Pictures from Mid-Ohio 5/29-31 with NASA

[greg1647545532]

Thought I'd share some pictures that Downforce Media captured from the NASA event a couple weekends ago. I entered my ChumpCar in the inaugural TREC 4-hour endurance race and co-drove with one of my neighbors. It rained most of the day and we took about a half-hour break in the middle of the race due to lightning, so all of these pictures are from the qualifying session which was only about half rain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bonus picture of my KMiata going through T1, after years of running baby slicks I bought some 15x9s and asked my tire guy for the fattest tire I could fit under an NB without modifying the fenders.

 

 

This is more mechanical grip than I've ever had before and I need to re-calibrate my brain, I figure I'm leaving 2 seconds a lap on the table because I kept anticipating understeer that never came. Something to work on.

[BuckeyeROC]

Hell yeah man, looks fun!

[zeitgeist57]

Love this. I ragret not buying your Integra...baby stuff, ya know.

 

Glad to see the E36 on the track!

[Geeto67]

:masturboy: Dat plate on the miata doe....

[greg1647545532]

Love this. I ragret not buying your Integra...baby stuff, ya know.

 

Glad to see the E36 on the track!

 

I ended up giving the teg to my nephew, he needed some direction so his dad is going to finish it with him.

 

Getting the E36 back together was a bit of a mad dash but then it did what it does, run all day without issue. Of course with the rain we barely got anything warm all day... tires still look brand new.

[10phone2]

good stuff. whats the setup on the e36 ( I currently have one)?

[cstmg8]

Awesome. What tire size did you end up getting under the Miata?

 

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[greg1647545532]

good stuff. whats the setup on the e36 ( I currently have one)?

 

We've focused almost everything on safety, maintenance, and reliability. We've got an M3 diff ready to go in, and M3 springs on it now, but that's it for go-fast parts.

 

Awesome. What tire size did you end up getting under the Miata?

 

Whopping 245s.

[Smokey]

Sounds like a great weekend, thanks for sharing

[Suprafiedd]

Looks like it was a blast.. Can't wait to get back to Mid-Ohio in September and hopefully sooner.

[iwashmycar]

That license plate is awesome.

[cstmg8]

Greg, how much would you say you have invested in a dependable chump car? Not including racing equipment.

 

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[greg1647545532]

The #1 problem with cheap endurance racing is time -- everyone wants to show up to the party, nobody wants to stay and clean up. My cousin lives in DC, he bought this car in 2016 and we only worked on it when I was out that way for work and actually had some free time. So, hardly ever. We ended up paying for a bunch of labor, so keep that in mind, but also I think that's a realistic option.

 

Car - $3000 (130k miles)

Safety Equipment by Piper Motorsports in Sterling, VA (Seats, Cage, Harnesses, Fire system, window nets, kill switch) - $7500

Suspension refresh and reinforcement by RRT in NoVA - $4500

Miscellaneous go fast upgrades - $2000

 

So we're about $17k in right now and we're not competitive. Fortunately we're dividing everything 3 ways. Obviously you can do it for less but the days of true $500 cars racing are long gone.

[RyM3rC]

appreciate you posting in here, so little racing content anymore on columbusracing.

 

was half interested in chumpcar with my e36 once upon a time, cost and labor turned me off for now

[Miller]

Rymer complains about racing but does none himself.

 

:gabe:

[10phone2]

The #1 problem with cheap endurance racing is time -- everyone wants to show up to the party, nobody wants to stay and clean up. My cousin lives in DC, he bought this car in 2016 and we only worked on it when I was out that way for work and actually had some free time. So, hardly ever. We ended up paying for a bunch of labor, so keep that in mind, but also I think that's a realistic option.

 

Car - $3000 (130k miles)

Safety Equipment by Piper Motorsports in Sterling, VA (Seats, Cage, Harnesses, Fire system, window nets, kill switch) - $7500

Suspension refresh and reinforcement by RRT in NoVA - $4500

Miscellaneous go fast upgrades - $2000

 

So we're about $17k in right now and we're not competitive. Fortunately we're dividing everything 3 ways. Obviously you can do it for less but the days of true $500 cars racing are long gone.

 

man holy fuck thats pricey. I'm curious, what you do think you would have to do to get competitive?

[Smokey]

Cheap car racing is expensive. Try to get some quotes on what it takes to field a competitive spec Miata. Then think about how that applies to faster classes and series like IMSA or top level SCCA, NASA, etc. it gets crazy pretty quickly.

 

That’ll continue to keep me out of car racing unfortunately. Kart racing at a club level is about as rich as my blood will get.

[RyM3rC]

Rymer complains about racing but does none himself.

 

:gabe:

 

How'd you do in that last 944 race? I'll get my track fix one $200 hpde at a time. Until then, I'll be 3-honkin it

[morabu]

How'd you do in that last 944 race? I'll get my track fix one $200 hpde at a time. Until then, I'll be 3-honkin it

 

where are you seeing $200? I'm trying to do one. $300 is all i see at the moment

[10phone2]

Nelson has some for low $200 and there are driver boot camps the same price. havent been to one myself, but took a quick peek.

 

$195 at nelson: http://autointerests.com/omo-hpde-nelson-ledges

[Miller]

How'd you do in that last 944 race? I'll get my track fix one $200 hpde at a time. Until then, I'll be 3-honkin it

 

Gotcha. :gabe:

[greg1647545532]

man holy fuck thats pricey. I'm curious, what you do think you would have to do to get competitive?

 

Maybe 2-4 grand, we really need to cut weight and while I do have some more free weight savings to do there are a lot of "open" (no points assessed) items that nevertheless cost money. Wheels are open but the wheels pictured are 25 lb OEM M3 wheels because I can't afford forged race wheels, we're only running 235s because of the narrow wheels, entire braking system is open but lightweight AP calipers cost money, exhaust is open but we're running stock (with cats) because a race exhaust is $800. I'd really like to have oil, trans, diff coolers with proper temperature monitoring, but you know... money. Etc.

 

I do want to emphasize again that we paid retail labor rates for things like new ball joins and tie rods, and we paid retail labor rates for ALL of the safety equipment. You can also find a deal on racing junk and do this for cheaper. But even discounting the price of the car, dollar for dollar a minute of track time at a ChumpCar race has ended up being more expensive than a minute of track time at a HPDE weekend.

[RyM3rC]

where are you seeing $200? I'm trying to do one. $300 is all i see at the moment

 

Gotta have that hookup! Sometimes you get a discount if you only do 1-day of a 2-day event

[coltboostin]

The #1 problem with cheap endurance racing is time -- everyone wants to show up to the party, nobody wants to stay and clean up.

 

So we're about $17k in right now and we're not competitive. Fortunately we're dividing everything 3 ways. Obviously you can do it for less but the days of true $500 cars racing are long gone.

 

 

I agree 100% on commitment.

 

But, I will say GrassRoots Shootout is still fun on a true budget. I feel like GrassRoots, or Lemons. After that, you may as well do a B spec or Spec Miata and actually race.

[zeitgeist57]

I'm tearing up a bit at the honesty around what's spent on the E36, and you're still not competitive. It's a tough hobby but I do love seeing guys that throw themselves into it.