Topic: New Team in Texas needing a hand.

I am the driver for a new team here in Texas. We want to run at Texas for sure this year maybe another race maybe also illinois I wanted to know how to get safety equipment dirt cheap. I may be able ti find a sponsor but they want to know what the attendance is so they know how many eyes would be on their products. I even have a local custom car shop willing to possibly donate a tuning kit. But they want their badging on the quarter panel. I have found myself an old Monte Carlo SS that I can run in the race that is mostly there and I can get for less than the limit, and my mechanics tell ne after we sell the interior pieces we can put a lot of 'go fast' pieces in and stay on budget. But some of this safety equipment looks like it will be what keeps us out of the race because $500 total all in is my budget. I'm not a mechanic but my crew tells me it will cost $5,400 to buy all of it new thats more than my daily driver (also a Monte Carlo SS) is worth, and I don't have that kind of money. I was wondering what leads anyone might have an sponsors down here in texas donations for safety gear or if anyone knew a spot to get good discounts. This is my first time running this kind of racing sure as a dumb kid I souped my first car up and raced it on the streets like dummy.....but this is my first stab at organized racing.

Re: New Team in Texas needing a hand.

$5k is a reasonable number just to get the car together.  Plus another $600-1000 for driver equipment. Then you have $75 license and $1430 entry fee.   

Here is a good thread with examples:
https://forums.24hoursoflemons.com/view … p?id=36498

Spank can probable slap together a Lemons car the cheapest, this is an example build of his:
https://forums.24hoursoflemons.com/view … 25#p321525

Buying an already built car is the cheapest route to go.  I bought a car that needed it's wiring fixed for around $1800.  It had cage, seat, etc.

There are no spectators now because of COVID, but even when that is over the numbers are probably in the low 100s and most are part of a team.

Have you thought about an arrive and drive in someone else car first?

Team whatever_racecar #745 Volvo wagon

Re: New Team in Texas needing a hand.

Welcome to the fray.

This newbie section is supposed to be a flame-free environment and I respect that. So I hope you don't take the following insight as being an attempt to reflect ill will towards you...

I will admit that whenever I read or hear someone talk about Sponsors I have a near-immediate, involuntary eyeroll reflex. Generally speaking, if you cannot afford to begin to participate using your own money, you probably can't realistically pursue participating until you can afford it all on your own dime. Sponsorship at this level is really "Charity". I don't think there are that many businesses out there who will reap riches because they stuck their name on your quarterpanel. The largest group who will be impacted by their "sponsorship" will be you and your immediate friends and family who may be like "oh, they sponsored nephew Baseballjoe06, let's go over and give them a try and see what they got." I suppose having a large social media following wouldn't hurt your pitch. Anticipate your sponsorship offers to be more along the lines of a shop selling your stuff at cost or cost +10% and providing some free labor like mounting tires, fabbing up an exhaust once you pay for the muffler, or letting you use their lift to do an oil change.

The more people you have on your team, the lower the individual costs will be. Probably the greatest single expense is the roll cage. If you can get someone on your team who is a certified or at least competent welder, you will be miles ahead. The next thing is finding someone to properly bend the tubing for you.

The fire suppression system will probably be your next single largest mandatory expense at around $400.

Driver gear can be borrowed or rented. racesuitrental.com is a reputable outfit. You can rent just 1 set of gear for all of your drivers (if you all wear the same size) and swap it between you. Sounds gross but it's been done before. I recommend everyone at least buying their own nomex socks...

Your car choice and your financial priorities for go-fast goodies sorta indicate the type of participant category you may fall in to. I'll go one step further than rb92673 in saying that I think you should absolutely go to a Lemons race yourself prior to building your car or investing any money towards building one. Seek out a team here on the forum that might let you at least just crew for them so you can see what you are potentially getting in to.

If you are so fortunate to have an enthusiastic business willing to partner with you, see if you can make someone from that business come WITH you to the race and get all spun-up and excited right along with you. The hours and days immediately following the event weekend, when everyone is still giddy and possibly still hung over are when you want to sink the hook in and reel like crazy while their head is still swimming with the possibilities.

Re: New Team in Texas needing a hand.

Thanks for the tips.

I found a car that will already be bad fast that I can buy. 'Go fast' peices are a luxury. I have a welder.

Anyone know of any race car junk yards that might have the goodies?

Re: New Team in Texas needing a hand.

I lurked here for a year and a half, reviewing the various categories, and the threads in those categories, before I signed up for an ID.

That said, I still had questions.

There's tons of information in this forum.

Your question about a racecar junkyard is novel; I don't think I've seen anyone ask it before. That's an interesting idea.

I think any pieces not being sold with a former racecar would likely have been removed by the former owner, either for another build or sold/given to another team.

There are occasionally pieces that pop up here for sale.

I remember one thread somewhere where someone was going to pull a complete cage - whole - for an identical replacement car; I think it was a convertible. Not sure if that worked.

I think everything but the cage would be relatively easily removed. And anyone who built a car would know how to remove those things.

I think your main source would be a previously-raced car - there's several resources here in the main forum section.

But that would mean you're starting with a previously-raced car, already done, but probably not your Monte Carlo.

That would be totally cool, though: building and racing your found Monte Carlo; and then when you're tired of that, pulling everything and putting it into your daily driver, and then racing that.

Re: New Team in Texas needing a hand.

Have you considered buying an already built car? That is the lowest cost way to get on track in most cases.

Re: New Team in Texas needing a hand.

My Daily driver is a Monte Carlo SS too just not the factory super charged one.

Re: New Team in Texas needing a hand.

Baseballjoe06 wrote:

Thanks for the tips.

