    When a used Lemons car is listed for $5,000 that's a lot of laps you get hit by.
No way I'm sending $5,000 on a Lemons car or even $2,000

An '03 350z will be Class A, not C.

I would recommend you go to a race soon and ask a ton of questions to the teams and the judges. Maybe this would help clarify how this all works. There really is a community of racers and judges who want you to get on track. Just ask and a lot of people will give you as much help as they can.
Manny.

You keep mentioning Class C, but unless you are running something like a nissan juke motor with a CVT transmission in that thing, the pictures alone make it look like a race prepped A class car. To be clear, you don't start in C class just because you're new to Lemons. You start where the judges think your car should be classed.

Case in point:
- hoosier slicks (illegal in Lemons)
- "real" sponsor decals, not parody funny ones.
- Koni Challenge decals (puts the car in grand-am club racing or better arena)
- No theme on your car, just looks like a race car.

There was a 350Z (donut media) car at NCM this past weekend, it was definitely A class. To get C class you would need to do something so sacrilegious or terrible to that car that the judges would think you had no chance of breaking into the top half of the field as a result.

This is also the reason people were commenting that they wanted to see your first Lemons tech inspection. Because if you think you're going to get a car that looks like that into Class C, or even into Class A without any penalty laps, you may be in for a tough ride. Your average Class C car looks something like this:
https://24hoursoflemons.com/wp-content/ … Benz-1.jpg

You don't need to race in your home state. I live in Columbus and Lemons doesn't do Nelson Ledges or Mid Ohio. People were just mentioning that there aren't any races in Kansas, so you're going to have to tow a bit further to reach anywhere in the schedule. That will drive up your fuel and travel costs, and the amount you'll need to charge drivers just to break even.

As for your initial question of "arrive and drive" costs, it's Lemons, keep that in mind. It's not like Helio Castroneves is going to be looking to pay to drive your car. I've observed arrive & drive pricing over the past three years from anywhere between $800-$1500 per race average. If you're thinking about charging more than that and you haven't raced in Lemons before, then you may just want to try and find a few other local guys to join your team as full time drivers rather than trying to find unknown drivers.

If you're thinking about selling seat time for profit, Lemons is probably not for you, and something like WRL, NASA, SCCA or AER might be a better fit. Lemons registration is ~$1600 per race, all other costs are specific to your team. Make a budget, or just do a race and see how much you've spent. That would give you a much better idea than just speculating.

You do know that Lemons staff reads the forums, right? Statements like these make a huge case for the judges to award you penalty laps and  assume you're bringing a super cheaty car to race with.

I totally disagree with your sticker statement, especially since the second largest award (in value) in Lemons is based on your car's theme. The "halloween meets gasoline" winner gets paid out more than the winner of the race in overall laps.

Also, didn't mention it before, but your $500 receipt means absolutely nothing to the judges if they think your car is worth more. Otherwise people would be faking it all over the place to try and get super cheaty cars in without penalties.

I am starting to think there is some chain-yanking happening here.

The folks racing the series you do in a similar car.

Falken tries to tell us the RT660 replaces the RT615K+ for endurance racing and it does not.  Not many of us left on the forums but about a half dozen of us have more than two dozen races, over two-four generations of 200 TW tires.  We have watched poor tires in gen one get great in gen 2 then meh in gen 3 (Direzza). We have seen the rise of an unexpected competitor to top pick (for most cars) from last pick for all cars (Hankook RS4 verses all previous Hankook).  The Engineers you are talking to are either speaking a different language (not running two 7-8 hour days on the same set of tires) or just a likely sales people for the tires.

We had a tire engineer for the OEM's on a partner team that was a wealth of knowledge because he did not work for the manufacturer.

I really am not getting your approach here.  No one rebuffs an arrive and drive or crew for the state they live in.  You just have to offer yourself up for races you are willing to travel to instead of just saying you are in Kansas.

But back to your original question of what you can charge.  Likely at this point, the percentage of the entry fee if you are advertising for a Lemons race.  Eat the consumable costs.  This is because you have a expressed clearly you will not know how to run a car in the racing series and limitted track time will be the result.