Brainstorming for better racing fun Options

[awd4kicks]

Ok everybody knows of the age old run what ya brung drag racing for street credit and a bad a$$ reputation for your car. That has always produced 3 things.
1) A local 'Top Dog' (Most money invested)
2) A small number of people spending money gunning for the top seat
3) A bunch of ex-enthusiasts that used to enjoy their cars at original performance levels only to be burned out by not being competative with the extremists and well-to-do.

So I've been wondering for a while now... Is this strictly a personal decision where you have to set-up a budget for your car and live with the performance you can afford. Or do any of you think there is something we can set-up localy to make multi-levels of racing performance for the most fun possible out of our individual cars?

At the same time I have the taste of Too-much-structure-nausea when I talk about multi-levels and graduations in a group of performance cars. Maybe this is is not the right direction, but I know the dilema still stands.

For the longest time this has all just been part of the 'Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat!' moto. I think we can retain more enthusiasts and have more collective fun if we can make varying levels of performance or dollars spent, viable goals to strive for together.

On a side note I HATE bracket racing. And this only pertains to drag racing, But maybe more scheduled events with catagorys grouped by dollars spent or HP levels could be run heads up. We already have other forms of racing that anyone can choose, it just seems that drag racing makes for good bench mark on any cars ability to accelerate. I'm sure I am a bit bias though.

To wrap this up I'll throw part of a well known story out there... There is a Talon I know of that was incredibly fun and touted as fast even in it's premature stock form. In reality this car was never close to being as fast as any 'Top Dogs', but the owner didn't have first hand experience with these things and didn't mind. So fun was where ever the Talon got driven. Eventually the Talon was built to be pretty quick and was even more of a blast to drive! The performance took it's toll on the drive train and the owners wallet, bringing the car to it's Knees for what could have been a short time. In the down time a stock motor and turbo could easily have been afforded and run, but the distaste for not being competative and the money to do otherwise kept the Talon from running all together. Now almost 3 years later a big engine and turbo combination MAY be coming together for some crazy fast fun. But how much fun was lost in the mean time by waiting to afford the big parts?

Throw out some ideas...I'd like to see what you guys think we could do together.

Marcus

[Kazz5]

WARNING: RAMBLE FOLLOWS

Don't ask me where I'm going with these thoughts and no, you don't need to follow.

Drag racing to me is two things. One, it's a stoplight race in a legal format. Two, it's a measure of what mods have taken place with one's vehicle and perhaps even the driver. The difference with choice #1 is that you go for it the whole way. Whereas, at a stoplight you may let off for a variety of reasons including getting completely smoked or traffic/cop/whatever.

Autocross is a technical driving experience and eventually becomes more about the driver - unless you're in a more "open" class like SMod. Then it becomes quite a bit about the vehicle to a point. From there someone with a great potential car can be undressed by a damn good driver in a lightly modded fill-in-the-blank.

Dollars is a lousy measure as explained in prior posts. However, if someone's gonna drop 30-40 large and someone's wrenching on a $1500 sweatmobile someone's gotta notice when their performance is similar.

I'm not one with alot of automotive knowledge, really, due to time and money over the years. Historically it's been buy the car with the loan cuz you're gonna do damn little to it after purchase due to finances. Then there's house, family, blah-blah-blah. I'm at a point where I can do some of the old buy the performance in the loan and do some aftermarket. Ideal perhaps, but lost on someone like me if I don't have help: knowledgeable input, even mentoring.

In all honesty I think it's about getting together, talking cars, talking smack - or debunking it. Taking time, money and effort to wrench, etc. and then meet again once more. The bonuses are wrenching, etc. with new, knowledgeable people with similar passions and complementary knowledge.

Is it about getting together? The problem with that is the ability to put two (or more) vehicles side-by-side and really finding out how they compare - whether it's drag, autocross, or road course.

I'm frustrated by a couple of things these days. One is parts/vendors and making good "investment" decisions for mods and perhaps alot of that is my own lack of knowledge (ignorance) and naivete that someone presenting a part/service will really do a good job. The nice thing is that, unless it was a huge investment, I can likely (given time and money) overcome the errors and learn something along the way. However, the second frustration, perhaps, is what really fits in here.

That second frustration is being strapped inside so much potential performance and fun and being relegated to local law enforcement and driving around amongst the ignorant, commuting-only, cars-are-transportation-only populace. I literally itch sitting behind the wheel wanting to exploit what I've worked so hard (in whatever ways) to build! I can't rip through the gears the way I want. I can't REALLY work on heel-toe (god have mercy on autocross/road course participants whenever I get that working). I can't set up all 4 tires in a squealing drift. Society has my ass whipped.

So what's the net of all of this? Hell, I didn't have one in mind when I started. But maybe I can sum this up with get together to talk and drive cars.

Slo Pny and other days are great for this. Autocross events that might be more personalized or sponsored by like-minded/like-equipped folks might help. Along with road course trips. Yeah, sounds huge. Sounds impossible. And maybe I'm off-track.

Nate mentioned a project rally-beater. Sounds like a bunch of guys with knowledge or thirst thereof along with some parts, etc. put together a Frankenstein's beast. They learn, have fun, and generally get some comeraderie and good times out of it.

The biggest issues here are egos, dollars, time, personalities, and venues.

Does any of all of this make damned sense? *Laugh*

Thanks for the opportunity to ramble. Please delete if there's alot of backlash about it ... *Laugh*