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

[scorp28]

I for one am starving for a get together. It has been a long time since I have been to one.

My input on the topic at hand is this......

I think braket racing is ok for what it is. If the people are honest when they dial in there car it all but takes the car out of the equation and makes it all about the driver and his abilities, more or less. I too prefer heads up racing as a way to judge what your car is capable of. That to can be a test of the drivers abilities, I personally have won a few races where I should have gotten spanked, but due to the other drivers lack of driving skill the results turned out in my favor. I'm sure most of you have similar stories also.

As far as some of the ideas that have been thrown out there I think dividing cars based on there HP or approx. HP is a pretty good idea, especially for those that get fed up with not having the money to compete. They can then still have some more realistic goals to shoot for. I for one hate to lose at anything that I participate in. I am a very competitive person but when it comes to racing I have learned to take losing very gracefully. The first time I ever lost a race in anything that I ever raced in was to Spy when I went up against Shamu after beating a GVR4 and a Tiburon. I knew i would lose that race so it didn't bother me that much. To this date Spy is the only person that I have ever lost to that I can remember. Not to say that my car is really fast because it has always been pretty much stock, I have just been lucky and haven't been challenged by any of the "big boys".

Basically what I was trying to say with that whole nonsensicle rambling is that if you are going to race people you have to choose the right races and be prepared to lose. If you lose then you have another goal to shoot for.

When it comes to my DSM yes I would love to be able to compete at street level with the likes of Kris and Nate and the other really fast cars out there but I know until I have better finances that I probably won't be able to and I am ok with that. I just want to make my car the best it can be for what I can afford. I enjoy working on it to a certain extent but I also know when I am in over my head so I let someone alot more knowledgeable hanle the work for me such as KOU doing my 6-bolt swap.

I will personally race anybody that wants to give it a go and I will be disapointed if I lose but that is all part of the experience. For now I only have 2 goals. 1...to beat SPY sometime and avenge my losses and 2....to build a car to take to the Salt Flats and break the 200 MPH mark. WOO HOO that would be great. And I want to do the latter by this time the year after next. Hey maybe that could be a community project . It is not a DSM but it is close. I have a 1988 LeBaron turbo that would would be great for a starting point plus not to mention the sleeper factor.


I hope you guys can interpret all that I was trying to say here because basically I lost track myself