Topic: Really interested in Lemons, a bit overwhelmed on where to start.
Intro:
Ok, so me and my friend are going into our senior year of high school, me and a friend were talking about cars a few nights ago and Lemons came up and we actually want to do this. I'm a firm believer of where there is a will there is a way. My friend is going to a technical school that he's learning about automotive repair(this past year just focused on mainly engine stuff. I'm really interested in cars and the way things work and learning this stuff comes naturally especially with unlimited resources on the internet and YouTube. I'm sort of the brains/research guy, and he's sort of the experience/properly educated on this stuff guy. We're a great pair we really balance each other out, we just did a timing belt on his car and fixing up a bunch of stuff and its going really well.
Reason:
We both understand if your coming to Lemons to win your in the wrong place, I'm mainly interested in the experience and fun involved with it, I love the Lemons culture of the BS and throwing a bunch of crap cars on a race track and rolling with whatever happens. also I think it would be a great way to immerse myself into fixing cars and learning more about them. Another thing is if I ever want to do this I think the best shot is probably right now before all of my friends and acquaintances go off to college and whatnot and pursue careers/families, I plan to go to college for business and I doubt I will have as much interest/time to do Lemons then and after. I think my friend has very similar reasons for doing this aswell.
Plan(as of now):
Race - we want to plan to go to the Lemons Race at New Jersey Motorsports Park(its like 2 hrs. from us) that from what I saw happens mid June(which would work great as we would be graduating a month before that).
Car:
we aren't sure yet but I'm thinking something ~3000lbs max and a 4 cylinder to keep things light and cool, probably hoping to buy a car beginning of 2022 but if one pops up before then that we think would be really good we may go for it.
Budget:
We did a really rough budget to be around ~$6k, if someone could suggest we adjust different parts of our budget that would be greatly appreciated as I don't know what options are all out there in terms of everything. Here's our current rough budget.
Registration and Memberships: ~$1600(2 drivers)
Car: $500
Rollcage: ~$900 (thinking on trying to weld ourselves my friend has some experience and we could do some networking to try and borrow the equipment. If we think our skills are not sufficient enough to pass tech we will take it to a shop)
Race seat/harness: ~$250
Fire suppression System: ~$400
(2)Suits(gloves and socks/shoes included) (2)Helmets and (1)Neck Brace: ~$1300
Fuel: ~$300(its kind early to guestimate this one)
tires/brakes/parts random: ~$600
Team:
Besides me and my friend, were asking around our friends and people we think would be interested/an asset to the team, hoping to get 3-4 additional people besides us maybe. Not sure what they would be helping out with as a lot of our friends aren't as mechanically inclined as us but if we find one or two that's interested in learning we could get them to help out in regards to that, mainly just adding people to help with the concept/theme and hopefully with costs and pitching in. We also have a friend or two that seem interested in doing this that have vehicles that could tow a car and access to a trailer through a family member.
Funds:
Most of us have jobs and would be pitching in but we also plan to put together a presentation and go around to local business's asking if they would like to sponsor us, once school resumes I plan on asking a bunch of school clubs and teachers/staff about how they go about getting sponsor for their clubs. We will have to work on that a lot and figure out our reasoning/ presentation, but I think that with us being seniors in high school, local business's would be happy to help support some kids, we would make t-shirts and put their company logo/name on the back of it along with try and put them on the car, and we could have different sponsor rewards, and we could give them a picture of us taken at Lemons when its all said and done just some ideas in regards to that.
Thanks if you made it this far into reading everything. Any help/tips/direction would be helpful in any of these categories. If not I'll just break up this post and ask in smaller questions on the forums.