ojannen said:
A car I like just got moved to G Street so I am thinking about prepping for autocross next year.
If I wanted to attempt a competitive finish at nationals (midpack for me), this is what I would do. Max car prep involves shocks, rear sway bar, factory camber bolts/camber hubs, a lightweight exhaust, brake pads, and some alignment work. This is pretty car dependent but I would expect around $4K in parts if you don't go crazy with the shocks. A set of 200TW tires on lightweight wheels is $1500-2000 depending on the car. If you want to stay competitive in the rain, you also need a good set of 340TW tires (Michelin PS4/5, Continental DW) probably mounted on stock wheels.
Event costs vary but this is what I budget:
- Local event: $125: ($50 entry, $50 gas, $25 food)
- Regional event: $500+hotel ($150 entry, $200 gas, $200 food, 2-3 day hotel stay)
- Nationals: ~$2-5K: Costs here really depend on how long your drive is to nationals and whether you are towing. For me it would be a 22 hour drive each way and 6-7 hotel nights.
- Tires last for about 100 runs in my camber limited car and events average 5 runs. You could get away with one set of tires for the year but I would probably buy a second set for nationals.
So to prep a car, run 15 locals, 2 regionals, and the national championship (on fresh tires), the total cost would be around $10-11K the first year. Paying event and tires costs on subsequent years would be $5-7K not counting the car cost or depreciation.
Nationals isn't realistic for me because it is at the beginning of the school year. To compete locally, I would buy a set of 200TW tires, wheels, and a rear sway bar. I should have 99% of the fun of a full effort build. If the tire rollover is bad enough, I will either get camber plates and bump up to street touring or buy the expensive crash parts.
In my experience, rally is fun because the dirt changes a little bit every time you drive the road. Wheel to wheel is fun because the track changes as you drive around other cars. Autocross is fun because the course literally changes. In each one, you are chasing perfection but perfection is a moving target. Maybe autocross scratches the same itch, maybe it doesn't. The event cost is similar a stage rally or about 2 lemons/chump races per year. The difference is you are competing 25 days a year instead of 4.
I ran GS nationally in a Focus ST for several years and this is a good estimate. The nice thing about GS cars is that they typically have enough space inside to bring your extra wheels and tires. Smaller street class cars either tow a tire trailer or get towed on a trailer.
The other street class trick is to try to time the cycle such that you buy the car to have right after or shortly after it is moved to the new class. ES Miata/MR2 is one exception to that, but talking to folks in the class and keeping an eye on fastrack publications let you know what proposals are out there for the coming year or even the year after that. Some classes have 2 or more cars that can get it done. If they're dissimilar in how they make their speed, conditions and course design can have an effect. If being disadvantaged to your competition sometimes is going to be a large source of frustration, focus on classes where it's really only 1 car, like CS (or 2 cars that are very similar, like FS).
Another thing to consider in all this is that with autocross, the marginal benefits of certain improvements/modifications, especially within the limits of street class are relative low vs road racing. Ex: wheel weight, sure, we all want light wheels but saving a pound there isn't going to make as much of a difference on an autocross run as it will on a lap on track (not to mention the compound effect of multiple laps in a race). Same thing for a few hp difference - matters on a track much more than autocross. What does become more important is how forgiving the car needs to be such that you can get at/near the limit consistently in just a few runs each event.
Then there's tires. Some pointy-end folks buy multiple sets and test a bunch. Others pick a proven choice and stick with it. Thankfully there's really only 2 choices right now at the top of the 200tw game for auto-x, but when new stuff is introduced it can make last year's tire obsolete. IIRC they moved the cut-off date up from 4/1 to 1/1, but still if you bought fresh tires for nationals then planned to use them the early part of the next season for important events, there's a chance they'll be 2nd tier.