Quote:
Originally posted by klayfish
Before I say this, let's NOT start another argument about open track days vs. "real" wheel to wheel racing. Dan, eventually I do want to try NASA racing. But probably not with the Cobra. If I do wheel to wheel racing, I'd probably by an old MR2 and use that. It would be a much easier pill to swallow if a had a minor race incident with the MR2 than the Cobra. I'm talking about making my Cobra into the best open track/autox car it can be. I have no idea what a well built FFR spec racer costs. How hard it is to make it also suitable for street use?
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lol! I wasn't trying to start an argument!
Well, you probably won't use an MR2. But that is only because you will end up doing a lot of research and decided that MR2s cost too much money in comparison to other cars, no one really races them (for may of the same reasons), and the lift throttle oversteer makes these wonderful cars a pain on the track. I love the cars. I almost got one for my wife to play with.
For any car you race, you have to assume that you will have some problems. That being said, NASA-VA has an extremely good track record. We just don't allow rubbing or anything dangerous to the cars. It is run under Vintage 13-13 rules, but the effect has been basically the same. SCCA allows a lot more rubbing and the only problems I have had have come from SCCA races. If you want a car for the street and to race, you would probably have to limit yourself to NASA.
Keep in mind that in the Northeast, COM is running the series instead of NASA. COM is time trials, so you have almost almost no worries about hurting your car. (Most damage comes from another car. Most tracks have big run off for when you spin - you will spin) and usually all you worry about is losing the cheap air dam).
As for cheap spec racers being street legal, I think Gary has their car for sale for $26K. This car has been used (and won) for both NASA races and autox. It has a full cage and powersteering. I am not sure if that car is street legal, but I think it is.
Our cost was around $30K which included the full size windshield (removable) and all the tuning stuff on the suspension. Bryan Dobyns built ours and both his cars and our car are all street legal. We just added $2 turn signals and made sure the headlights work. We finally broke down and added a sticker for left and right on the turn signal, but I am not sure why. ;-)
In short, making a street legal spec racer is a cinch. But you probably can't have a real show car and a race car, although we have certainly tried to do both with ours. Here are a few pics of our car on display in between races:
http://www.elams.org/events/2002/AII...mbs/Page1.html
http://www.elams.org/Events/2002/New...mbs/Page1.html
http://www.elams.org/events/2002/Sup...mbs/Page1.html
The car has been used for a lot of model and photography web sites as picked up in some publications. The graphics have a lot to do with it (and we do have to do minor repairs there.) But we do have to touch up the rubber and rock dings from the track in between races.