THSCC Forums

Tom, are we talking about W2W when you say "go play in SCCA and NASA"? Or do they also have solo-like events? My understanding is that wheel-to-wheel licensing is a serious pain, but I heard that years ago and could of course be wrong.

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"Nationals snob"

DSP E36 328is. 200 WHP and ~3100lb keeps things entertaining without eating you alive in consumables.

If you wait long enough you'll find someone selling a nice track-prepped example on nceuro or bimmerforums.

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

NASA also runs time trials, at a lower barrier to entry than THSCC - you can do NASA events without much of the safety gear.

Rob says both cars are fun. Yes, I got tired after awhile giving point bys all the time in my stock 1.6 Miata. That said if I could drive better, I could pretty much keep up with most cars in the turns. The HPDE's I've gone to lately have mostly had a lot of fast iron (or fiberglass, or in some cases carbon fibre). Vettes, Ferraris, a McLaren, GT3 etc. I still have to learn to drive with torque so I am a little conservative in the Vette but you can probably be FTD in it.

Ask Keehner or Kevin Butler about the costs for a Spec E30.

I agree the Miata set up or blown would be good. Butler's Blown Miata was pretty quick until it went KABLAMMO.

I agree with Bernie that you can pick up a C5 Vette fairly inexpensively. You could probably get a rough non-Z06 for around $10K and maybe a race prepped one close to that but I'd be a little wary at that price. Parts are easy though but not always cheap

Good Luck

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1990 Faded Reddish CSP Lite Miata
2002 Electron Blue Corvette Z06
2005 Mazda 6 Wagon
2003 Nissan Pathfinder DTV (Dog Transport Vehicle)

You can do Time Trials or Wheel-2-Wheel with NASA pretty easily. TT* = Time Trial classes, PT* = Performance Touring *. There's points, dyno reclassing, and a bunch of other stuff.

I've not experienced ANY parts problems with C5's, and the after market is teeming with parts. the C4's are have some issues in the suspension components but after market covers them.

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2004 C5(415whp,390ft/lbs),
1997C5,1997Trans Am, 1986 C4,
1990 Miata, 1976 MGB,1997 Protege, 1989 MR2

I think with some brake and oil cooling upgrades a 350z would do well on track. Early ones may be near 10k now, but not sure. I bet a track-prepped one would be close to your budget.

Edit....just now perusing racingjunk.com and saw this. So much this....
http://www.racingjunk.com/Other/181870652/1994-BMW-318i-with-1998-M3-engine-trans.html

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Steve Carter
1972 Datsun 240Z-- resto pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/srcartermd
2007 GPW Honda S2000-- STR 86

Did someone say 328is? I might entertain $10k.

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BenchWarmer Motorsports

another one of those damn LeMons heads

just another Chump

we are an Autocross Club Dammit............

Jennifer, Naturally the answer is Miata, specifically Spec Miata. I have never done any driver events or Time Trials, but I did build and race a Spec Miata in SCCA. I don't remember licensing being a pain, but at the time I really wanted to do it. I took a weekend class at Roebling with a mix of "classroom" and driving (no passenger seat in my car) then ran 2 races as a novice (X's on the side of the car) after that. At the time there were plenty of cars in the field and being a spec class, there were lots of other cars prepped close enough to mine that I always had someone to race with. It was the perfect scratch for my competitive itch. I am sure opinions will differ, but the way I looked at was for the money I was going to spend to actually get a car on track, it was worth the marginal cost to race wheel to wheel. Racing someone else was much more fulfilling to me than just driving the car around the track trying to perfect a line etc.

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92 Miata 1.9L naturally aspirated. SSM 21

Oooh... if the details of that listing were just a little less sketchy...
One bad track experience with the 350Z was really all I needed. The car felt bigger and more unwieldy the faster it went (unlike Bimmers and Porsches, which seem to get smaller and nimbler with speed...).

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"Nationals snob"

That's really interesting, I was under the impression that you had to have so-many hours of seat time on a certain number of different tracks for W2W licensing, but I'm starting to wonder if that was Porsche Club or something. SCCA is sounding eminently doable.

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"Nationals snob"

Well, I did all that 10+ years ago, so the program may have changed. You may want to check out NCR SCCA meeting to learn more. I think they still meet at the El Rodeo off Glenwood once a month.

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92 Miata 1.9L naturally aspirated. SSM 21

Also, Check out Sports and Compacts on Hillsborough St. in Raleigh and speak to Carl Cason. He has raced F Prod for years and I believe they have a Spec Miata or two you could rent. In full disclosure, I worked there while in college and he got me started in SCCA.

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92 Miata 1.9L naturally aspirated. SSM 21

Doing Lemons/Chump is another good way to dip your foot into the W2W pool. The best part is you get more seat time and can share the (considerable) expenses with your 3 teammates.

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Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)

Additionally some NASA & SCCA regions are accepting Chump experience as prior racing experience when issuing competition licenses.

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BenchWarmer Motorsports

another one of those damn LeMons heads

just another Chump

we are an Autocross Club Dammit............