right, cuz a roll cage without a helmet to save my head is something I want in my winter car… heh this just SHOWS how not-ready you are to take this on 
Yes… that is a very true statement! STFU
Obviously a nice padding would be used if I did use this car for a street purpose too. I understand that if you crash without a helmet on, you still will have a heavy price to pay but its a risk im willing to take and that many others take every day.
I knew that people like you and mpd, people who have invested lots of money and time into perfecting thier driving and cars, would only have negative (and hardly insightful, when you should be an example of) things to say to a noob trying to get into this. I hate how everyones insecurity on this site is such a cause for douchebaggery. “This guy has no idea what he is getting into, this guy is an idiot, I have spent 56546 hours in seat and $6546554 building my car and im not even ready, so how can a puney man of your sorts do it psh”
Obviously to some this sounds not very economical at all, but I have weighed my options so spare the negativity. I was asking for friendly advice, the bigclap was just stupid.
With that said, does anyone have any more financial insight that I may be overlooking?
lol… I gave you suggestions that were going to save you money in the long run, since hey, I’ve been down this road. But whatever. You can go jump in feet first with virtually no seat time and see how quickly you get punted off in a group that uses bump drafting. Btw, yeah, you can run ITA, but you’ll get the shit kicked out of you (both literally and with lap times). SCCA is a contact sport.
Good Examples of Insight (neg or pos to my cause)
Douchebag Example
/rant
How much seat time do you think it takes to “keep up” in spec miata then? What would be a good number of hpde’s and driving courses that would make even say an average driver/learner adequate? Do you think it would be ok to do the hpde’s in the sm if I bought it before hand or might I really not like it that much and end up wasting my money?
Personally, I think you should do a season, getting atleast promoted to Group 3/White on SEVERAL different tracks before you consider racing. There is a lot of situational awareness that you just dont have from having only done a few days at Dunnville. Dunnville is NOTHING like the “big tracks” other than it has pavement. You need to get to the point where you can carry a conversation on track, while driving 9/10ths, and checking your mirrors without thinking about ANY of it. It needs to be instinct, second nature otherwise you WILL be overwhelmed. There are lots of places that rent SM cars, I’d do some DE’s in your street car and then look into renting a SM for a DE weekend towards the end of next year. I think you will be extremely humbled after doing your first DE at someplace with the walls super close like WGI or STUPID FLAT OUT FAST like Nelson Ledges.
I may have a car you can use for schools in the spring, mine’s almost finished (not a spec miata) I am racing it once this fall to keep my license and sort it out, and get a logbook for it. I only ask for you to cover the costs for tires (not much, like maybe $100 I buy used tires) my gas to get myself and the car to the track, and my food. I offer this because FairgentlemanZ was nice enough to do it for me, and I want to pay it forward.
Did I miss something here? How many races have you done with ITA cars again?
This makes good sense. If I do, do this, I want to do it right.
That sounds like a too good to be true offer. Liability is my only concern but I would be more than greatful to work something out.
^ This is insightful. I know Mike, he’s trying to be nice about this. We are only trying to save you money and headaches but I guess that qualifies as douchebaggery :shrug:
If it were me I would at least do a season or two full of hpde’s so you can get promoted to whatever the advanced group is depending on the club you drive with. Mike is right I did my first two days this past spring and things are overwhelming at first with rules, other cars, flags, point bys etc. If you really want to try out a spec miata the SCDA rents one or two of them for their hpde’s.
I’m sorry if my being RIGHT and you being DUMB is, in your eyes “negative insight” - have fun learning by making your own expensive and dangerous mistakes, I’m done with fucktards like you who ASK ADVICE and then trash those trying to give it. I directly answered your questions or directly addressed your comments. Whether or not you like hearing it from me, daily-driving a caged car is DANGEROUS and stupid, that’s why I don’t do it now (and feel dumb for having done so). I was suggesting you learn from my mistakes, if that’s “douchebaggery” perhaps you need to re-examine your worldview.
Sorry for wasting your and my time.
edit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm__88baUyI (enjoy hehe)
I was offered and took advantage of the same offer. Usually there would be a fully refundable damage waiver, but this is not an expensive car, so it would not be that large. I mean, if you have a Miata project (say under $2g’s) I’d happily take it if you completely destroyed my car, but that is not likely. Possible, but not likely. The most likely thing you would do is bend a fender, or damage some suspension parts.
