NPC: Anyone here ever raced Formula Vee?, i'm interested... Options

[nebreitling]

just wondering. around the time i finish my phd, i'd like to get my race liscence and run a form-v car. competitive cars look to be in the $8-12k range, and it would seem that running costs are relatively low. in other words, a logical place to spend a couple years honing skills before moving onto bigger and badder things.

just looking for any experience, running costs, anecdotes, advice, etc.

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n

[lapuwali]

From quite dim recollection...

The classic Vees, with ancient 1200cc engines, are fairly high-dollar cars to run competitively, as it takes a super wizard to get top horsepower out of those engines. There's a class for cars with newer 1600cc engines, which are either restricted in other mods, or limited only to AX. I can't remember which. I'd get a copy of the current GCR and read carefully.

If I were going to get involved in four-wheeled road racing right now, and didn't have a significant budget, I'd go karting. Karts are cheap to buy, cheap to run, and there is a world-class facility for them in the Sears Pt. complex. With a full sized car, you need a trailer and a tow vehicle and someplace to park both. A kart can be kept in a pretty small space (even stored on end), and simply rolled into the back of a pickup.

If I were to road-race a full sized car, I'd start by simply not worrying about competitiveness, and I'd probably run a Formula Ford, as they're really properly engineered racing cars, and there are enough in a typical field that you can usually find someone about at your level (the car's and yours) to run with. The cost to run an uncompetitive but not embarassing Ford is, I'd venture, about the same or less than running a competitive Vee.