In this month’s FastTrack (http://www.scca.com/_FileLibrary/File/06-9-fastrack.pdf), the SCCA has published some of the rules for the new Formula 1000 class for club racing. What does this mean? Well, basically a Formula 1000 is either a Formula Continental or Formula Ford that uses a stock 1000cc motorcycle engine. Mininum weight is 1000lbs, with driver. With these engines making around 180HP, you can imagine how fun one of these cars would be, and with the reliability of the engines, you don’t need to worry about constant rebuilds.
Other things that you commonly see on motorcycles, like the Power Commander will be allowed, too.
This class will be a great way to get into a formula car and go racing for not a lot of money. :tup:
Rules seem loose, but I haven’t looked close at the other open wheel classes.
So yeah, it could be cheap, or really expensive. I know that I have never been impressed with the price of Formula Ford stuff. However, I have only priced stuff while thumbing through a Pegasus so it could have been marked up 600%.
It’ll be something to look into a few years from now.
Well, they are keeping things on the cheap side by requiring all of the cars to be steel tube-framed without stress-bearing panels, and no carbon fiber except in places where it won’t help. 13" wheel size, maximum 10" wide won’t be all that expensive either. The idea here is that you pick up a roller FC or FF, drop in your new drivetrain and go race. There are homologation rules in effect so you will also be limited that way in the things that you can do.
With 1000lbs minimum weight, I don’t think you’ll be seeing too much exotic stuff, either.
So what is the major appeal of the bike engine versus what these cars normally run? What is it normally? 1.6 or 2 liters…I thought I saw duratec and zetec mentioned in there?
I would love to own a bike powered race car someday. That DSR at Seneca really turned me on to those cars.
Motorcycle engines are much more reliable and sturdy compared to car engines, and can take much more abuse. Dare I say bulleteproof.
Motorcycle engines are cheaper to get parts for
Motorcycle engines are easier to maintain
Motorcycle engines cost less than the engines run in most of these cars, and are more plentiful since you can pick up any wrecked bike and just grab the engine for cheap.
Easier to extract more horsepower out of the motorcycle engine, and provide just as much if not more power thanks to PCIII (Power Commander)
Motorcycle engines are lighter in some cases
Motorcycle engines include the tranny, so no separate transmission, and with simply changing two sprockets, a wider range of gearing is possible v.s. opening and rebuilding car trannies.
On the cheap side = around 10-15k, which is less than half of what it would cost to do something like a Formula Mazda, or even a front-running Spec Miata for that matter. Add in the bulletproof motorcycle engine and your fun/$ factor is very high.
I know you can get into IT for cheap in most cases, but fact is, I want to be in something that can win, and something that gives me a good ROI over the long haul, with class stability (which is the one big problem with IT, IMO.)
I’ve been thinking FF, because it is the perfect dual-purpose vehicle, but I’d rather not have to think about dealing with a carbed engine. This is where F1000 is very appealing. The only piece of the puzzle that needs to fall into place is where (if any place) it would be classed should I choose to auto-x it as well. Once that gets figured out, it will pretty much be a done deal for me.
