Starting a college club for Lemons racing, need advice! (Page 1 of 2)

Welcome to the addiction.

Doesn't matter where your money comes from, as long as less than $500 is spent.

Our first race was less than $4000, but we are good scroungers.  Count on spending $5000 to get a new car on track for the first race, and you should be OK.  If you can't get 5 drivers to front $1000 ea, then try to go to a few races as a spectator/crew/driver with an established team.

RWD Volvos are good beginners Lemons cars because they are reliable, sturdy, safe to hit things, etc.  Also might consider a saturn.

See you at the track!

For a college team you should pick up an Alfa Graduate - you can get them for cheap, particularly this time of year:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI … 0571308554

Is anyone else thinking the last thing Lemons needs is a college education???

Welcome to the last hobby you will ever have...

Heh heh heh, a Graduate theme was one of the first things to come to mind. I'm studying fascist Italy, so you could say that I have a thing for Italian cars. My favorite Spider is actually the ducktail. I'd love to field one, but it seems like an Alfa-Romeo would be pretty tough to do for a first try. Maybe for a second run! Feel free to post more LeMons-worthy Graduates, I'll keep them in mind.

I know some welders, but we'd probably be safest with a cage from Evilgenius racing, which it seems like a lot of people do. Some of my friends that are interested in my Lemons club idea work in our mechanical engineering machine shop, which is a little neglected in terms of modern equipment, but has all the basic stuff for fabrication.

Yep, I'm talking about a real college-affiliated club like our Formula SAE team. There's a lot of weird clubs about stranger things on our campus, so it shouldn't be hard to get approval. Funny thing, we're all huge nerds for the most part at Wash U, the jocks kind of actually get ignored here. Half the students here forget we even have a football team.

Like others have said $3000 to $5000.  Don't skimp on safety - brakes, seat, cage, fire supression, etc.  Don't forget to include race gas, getting the car to and from the track, and incidentals like oil changes.

Also, bring spares especially if it's an odd car that might not have the part at a local autozone. 

You should have at least brake pads, a head gasket, oil filter, clutch, brake fluid, two spare mounted tires, lug bolts, etc.  Teams I know bring engines, trannys, axles, pistons, fuel pumps, radiators, etc.

Spare parts typically don't count towards the budget, well unless you spare part is something that is extremely cheaty

Spares do not roll through BS so they don't count.  But don't do something stupid like having a crate engine back in paddock.  Let's face it, if you are swapping out an engine, the one you brought isn't helping you win...

You better establish who the "owner" of the vehicle will be right off the bat. Also who team captain will be cause otherwise you will end up with a lot of Chiefs and no Indians Figuratively speaking.

Noted. Sounds challenging to meet the $500, but of course it's all part of the fun of Lemons racing.

Good advice about establishing ownership, I was planning on being the "owner" of the car and team captain since I've been the most interested in starting the club and I've got a better gift for haggling and record-keeping than wrenching, but I've been talking to the head of our SAE team and he seems more interested in Lemons than I thought he would. If he wanted to head the team, I'd let him.

A few more tips.

Own the car yourself lock, stock, and barrel. I know having 4 or 5 other people paying a share to cover stuff like the roll cage makes things a lot easier, but if/when your team splits up it will make things a total nightmare. Think of it like a band who's broken up and now they're arguing over who really owns the mains, the mixing board, the mics, ect ect. Trust me, we've been there and it's not pretty.

So if you have the means, buy the car and pay for the safety gear yourself and then "rent" the seat out to the other team members. What we do is charge $600 which covers their entry fee and their share of gas/tires and food, plus another $200 as a damage deposit.

You're going to have A LOT of people who say they want in at the start, but as soon as it's time to work on the car or cough up the money they will never be heard from again.

If someone is starting to look like they have a bad attitude, cut them loose. Even if they're quick with paying fees, you don't need them around if they act like they're gods gift to racing. These kinds of people can ruin your weekend in a heartbeat by wrecking the car due to arrogance or acting like an ass in the pits upsetting everyone. People like this are simply not worth the stress they're going to cause you. Again, we've been there.

Once at the track, be nice and helpful to your pit neighbors. If you get into a tight spot, they can be your salvation with a needed tool or part. Alcohol is the preferred form of payment, but cash works just as well. Also bring any spare radiator you can scrounge up no matter what car it came from, some team will be able to put it to use. Radiators are worth their weight in gold at Lemons.

Bingo-    I've been involved with a couple of F-SAE teams as an adviser...    I've really never had a worse experience dealing with people.  It was all chiefs and no Indians,  everybody had ideas (many were so wrong its comical) and nobody wanted to do any work...   I tried to tell them that someone had to build the car or fix what was wrong... they wanted me to do it!        God save us from book-only-knowledge engineers who play Grand-Tursimo, for they will end the automotive world. 

   Make sure your team mates know that they will be putting hundreds of hours and dollars into this race car.  Your college will NOT fund a race car that isn't a formula SAE, the liability is too great for them.       And make sure that they know which end of a hammer to hold.

   -end of rant

-John