Guildenstern wrote:1. Get Car
2. Find out what's actually broke not what the dingus you bought it off of says is broke
3. Gut Interior
4. Flush fluids
4a. Discover there were no fluids to flush.
4b. Question societies existence.
5. Rip out wires if you like electronics, or just pack them all out of the way.
6. Schedule Cage Install
7. Brakes, wheel bearings, and Ball joints
8. Mount the seat BEFORE the cage gets installed
9. Drop car off for cage install
10. Wait for cage
11. Buy race tires and wait for cage
12. Buy all other needed gear, call Cage guy.
13. Pay Lemons fees, call Cage Guy again
14. Get car back with cage.
15. Install everything and paint it in a slap dash weekend
16. DOMINATE!!
Pretty comprehensive list. My suggested additions.
8.5. Scrape all of the sound deadening/tar and other bits that could catch on fire during the cage install. Cut out any bits of extra metal in the car in consultation with TEO (skinning hood, skinning doors, gutting dash, etc.
I would also say 14 should come before 13.
14.5 Consider any suspension tweaks that might help handling (beyond just replacing all the dry rotted rubber bits). Ex: new dampeners, cutting springs, etc.
Somewhere on the list but before the actual race. Sell off all the parts you can from your car (or recycle them).
I would also state that if your car is not in roadworthy shape (ex: rust might be an issue with your car), you shouldn't buy any car specific parts until AFTER you have confirmed that the car can be safely caged and will pass tech. I have to imagine it would suck to have finished a HG job on the engine and bought all the spendy brake bits
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Other than the above comments, I would highlight a few concepts to consider in terms of priority for the team (highest to lower
A) Make sure you car can pass tech (cage, safety, etc)
then
B) Invest in reliability (make sure the car can stay on track and do laps for the 14+ hours of a given race). A slow car that's on track from flag to flag is a lot more fun than a fast car that spends 90% of it's time in the paddock getting "heroicly" fixed.
then
C) Consider taking the car to a track day. Make sure your drivers know how the car feels and see if there are any shortcomings that need to be addressed (aka: scary handling and/or shitty brakes)> Unless they are dry rotten, I would use the street tires the car came with for this test.
then
D) Invest in a proper theme. A few shitty stickers != theme
then
E) Invest in spares you think you'll need for your first race: extra tires, extra brake pads/rotors (even if they aren't the $$$ ones that you plan to race with), etc.
then
F) Have fun at your first race
then
G) Invest in making your car go faster & "dominate". Also, experience the joys of learning about all the different ways you can break your car.
Personally, until A and B (from my list) are solved, I would NOT pay for a race registration.
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