Bench Racing For The One Lap of America

So, following this year's One Lap reminded me that I need to do this event. My brother wants to do it with me and he is in the market for a new car. He's looked at everything from Miata's to C8 Corvette's. The current range is probably $10-50k which is, I know, a huge range. 

We know we're not going to win. This is fine. What we do want is to have a great time and end up with a car that my brother doesn't hate owning or driving. Anything front wheel drive is almost certainly out. With those criteria, what would you be looking at?

The very most sensible answer for the event itself seems to be a stock ND2 with enough trailer to hold a week's worth of stuff to survive on. For the competition, it's a small cabin, but a joy to drive and super reliable. After the competition the car will depreciate quite a lot and my brother doesn't love them, so it's probably out.

My brother loved my 986 Boxster which made me think of a 981 Boxster S. Seems like it could be such a weapon while still being easy to drive on the track and easy to live with on the road.

My brother has considered C5, C6, C7 and C8 Corvettes, all obviously with their own pro's and con's. The cars are fast, fun and good value, but I'm not sure how I feel about tracking one without a cage or driving one on the street with a cage. 

In a similar vein are the newish Camaro and Mustang with their countless variations. It seems like a popular choice for the event, and probably for good reason. It would likely give us the opportunity to be competitive with someone in similar equipment, but they're big heavy cars that don't fire either one of us up.

Then there are the sedans. Some generation of M5 or CTS-V seems like a fun and comfortable choice, if hard on tires. What am I missing? Should I just do some preventative maintenance on my 996 and take it? 

Powerful with a lot of tire under it.  Seems to be the Corvette is the way to go.  Maybe a Viper?

You're not sure you want to track a Corvette without a cage but everything else on the list is convertibles? That doesn't add up.

My (sightly biased) choice would be 981 Cayman s. Not the fastest thing on the list but certainly not slow and basically ready to run out of the box. Or a few minor upgrades and it's even better. About the best street car of the bunch as well and probably the easiest on tires. No real weak points or reliability issues as long as you don't stray too far from stock. One lap specific, getting a trailer on it isn't super straightforward, but there is a surprising amount of interior space - two trunks after all. And you should basically just need suitcases and maybe some basic consumables.

Something that is 1. Quiet on the highway, and 2. That you are comfortable driving fast in the wet, and 3. You're ok with hurting (financially/emotionally) 

Loud cars suck on OLOA, they just do, they are exhausting. 

You're attempting to drive cars hard on tracks you don't know. This is hard enough in the dry, it's even harder in the wet. 

This event is hard on cars. This year there were 72 entries and at least 17 of them failed to finish at least one event. I think two of them crashed out on track and one more on the road which is about a regular year. Add to that wheel bearings and transmissions and exploded motors. If you do this there is a 20% chance you'll have a mechanical issue you need to solve and a 10% chance you'll either limp home or go home on a trailer. This is true every year. Of the 5 years I did it we struggled with a weird rear axle one year, brakes another, and put the car gently into a wall on a third. 

Find something you like but don't love, you can put a LOT of seat/wrenching time in before the event, and you can comfortably nap in. 

Another vote for the 981 Cayman S. It will push your budget to the high end but will be quieter and more pleasant than a Boxster while having similar or better performance. Assuming you do not hurt it during the event, it might be the best of those mentioned so far at retaining its value if your brother decides it isn't the a long term keeper for him.

Cadillac ATS-V. Highly capable on the track, comfortable on the highway, you won't hate the ride or interior after hours on the road.

I would recommend a car with a back seat.  Passenger can't recline the seat in a boxster or corvette for a snooze.  1LE camaro?

Do one of these, tires and brakes are cheap, fuel costs will for the whole week what one day in a vette will be. And you can play with the rest of us idiots.

In reply to white_fly :

Another consideration of One Lap is spare tire.  As mentioned, to be at the top you need wide tires.  The event allows one spare tire to be used, but you have to get permission to use it.  That is, you can not do a week long five tire rotation as a way to stretch out your one set of allowed tires.  But, a real flat then does allow for the use of the spare tire.  Further odd, if you are running a staggered set of tires you can actually bring two tires but will only be allowed to use one of those tires.  

So, in a lot of cars, can you fit this tire or tires in the car?  If not, then trailer.  But, hauling a trailer for 3,500 miles (more with just getting to and from the start city) adds further complexity and further failure points including even just more workload on the "race car" while doing the street driving.  Oh, and that trailer needs a spare too.  

I was with Tim and Bob in 2018 and we did it as a 3 man team with everything contained in the car; Acura TL V6, manual trans.  

In 2019, I was a spectator at Nelson Ledges.  In that year there were two different Dodge Durango SRTs and one Jeep Trailhawk in the Truck/SUV class.  The winning Durango was a Dodge Factory backed entry and the other Durango took second in the group.  What most impressed me was the 2nd placers, a team based in Toronto brought a trailer.  Unlike the tire trailer that would be typical behind a Miata, these guys brought a 20ft toy hauler.  You see, a Dodge Durango SRT has a towing capacity of something like 8,000lbs!  

