GameboyRMH said:
I do often think about how much money and effort this hobby takes compared to everything else and if it's worth it. There are lots of people who spend the same or more on other hobbies, including many I would consider particularly boring, but even though my racing budget is relatively small it's at least one order of magnitude beyond anything else I do.
You also have to accept that in most classes you're not going to be able to contend for the top spot without spending huge money, whether that's by upgrading your own car with parts at least as expensive as whatever the front-runner has or replacing it entirely with something more ruleset-friendly like "the car to have." I just assume that the top spots are beyond reach until proven otherwise by myself, and have fun with a car that I enjoy and is good for things other than getting a trophy in a specific class.
If you don't like wrenching I'll say +1 to getting something that will cut down your need to wrench. That's what I did with the Toyobaru because I don't have the kind of space, time, or help available that I did when I was running needy old cars composed of rare relics and fabricated one-offs. The up-front cost was devastating but it does need way less wrenching, gives way less trouble than even a restored old car does, and most parts can be had locally off the shelf.
And the scary thing is how much room there is for expense to increase...if you're doing any kind of wheel-to-wheel racing it can be tricky to keep your annual budget below 5 digits and it could even get up to 6. A few weeks ago I spoke with a guy who takes his son around to different top-level karting events in North America with a trailer rig and mentioned that the annual budget was more than a gross full-time minimum-wage income around here. He described himself as "not a rich guy" like much of the competition, which could be a reasonable thing to say, but it still seemed like an unreasonable amount of money to spend on a hobby even for an adult, especially one who isn't rich.
I agree that in order to be competitive in most classes, you have to spend a huge amount of money, either in parts or on up-front car purchases costs.
The last year I autocrossed my S2000, I took 2nd for the season in a very competitive local CS class, to a driver of an ND2 who has trophied at Nationals a few times. He would frequently beat me by 2-3 tenths throughout the season. When the summer season was over, we co-drove the same car at a test and tune day- in his defense, we co-drove my S2000, in my defense, he owned an S2000 for over a decade and trophied in an S2000 at Nationals, so technically he probably had more competition experience in the S2000 than I did lol... we each got in over a dozen runs and our fastest times were within hundredths of a second of each other. It was a confirmation to me that if I wanted to beat him, I needed to sell my beloved S2000 and buy an ND2 Miata... I love Miata's... but not as much as I love my S2000. I searched all over the country for my S2000- it's a relatively mint condition 2008 in laguna blue (fairly rare)... I would have trouble finding another one like it to say the least... nope. I haven't had a car payment in quite a while (I'm not interested in one either!) and I wasn't willing to drop $30k in cash on an ND2... which, in retrospect, would have been cheaper in the long run, as the ND2 barely depreciates and you never get your money back on mods... hindsight being 20/20 and all.
I agree with a previous poster that ES and STS are pretty stable. I bought a 1999 Miata Sport that I built for ES- I flew out to Florida and limped that poor car back home. Mistakes were made with that car and the suspension geometry was essentially messed up to the point where it couldn't be repaired (it's a long story). Otherwise, I would have kept that car.
After I sold what was left of the 1999 Miata, you guessed it, I picked up a 1988 CRX Si that I built to run STS. I love Miata's and almost went on a search for another 1999 Sport (they're tough to find...), but figured I would try something different... When I build the CRX for STS, essentially anyone who was running STS locally left the class... leaving my STS-centric CRX in a class of 1. That's not a lot of fun and certainly not worth making a 1-2 hour drive across the state for. So, I started doing SCCA TT, running in Tuner 5. I found I prefer the amount of seat time in TT and stopped going to SCCA autoX. I was having fun with a couple guys in T5, but then the guys that ran it decided they were going to lump everyone in Tuner (1 to 5) into a large PAX category, that's based on some arbitrary numbers they came up with, having nothing to do with anything the SCCA ever came up with. All of the T5 guys (myself included) then essentially came in at the bottom of every event... with guys in T2/T1 always at the top, by huge, insurmountable margins- not based on driver skill or prep, but inherent disadvantages/advantages of their PAX setup (especially the boosted cars, as we're at 5000 ft elevation). I talked to the organizer about dropping the PAX and running in our own respective classes; to which he essentially stated it was done to help other classes not feel like they're running alone... Again, driving hours across the state, just to come in at the bottom portion of the rigged PAX, with no chance of actually being competitive, isn't my cup of tea. The other guys that were technically in T5 soon stopped attending and so did I. Due to some unforeseen personal reasons, I ended up selling the CRX and I actually took a while off (for financial reasons).
Before I sold the CRX, I had actually purchased an EK hatch (before issues forced me to sell the CRX). I know a lot of people are now starting to appreciate the EF Civic and CRX, but after driving them all, I actually prefer the EG and EK (and DC2) over the older EF's. I felt like the EK was a better version of the CRX and didn't want it to be as rough to drive as my CRX... I basically wanted a CRX that was a better street car. When financial things started to come together, I started putting together a mild street build... and soon, I had a b18B engine and transmission sitting in my garage lol... I was getting ready to throw them in when I found a 1996 Integra GS-R, in outstanding condition, for a very reasonable price, locally. I figured the Integra was a better place to start, so I bought the Integra and sold the EK. To be clear, I liked my EK a lot, a DC2 GS-R just made more sense to build/put my efforts towards.
As my personal and professional life settled down, I found I had unfinished business with TT. Although, with the silly local PAX classing, the SCCA was out. I started doing autoX with a local league that was based on drivetrain and power-to-weight ratio- it was still a drive, but there was lots of competition and there is NO working the track, at all (they have full time employees that shag cones in golf carts!)! They have split schedules, so if you run in the morning, you can literally just show up in the morning, run and leave- or hangout and watch the guys in the afternoon. With the little bit of work, the Integra was competitive, but wasn't even close to fully prepped, so I still had some time to make up to catch the fastest guy in the class (who trophies at Nats on a regular basis in his STS CRX- oh the irony lol).
I found I wanted to run with this autoX league, but also wanted to compete in TT... I was contemplating a full build of the Integra when I stumbled across a dirt cheap E82 BMW 128i 6MT w/sport package. There was a lot wrong with it, but it looked like it would be the perfect car for NASA TT5. I got to fixing everything on the car and something strange happened: I fell in love with the car, and so did my wife lol. It kind of became my daily, and I didn't want to ruin it with track mods... but I still wanted to compete in NASA TT... so, I decided I would bite the bullet and build my Integra. How hard could it be? How much could it really cost? I found out the hard way.
All the builds over the last few years have taken their toll on me, both mind and body... and finances lol.
I considered the Toyobaru a few times. I came close to picking one up to run SSC or STX... but when I started to get away from SCCA autoX and decided I preferred to run TT, there isn't anywhere to really run them locally for me. They were definitely the "car to have" in SCCA TT Sport 6... then they got bumped up to Sport 5, where they're likely still the car to have... but my local SCCA TT chapter moved over to that silly PAX system (all Sport classes 1-6 lumped in together). I'm out. At that point, I might as well just run open lapping days. They make too much power stock to run NASA TT6... they can be competitive in TT5, but when doing the math, the BMW's make more sense, as they're cheaper and their inline-6's are much easier to squeeze power out of. And no matter what, if you're running NASA, it doesn't matter which platform you start with, they're all going to cost a fortune to build and will involve quite a bit of wrenching time.
Either way, I've done this to myself. I have no one else to blame, but looking back, I'm not sure if it's been worth it and I'm hesitant to keep going forward. I should probably take a break.
