Best alternative country for motor sports

If one were to consider a stint as an expat for whatever non political reason one might consider. What other country offers the most potential for economically viable motorsports related activities? Sure I'd love to do the Dakar rally or run the ring everyday, but a trophy truck or Porsche are out of my price range and some places are just too hard to find work as an alien.

What sayeth the hive? Where are the bargains?

Germany. You can run the 'ring in anything you want, tour buses do it. There are other great large tracks as well as lots of smaller tracks. Indoor karting is popular, and there are auto-related events everywhere. Not to mention the Mercedes and Porsche museums, which often have special events. (BMW might have a museum as well, haven't been over there in a while.) Plus you have the autobahn to enjoy whenever you want for free, and they have a real car culture.

The downsides are that modifying your car is tougher than it is here, but that is true in most of Europe. Also, blood sausage.

My second choice would be Finland. They are car-crazy and your average 12 year old can drive the pants off most Americans. Sure it's cold, but if you like stage rally, the entire country is basically a track.

Australians are resourceful, heavy on V8 and Rotary and generally crazy (in a good way.)

If I had to leave The US, Australia seems the most appealing other country to me (on all reasons combined.)

In reply to pinchvalve:

Germany would be my first choice. Wife and I spent 2 weeks there in early October. ( Ran the ring too. Wouldn't want to on a regular basis though it's pretty pricey if stuff goes wrong.) place is awesome from a drivers point of view and the food does rock.

Germany's issue would be jobs. Even when married to a German national you are second tier for employment. If you are a pair of foreigners you better have a trust fund or like ramen.

Are there any countries the hive knows about with similar motorsports options and a more accessible job market?

pinchvalve wrote: My second choice would be Finland. They are car-crazy and your average 12 year old can drive the pants off most Americans. Sure it's cold, but if you like stage rally, the entire country is basically a track.

That was going to be my answer, so I will give it the ole +1

"Economically viable" is the hard part. The US has a damn solid lock on that - cars and parts are substantially cheaper there than most anywhere else on the planet and the job market is top-notch. Strictly in terms of economically viable motorsports, the US is paradise and in a league of its own, no doubt about it.

Of course it's all relative and things could change...

In reply to GameboyRMH:

No argument on the economically viable part. I'd miss 3 parts stores and a lowes within walking distance. From a consumer point of view it rocks

Wales, Ireland, anywhere in Scandinavia. But I'm a big rally fan... And that autotest thing I've been catching videos of online looks like cheap fun, basically go carts with handbrakes.

Australia looks like fun, but lots and lots and lots of poisonous snakes make it a no go for me.

South America could be a world of opportunities. Lots of trails and fourwheeling and rally areas, I can't imagine it being too terribly difficult to get a job if you can speak any of the languages available.

Mexico has a surprisingly strong grassroots drag racing scene, but very few road courses and as far as I know, no autocross.

My vote would have to go to Australia.

Carribean islands are surprisingly supportive of rally and hillclimb.

My preference would be the UK over Germany. Other than personal bias, the main reasons would be:

• Much easier to run a modified or homebuilt car on the road in the UK than in Germany. While it's possible to do so in Germany, it's a good way to advance the speed of your hair loss.
• Britain has had a performance cottage industry for a long time, and a bigger tolerance for eccentric people doing weird stuff than Germany has. That's one of the reasons why a lot of the F1 teams are headquartered there. If you need weird E36 M3 made or rebuilt, you can usually find an old dude in a brown coat working out of a shed somewhere in the Midlands who's done exactly what you need for decades.
• There is a tuning industry in Germany obviously and there is a racing cottage industry also. I just found it more accessible and somewhat less pricey in the UK.
• Lots of racetracks in the UK, although they have a big NIMBY problem. There are fewer tracks in Germany AFAIK, they also have a NIMBY problem and in general I found the grassroots road racing scene not quite as accessible.
• OTOH German, Swiss and French hillclimbs is where you find a lot of the GRM mad scientist people. Plus their hillclimbs tend to be much more impressive than the British ones - mostly because they can hold them on public roads and not people's driveways.
• The language barrier is going to be an issue in Germany. While most of the larger companies tend to use a mix of English and German for their internal communications, you pretty much have to be halfway fluent in German to function there at all. Plus for certain types of residency permits you have to prove you speak German - not sure if that's only for the spousal types of permits or more universal, though.

captdownshift wrote: Carribean islands are surprisingly supportive of rally and hillclimb.

