Hello All

I have been toying with the idea of getting started into lost racing for about 1y now.

I was looking to get some information of of you guys.

How much money is required for your 1st season, including car and every thing else.

Do you need a team of people. I was thinking of doing it with a friend. This is to help the building and he would race to.. in the same car if thats allowed.

Are most of the skills learnt along the way.

Who would you get the chasse off. I was thinking MK

Thanks

Hi, you sound like you are pretty much in the same boat that I was in a Month ago. A guy from the 750mc (who won the series a few years back) said that his first season cost him £4600 (excluding the build costs of the car) all in, inc race fee's, engine rebuild following damage, ins, travel etc...

Dont be fooled by the word locost though, as it seems far from it. But in reality its a hell of a lot cheaper than most. I have spent nearly £1000 so far and have chassis, engine, wheels and some running gear. I expect that figure will no doubt double before I am complete.

My chassis was made by MK and I am really impressed, it seems spot on.

Hope this helps

[Edited on 5/4/06 by andrews_45]

hi m8, two years ago i built my own car with a mate, including chassis etc. I stopped counting on the build cost after a while as it was getting scary!!
As long as you have some mechanical knowledge you and a mate building it and racing will be fine. be prepared for long days getting problems sorted and I hope you've got an understanding missus!!!!
Best advice I can give you is research everything, and i mean everything, thoroughly before spending any money, otherwise you may just get the wrong thing and it'll cost you ( i know from experience!!)
But, once you've done it the satisfaction is immense!! And then you get to race !!



pumpers

Cheapest way to do it is to forget about building your own car and buy one, even the bestest race winning ones struggle to make more than 5-6K and to be realistic you'll never build one for that

Building your own car does give you much more satisfaction though and sad as it sounds it was one of the best moments of my life when I saw the car I'd built come round the first corner at Brands Hatch on the first lap of our first race. Two of you will be plenty btw, we managed for years like that.

As has been mentioned in real terms its in no way lowcost but it is the cheapest way you can go proper circuit racing and you will have a lot of fun - until you start taking it all a bit too seriously lol

£4000 was about what I thought it would cost.

Is it possible to have 2 people racing one car, ie one weekend I race the next he?

The only way I would do it would be if I build the car. For the same reason why I have a BBQ in the rain..... im a man and I must make fire and go fast

I am willing to front about 4k. What about sponsorship or is that really hard?

I might head down next race week end and have a look

Two people sharing a car has been done many times (year before last a couple of blokes got so good they were almost alternating wins!), as long as you agree who drives where beforehand I can't see any problems.

4k....... mmmm I would say it would be realy difficult, you can maybe put together a very basic car for that (even that wont be easy mind you - Locost racing cam shaft, new harness, plumbed in fire extinguisher and control tyres and you've already spent 1/8th of your budget for example) but you will be seriously uncompetitive and probably have quite big reliability issues. You certainly wont be able to build a car AND do any racing on a 4K budget.

Sorry to be negative but like I said Locost racing isn't actualy that low cost when you get down to it

Dont worry about being negitive, I am loving all the information. I though I might be shooting a little low there.

What about 7k?

That's i will get it done one way or another. I would rather get a top car that suffer paying for lots of repairs

7K is much more realistic, again you wont be winning but you should be able to build a car able to break into the top 10 - you'll need a better engine than you'll be able to afford to do any better and you'd also need to spend a lot of money testing as well. Actualy not being right at the front can be an advantage as if you are at the front of the midfield you tend to get more races for your money as you will probably qualify for the heat race and then via that the main race.

If you get your tent out it's much cheaper than staying in hotels, if you've built the car and can weld you can fix it yourself so cheaper still. My top money saving tip however has to be DON'T CRASH cos that will cost you a fortune

Ok what about getting sponsored to help for crash damage or get some extra spending money


JM

Well that depends how pursuasive you can be realy doesn't it One thing I will say is that there used to be a regulation about the size and positioning of any stickers or decals you could have on the car (excluding 750MC and Series sponsors ones) which would be worth checking - people would constantly ignore that rule mind you but every now and again they were made to take some off.

The other thing is how attractive a proposition it is for a potential sponsor (ie not very) bearing in mind the best media exposure possible for bigger ones will be a tiny blurry picture in Motorsport News or Autosport and 'Dens Garage' in Norwich type sponsors wont get much business from someone seeing your car racing at Oulton Park..... it can been done but I can't remember anyone getting loads and loads of cash/freebies through it, it's not glamourous enough realy

Right well... The anwser is to save. I though it would be a little hard to do.

Oh well I think my beset option is to slowly build the car and save at the same time.

Where is the best place to get a 1300 X Flow or dose it not really matter so long as I get it referbed

Where ever is cheapest To be serious it's not realy worth putting a tired engine that's been dug out of a rusty heap into your car without rebuilding it first (you have to change the cam anyway to one specialy stamped for Locost racing) so wherever you find a cheap one - ebays usualy cheapest (especialy if you're patient!)

Try to pick up a 4 speed GT gearbox at the same time btw Type 9s are ok but they're heavy and the ratios aren't ideal

I picked one up last week. Have a look at Practical Performance Car in the ad bit, a lot of folk remove the 1300 lump and replace it with a rs2000 one, so are regularly in there. Mine was advertised as free to good home and I am going to re-build.