The problem with some people here is their advice is doom and gloom, trying to talk someone out of something that could change their life. I mean, he could be the next Randy Pobst, who knows! You gotta take a chance in life. As a matter of fact, Randy had no track experience either, just some autox’s like me.
All you and MDP47 are doing is trying to bring him down, why?
Apology accepted :mamoru:
I was just referencing your tone and clap smiley. Your original statement was insightful but your sarcasm and tone was uncalled for… well not on this site where being an ass is the standard. I would say the motorsports section is the closest thing to actual automotive discussion on this board for people who really do care about driving thier cars to the max. With that said, I guess I just expected more in here rather than the class I see out of people in OT and even GA.
There are two hard line thought patterns going on here:
1: Prepare until you are ready to succeed
2: Throw yourself into it and learn the hard way
I don’t think MoBoost4U is expecting to do well his first year or two, so many of the comments are invalid. I would like to get into competitive racing as well, but decided to get to as many tracks as possible this year and see what/where the competition is and what they are doing. I will probably make a decision either way over the winter. I’ll just say that after getting out and meeting people I was GREATLY humbled. As far as the financials go, there are a couple ways to look at it. I spent ~$4500 (plus gas, brakes, tires, hotels, food ect…) doing HDPEs this summer, and learned allot from a number of very smart people. The thing I learned the most was that I need more seat time.
The lines, and approach that schools teach are very ‘safe’. They don’t even talk about race lines and techniques until you have been solo’d and in the advanced group for a while. This is true with PCA, NEQ, BMWCCA and Phoenix group at least.
I think that the cost to race, vs $350-$500/weekend of HDPE may be a wash. I haven’t actually raced (but researched and talked to people quite a bit), but I bet the learning curve is much steeper by just taking approach #2. If you can afford it, I still do agree that you should get on some big courses before you dive in. Nelson Ledges and WGI are fairly easy to find track time on.
As hard as it is for me to admit, MPD47 would crush me in a spec series race (unless I just took him into the wall LOL), but you have to start somewhere. After the season is over, I will be looking seriously at getting a spec car. The Miata series seems to be ‘the’ spec series to get into.
I think there are other people on the board thinking about competitive racing. We should pool resources, maybe get together as a group, even invite someone with experience?
As an aside: I find it funny that no matter what the car discussion, 90% of the time people throw money into the mix when the OP doesn’t make reference to it. MoBoost could have $300,000 budgeted for racing next year, but we still tell him it’s too expensive.
It’s not that big a deal though, the SCCA is not NASCAR, SM could be rough yes, and you need a big budget to even survive it, my only suggestion is to start in an IT class, the racing in IT is cordial and the sportsmanship is pretty good. I’ve done 6 races, and had contact ONCE, in the rain, minor damage (to Jeremy’s car, the other car was FUBAR 
) It was a freak thing.
The SCCA knows what they are doing, and at a drivers school you have maybe an hour or 2 of class time, then they throw you out on the track, again and again. They do that no matter what your previous experience is And it’s worked fine for 50 years now
LOL! The guy at 1:32 did some good work.
It’s not about ABILITY to spend, its about where it SHOULD be spent… I sacrifice a lot to be able to do trackdays, I rarely buy new clothes, go out to eat, I don’t even own a nice daily (driving your tow vehicle daily gets old fast). Some people have far less money, plenty have lots more, but there are still wise and unwise ways to use that money.
My worry is there’s a BIG gap between “No experience required” and “No RACING experience” required - so you’re telling me an 18 year old who just got out of a graduated license program can just show up with zero track experience and get an SCCA license? NO WONDER WHY there is so much body contact in SCCA 
Thanks man, idk if youre right but that was more or less how I feel.
And yes, although now, later in this thread mpd has made many great points, I do agree, we should be promoting this and find ways to get people into racing as opposed to deturing people from it.
I attribute this to hot heads and a form of jealousy (they feel less elite when average joes like me want to just get in there and they actually have the means to do it) I could be wrong.
In a nut shell, just like every little kid and just as we have all satrted, Yeah, I do want to be a racecardriverguy. It looks fun in so many ways and thats what pulls me to it. Im glad you guys have told me how you think is the best way to go about it beacuse that was one of my main questions. the only thing I ask is just try to do it in a way that encourages development rather than denture it. I feel like that is a main mission of forums.
I think they were making the points (and good ones) that racing is both dangerous and expensive.
In hockey the lower the level you compete, the more likely you are to get a stick or puck to the face, even though the game is played at 1/2 speed. I think racing may be the same way, except it’s a car to the face.
What is the best way into competitive racing?