Something like this: 

As Seth mentioned above, fatigue is a real killer on One Lap.  This trailer meant that they had a real place for a track-side nap and a much appreciated warm/dry place to hang on what are often still very cold days at the northern tracks in the first week on May.

From the outside, One Lap looks more like a road trip festival with a few minutes of racetrack time every day. Since I wouldn't do well anyhow - that would require pre-running at each of the tracks and a better driver - I'd use the 1966 Cadillac. Just because it would be fun to take on a road trip.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

The track time is as serious as you make it. It's certainly no less serious than camping in a parking lot for a week for 6 runs and a chance at a plastic trophy. 

1977 GM C or B body coupe with an Olds 403 and TH200-4R swap, 90's 9C1 or similar aftermarket suspension parts, make sure the A/C works well, don't take anything too serious and be comfortable the whole time.

In 2017 there was a 1977 Ford LTD wagon in Griswold fashion.  This picture implied they were there other years too.. 

mazdeuce - Seth said:

In reply to Keith Tanner :

The track time is as serious as you make it. It's certainly no less serious than camping in a parking lot for a week for 6 runs and a chance at a plastic trophy. 

Oh, I realize that. Without the ability to pre-run all the tracks, you won't be able to compete at the pointy end given the short amount of track time. So you either go all-in and devote a significant amount of time to being competitive or you do it for fun. My suggestion was more tongue-in-cheek than serious but it would be more fun than trying really hard to finish near the bottom anyhow.

By comparison, the Open Track Challenge (2002-04, I think) was a series of what we would now call Time Attack races. 7 days at 7 different tracks spread around the CA-NV area (I remember Spring Mountain, Thunderhill, Buttonwillow and LVMS for sure). The cars could be trailered but the track days were full day affairs. Different focus and a very different set of requirements for the cars because they saw a lot of track time but no street time.

So a more serious answer would be a car that is anvil reliable. I assume the last thing you'd want to do would be to work on the car. This is true of any motorsport competition of course, but especially on one that is designed to run people ragged. I have to say that if there's a Porsche 996 on the table, I'd have a hard time looking much further. That's a well-understood chassis.

Note that I do not camp in a parking lot for a week for 6 runs. That sounds more like a camping trip in a poorly chosen location :)

I have never camped on a parking lot for a week for 6 runs. I have stayed in a hotel, hung out, drank beer and finished midpack multiple years for a week in a parking lot for 6 runs.

bobzilla said:

I have never camped on a parking lot for a week for 6 runs. I have stayed in a hotel, hung out, drank beer and finished midpack multiple years for a week in a parking lot for 6 runs.

Joke's on you, camping on site is even better. Just as much hanging out and drinking, without having to figure out how to get back to a hotel after. And honestly a trailer/tent with an air mattress is about as enjoyable an experience as most cheap hotels. Plus it's that much later that you can sleep in the next morning.

In reply to dps214 :

I need AC. and a shower.

In reply to bobzilla :

You do need a shower. 

I would take the 996.

FWD, but you could take a Veloster N and be under warranty the whole way right?  Same with certain Camaro packages?

In reply to ProDarwin :

As a timed event, there's no guarantee it's covered, even with GM, and Hyundai doesn't specifically cover track use.. the Veloster N is just built to properly handle it.

That said, GM has had the backs of competitors in the Past.. Mazdeuce got a whole new rear end in his CTS-V as a part of his axle issue.

spacecadet (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to ProDarwin :

As a timed event, there's no guarantee it's covered, even with GM, and Hyundai doesn't specifically cover track use.. the Veloster N is just built to properly handle it.

That said, GM has had the backs of competitors in the Past.. Mazdeuce got a whole new rear end in his CTS-V as a part of his axle issue.

They do specifically cover track use.  Competition is a wild card.

Basically, comfort. Comfort on the transit, comfort on track, comfort with any accidents, comfort fixing it in a parking lot. OLOA is a weird event. 

For me that meant my Accord is the best car I've done it in. It was slow, but that 120mph terminal speed is about where I start to pucker on a track I don't know. It was set up to be benign when either end starts to slide, and it's comfortable enough on the transits that you don't hate life. My big mistake was radio removal. 

Also, AC. AC is key. And heated seats with selective heated lumbar are amazing. 

In reply to ProDarwin :

awesome, they were not willing to say that much when the car launched.. so that's nice to see it on paper.

OK ..... new idea. Someone buy my truck and Rio and I'll go get an N. 

Something with lots of power, the ability to fit super wide tires, comfortable seats, creature comforts, etc.  Get a newish Mustang GT.  You can fit 305s on all corners, they have a fantastic engine that's pretty track-proven, and can be very fast on a track.  Plus you can read things like the Vorshlag builds to see exactly what the car needs.  500+ HP is easy with bolt-ons and a tune, and they sound great.