I found a car that will already be bad fast that I can buy. 'Go fast' peices are a luxury. I have a welder.

Anyone know of any race car junk yards that might have the goodies?

The safety "goodies" often have expiration dates. The fire suppression system (2 years), belts (2 or 5 years), head and neck restraints (5 years?) and helmets (10 notional years, but you should replace a manky helmet sooner than that) come to mind.

There's also indications that the price of roll cage tubing is going up quite a bit in the short term, that will affect the cost no matter if you buy straight tube and a bender or a kit from a reputable place (either way, its not in an "I can only spend $500 on this car to get it on the track" kind of budget).

That guy

9 (edited by bobnowoc 2021-03-12 05:34 PM)

Re: New Team in Texas needing a hand.

Your budget is way out of wack.   “$500 all in is my budget”

Please stop, take a moment, and ask the old timers what this really costs.



If $500 is your entire budget, I suggest several steps.


1,  save up another $700.  Race suit rental will rent you a complete fire suit for $200 with a fully refundable $500 deposit.

2. Use your original $500 to buy a seat in somebody else’s car as an arrive and drive

Or

Join somebody else’s team as crew.  That takes $75.


OR

Find another $4000 and start building

Understand IF you get a sponsor, it’s a miracle.  You can’t count on it though.

Do not cheap out on any safety gear.  A. If you have outdated or damaged safety gear, they will fail you at tech.   B.  You don’t want a second hand helmet and threadbare racesuit when you are upside down and on fire.


Lastly.  Don’t quit!!!!   We wanna see you on the track, we just want you to understand the real costs.   


RACING CHEAP CARS IS NOT THE SAME AS CHEAP RACING.

Former Captain
1996 Crown Vic. #55
Team Racing Cosmo

Re: New Team in Texas needing a hand.

I wonder if anyone out there is looking for a car and driver. I can a Monte Carlo SS with 500hp for $500

Re: New Team in Texas needing a hand.

Baseballjoe06 wrote:

I wonder if anyone out there is looking for a car and driver. I can a Monte Carlo SS with 500hp for $500

Your are not going to want to race a 500hp monte carlo   it will blow up in about an hour i would guess,  not to mention the amount of fuel it will take to do a full race and tires,  both of which are up there on the expensive parts list as you would need multiple sets of 1000$ plus tires  and you are trying to do this on the impossible cheap scale.  youre going to want a sub 100hp/2000lb car to start that gets great fuel economy good tire life and brake life,  all of which keep the cost significantly lower.  Trust me its just as fun.

959 Toyota Tercel   6x Lemons loser

New England Area roll cages send me an email I'm in Central MA

Re: New Team in Texas needing a hand.

^  Tend to agree with that.  A lot of heartache ahead.  Sure, a SBC can make 500hp pretty easy but making a 500HP SBC last for 8hrs at a time takes a fair bit of money.  With all that go, you need to be able to stop and turn.  While tires and brakes are budget exempt, enough brake to make that much weight/HP stop won't be cheap.  Tires aren't going to last either.  The secret to making SBCs last in Lemons has been 2 bbl and limit RPM to around 4000-4500.  I applaud your enthusiasm but I'm afraid you are setting yourself up for an Icarus repeat.

1990 RX7 "Mazdarita"  1964 Sunbeam Imp (IOE 2013 Sears Pointless) 2002 Jaguar x-type (Winner C-Class 2021 Sears Pointless)
Gone bye-bye
1994 Jaguar XJ12 (Winner C-Class 2013 Sears Pointless)  1980 Rover SD1 (I Got Screwed 2014 Return of Lemonites)

Re: New Team in Texas needing a hand.

Baseballjoe.  May I ask your age?  I am getting late teenager, early 20s vibe from you. (Bob. 45 yr old dad)

Former Captain
1996 Crown Vic. #55
Team Racing Cosmo

Re: New Team in Texas needing a hand.

cheseroo wrote:

^  Tend to agree with that.  A lot of heartache ahead.  Sure, a SBC can make 500hp pretty easy but making a 500HP SBC last for 8hrs at a time takes a fair bit of money.  With all that go, you need to be able to stop and turn.  While tires and brakes are budget exempt, enough brake to make that much weight/HP stop won't be cheap.  Tires aren't going to last either.  The secret to making SBCs last in Lemons has been 2 bbl and limit RPM to around 4000-4500.  I applaud your enthusiasm but I'm afraid you are setting yourself up for an Icarus repeat.

Truth! However, the OP referred to the “factory supercharged version” Monte SS.

Which leads me to believe we are talking about the 2002ish FWD Monte with the 3800SC Buick V6

All of which is even less likely to be doable at 500 hp than, say, a 1985 Monte SS with the SBC smile

Tradewinds Tribesmen Racing (The road goes on forever…)
#289 1984 Corvette Z51 #124 1984 944 #110 2002 Passat
Gone but not forgotten, #427-Hong Kong Cavaliers Benz S500
IOE (Humber!) Hell on Wheels (Jaguar)

15 (edited by DirtyDuc 2021-03-16 10:23 PM)

Re: New Team in Texas needing a hand.

BaseballJoe

As the others have said, your best bet is to find an arrive and drive local to you for that cashpoint. I'm a "both feet" kinda guy and I took a couple of A&Ds with Spank before I built a car. Just remember this is an endurance race not a sprint. I'm on the cheap end of the scale as far as builds, but I've still spent way more than $500 on tools, supplies, entry fees and parts (by several orders of magnitude, I'm sure but I don't keep track).

To a certain extent, time can be swapped for money in the build (in other words, the more work you do the less cash it costs and vice versa). On the other hand, there is a certain minimum of both that have to go into it.

That guy