Among many other forms of motorsport, but it's FAR from economically viable. Parts are crazy-expensive due to shipping and import duties and the job market is abysmal.

I would put the Caribbean high on the "money is no object" motorsports destinations though.

UK. Sprints, hillclimbs, rallies, road rallies, autotests, wheel to wheel, drag racing. Everything you could ever want in a relatively small geographic are. Just take money, lots and lots of money. When I moved here I was spending less on wheel to wheel race entry fees than I did in the UK for Hillclimbs in 1994. Banger rallies were invented there. Mongol rally, various beater rallies all around Europe and to Africa including one to Dakar. The UK pretty much invented grassroots motorsports.

Road rallies

This is a road rally. berkeley helmets, not road legal :)

https://www.youtube.com/embed/tgDM8874g9Y

Hillclimbs https://www.youtube.com/embed/xppjlb06MYQ

This is British Stock Car racing https://www.youtube.com/embed/6hU2eQ-l0Zs

If you can dream it, you can race it.

Entry fees for stage rally in the UK are insanely expensive. At least at one point, a lot of rally teams from the UK were competing in the Caribbean to save money.

In reply to GameboyRMH:

I've actually been wondering about that.I remember top gear going rally crossing for "the cost of a round of golf" but seeing golf range from $25-$1000+ here in the states didn't translate the price well.

I can't remember exactly what the entry fees for track days were, but IIRC those tended to be somewhat cheaper (not by a lot though) than what I'm paying over here. Varies wildly by circuit, too - Brands Hatch full circuit is a similar cost to say, Laguna Seca.

Canada?

Pretty much got it all covered. Find some kind of work that you can do on-line with a laptop.

I would have Australia as a second, however they don't really tolerate much mucking about with cars in search of performance and everything there is the most poisonous thing known to mankind.

GameboyRMH wrote: Entry fees for stage rally in the UK are insanely expensive. At least at one point, a lot of rally teams from the UK were competing in the Caribbean *to save money.*

Stage rallies yes. Road rallies are not at all expensive, around £40-50GBP ($50-60 at todays exchange rate) If I were back in the UK I'd be very very interested in road rallying. Some more to make you jealous,a s you can see they are very sedate being on open public roads.

NOHOME wrote: Canada? Pretty much got it all covered. Find some kind of work that you can do on-line with a laptop.

Might be one of the next best options to the States, but cars and parts are still a good chunk more expensive than in the US. Inescapable winter has to count as something of a disadvantage too - although on the other hand you can't have ice racing without winter.

GameboyRMH wrote: Might be one of the next best options to the States, but cars and parts are still a good chunk more expensive than in the US. Inescapable winter has to count as something of a disadvantage too - although on the other hand you can't have ice racing without winter.

Well being in the Detroit area means Canada is the first foreign country south of me, I'm quite familiar with the concept of winter :)

Prefer Hillclimbing to Road Rally?

This is available for £12,500 GBP (just under $16K) with a Hewland FG trans, just add your own Cosworth DFV/DFX/DFS etc

GameboyRMH wrote:

NOHOME wrote: Canada? Pretty much got it all covered. Find some kind of work that you can do on-line with a laptop.

Might be one of the next best options to the States, but cars and parts are still a good chunk more expensive than in the US. Inescapable winter has to count as something of a disadvantage too - although on the other hand you can't have ice racing without winter.

If winter never goes away, does that mean people actually remember how to drive in the snow?

What about South Africa? Decent job market for college educated, lots of racing and grassroots builders, the dollar is still worth something for move in expenses, and fairly far away from most major conflict zones.

If I were leaving the US I'd be prepared to write off motorsports as something I simply wouldn't be able to participate in. Its still expensive here, although cheap compared to other countries.

iRacing costs should be roughly the same though...

GameboyRMH wrote:

NOHOME wrote: Canada? Pretty much got it all covered. Find some kind of work that you can do on-line with a laptop.

Might be one of the next best options to the States, but cars and parts are still a good chunk more expensive than in the US. Inescapable winter has to count as something of a disadvantage too - although on the other hand you can't have ice racing without winter.

15 year import rule, though. That's got to make up for something.