Nice work. Those times aren’t bad at all.
Thanks, but I know I’ve got a quicker time in me today. Just need to make sure the car isn’t holding me back at all. Then I’ll have no excuses!
If you need an extra pit man, let me know. I’m usually pretty handy to have around, and I wouldn’t mind hanging out for a weekend to see what the wheel to wheel stuff is all about.
I’ll update this thread before my next race so you and everyone else knows when it’ll be. I wouldn’t mind a hand in the garage/pits, but if people just want to come watch and see what it’s all about that’s great too. I love getting people into and exciting about racing!
I was running similar times at the glen at the the Fall PCA event when I had some open track. Sounds like as my car sits we would have pretty similar power to weight ratios.
My car weighs in at 3,400 w/ driver, but I usually had an instructor riding also
rwhp stock is 220, only bolt on mods (catback & CAI) so Im probably around 230
I want to eventually compete in CMC2 with the car, I would have to get power up to 260 and weight down to at least 3,200 w/driver.
CMC isn’t that popular in the NE. AI and AIX seems to have bigger turn outs.
All run in the faster race group, probably a good 8-10 seconds faster than SpecE30 if I remember correctly.
This post was a fun read. Congrats on the license!
I’ve been tossing around the idea of going SpecE30 when I finally get around to road racing (this coming summer or the one after), but have been told that parts are more expensive than those for say, a Miata. I see tons of E30’s on Craigslist for dirt cheap though, and it seems like you’re looking at at least $3k for a Miata. Any input on that? How difficult is a rebuild on that engine?
Congrats, again, and I agree with the other guys - 2:27 is still very respectable.
Yeah it seems its only real popular on the west coast and TX. Mid-Ohio seems to get a good # of CMC participation. AI & AIX is not anything im interested in. Its pretty far off for me anyway, I just want to make sure everything I do to the car is legal for the series.
Once I get my weight down and power up I should be running alot faster.
E30’s are dirt cheap. Spec Miata is a fairly cheap series to get into, but costs a lot more than SpecE30 to be a front runner. This is what I’ve been told by people who have run both. The M20 is one of the easiest engines I’ve ever worked on. The whole car is easy to work on. I did a complete fuel system replacement in about 4 hours, including tank, pumps, and most of the lines. Engine swaps are a one day job for sure.
Unless you enjoy the project, save yourself the headaches/time/money and buy something already built and competitive.
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Once you pick your class you want to run with, keep up with their message boards and follow the development of their rules. Some classes evolve to deal with changes to suppliers, restrictions on parts that are NLA, tires rules, weight rules, etc. I pretty much completed the build of my car 2 years before I ever raced, some of the work I did was to a rule that changed (not in my favor). You’ll also see what cars the front runners own and what setups work well for each car. No sense in starting your own development program and fighting up a steep learning curve.
Time to resurrect this thread from the dead!
Back at Watkins Glen this weekend for another round of racing in SpecE30. Somehow I managed to drive much harder and navigate some turns at higher speeds yet still have a slower lap time. Might be time for a dyno run and see if the engine I put together has issues.
We had around 20 cars in SpecE30 this weekend, people travelling all the way from the Mid-Atlantic and South East regions to join in on the unofficial East Coast Nationals. We had beautiful weather, tons of cars, and some exciting racing.
I had been out of the car for over a year and a half and haven’t raced since 2010, so I was a bit rusty to say the least. I needed to re-learn all the braking zones and that caused for some pretty slow lap times the first day (2:34’s). By the end of the practice day on Friday I was down to a 2:31. Saturday included practice, qualifying (2:29), and a race. I managed to knock another 2 seconds off my lap times, good enough for a starting position of 18th in class (out of 18…). SpecE30 had their own start, a standing start on the front straight. I’m not great at re-starts or any starts for that matter, and standing is worse yet. I got a bad jump on the green flag and a substantial gap opened up between me and the rest of the class. It was clear sailing for a few laps until a full course caution came out. This really hurt me as the pace car came out a few cars in front of me, so the leaders (of all classes) were right behind me at the re-start. I got run over by some pretty fast H1 and H2 cars and a few GTS2 cars that showed up. In this melee, I had my driver’s side mirror clipped coming up the esses. In wheel-to-wheel competition it’s important to know what’s around you, and without one of my mirrors that was pretty tough. To avoid ruining anyone else’s day I stayed on my line down the back straight and listened for the sound of someone else’s engine. Once I knew it was clear, I proceeded to get back on a good line and went trucking through the bus stop. No incidents for the rest of the race and I had one more signature in my provisional license book. One to go…
Sunday I decided to ditch some weight as I was about 80# too heavy for my class. Knowing full well this wasn’t the difference between last place and a podium finish, I still felt ditching some weight my help my speeds through the esses and on the straights. Passenger seat, belts, floor mounts all went into the truck and I started the race with 2 gallons less fuel. During qualifying I was slower than the day before (2:30) but I felt really good about my braking zones and lines I was taking. I picked up another 2 mph through the bus stop (85 mph) and was really pushing it. Starting in the same position on grid, with another standing start, I was ready to get a better jump this time. I was right with the pack and we hit turn 1 and I followed the group through the esses until another car in class got bumped into the wall right at the top of the hill. This was my chance to grab a few positions! I moved up 2 places that I held onto for a very brief period of time. I lost one position to a guy in the chute and hung tight to him until turn 10 when a Spec Miata and H1 S2000 wrecked. Full course caution that turned into a red flag for about 10 minutes. Another bad re-start for me and I lost a position to another car in class, but I was able to grab a spot from a Spec Miata driver by out braking him at the bus stop, slamming through the rumbles I was able to pass someone. My first time ever (excluding people with mechanical issues) I was pretty proud of myself. Next in my sights was another SpecE30 and a slow CMC (Camaro-Mustang Challenge) car, unfortunately the checkered flag dropped and my second race of the weekend was complete. I was successful in completing 2 races and getting my provisional signed to send off to California for my real license.
I have many seconds to shave off myself, but the way I was getting run over through the esses and on the straights means I might need to work on the engine a bit. I also have another 50-60# to drop from the car (and a few from the driver too), but seat time is the biggest thing I need to focus on. I’m consistent, smooth, and well aware of my surroundings, but I need to be faster. I have some videos from the GoPro Hero 3 I just got at Wal-Mart, but they are huge and take forever to upload. I’ll see if I can clip them down to something more manageable.
I fully encourage anyone who is thinking about racing (TT or wheel-to-wheel) to come out for an HPDE event and see what it’s all about.
I was out there with ya in the black CMC mustang, great turnout for the spec e30 guys.
Good stuff :tup:
There was a white CMC Mustang that I was chasing both days. He looked to have had some issues with the wall at some point that kept him back at my pace.
I’ll have to look for you next event, always great to see/meet people at the track.
Thought this was a thread about you becoming a junior astronaut. 
good stuff! keep it up and if you need some cheap race seat time coming chumping sometime.
I’m done for this season, next season I’m hoping for a full schedule of all sorts of driving events. I would love to make it out for 3-4 NASA race weekends. I’d say 2/3’s of the gap between me and the front runners is the driver, I know the car needs some help too though. I just hope it isn’t $$$.
this thread is why I rent seats.
Owning things is a headache.
I see ads for renting for raceweekends, just curious what happens when you wreck or heavily damage a car? Are you on the hook for the full cost or is there insurance or something?
Someone wrecked a rented SpecE30 this weekend. I’m not sure what the cost is if you wreck, but renting a few weekends seems more expensive than buying a car outright. The time and effort of maintaining and transporting the vehicle can become quite substantial though.