Autocrossing isn't cheap, but there are many ways you can at least save some
money. And, believe it or not, being on a tight budget can actually be to
your advantage. Here are some tips:
1. Find a car that will also be your daily driver. That way, it will almost
seem practical.
2. Find a car that has enough room to carry all your stuff to and from the
event. That way, it will still seem practical.
3. Run in the stock class. Once you make that transition to CSP, you've just
opened the Pandora's Box. You can NEVER go fast enough in SP and beyond.
There are ALWAYS things you can tweak, and even worse, there are ALWAYS
things you can buy.
4. Don't buy everything at once.
5. Keep your eyes open for deals. Subscribe to every single autocross or
car-related mailing list. Who knows what deals there are to be had.
Here's Lucy's basic set of stuff. Obviously, I've spent a lot of money on
tires.
Set of Kumhos: $400
Borla exhaust: $100 used
Sway Bar: $100 used
Rims: $400 used
Konis: $200 used
Alignment: under $100 (C2 Automotive)
For Lucy's first few months of autocrossing, all we had was the sway bar,
rims, and tires. And Charlie Davis did a nice alignment over at Auto
Options. I left it like that for a long, long time.
Then, I just kept my eyes open for deals. I've since acquired a really nice
lap belt, also used, fancy ignition wires, spark plugs, K&N air filter,
another set of rims, another sway etc. I just slowly added this stuff to my
collection. It's an on-going process, but well paced.
The best advantage to being on a tight budget is that you won't be tempted
to go out and buy the latest car or gizmo for the class. So, you just sit
back and watch what others are doing and learn from their experiments. It
sometimes annoys the hell out of them... but there's no need to reinvent the
wheel, right? Without investing a dime, I'll find out soon enough how fast
the MR-2 Spyder is.
Katie K.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Scot Zediker [mailto:roadsterboy@earthlink.net]
> Sent: Friday, August 25, 2000 3:19 PM
> To: Kit Wetzler; Kelly, Katie
> Cc: 'Craig Boyle'; JLawre4746@aol.com; Smokerbros@aol.com;
> jerry@moutons.org; ba-autox@autox.team.net
> Subject: Re: SFR First Time Nationals entrants -- SFR will refund
> yourentrance fee
>
>
> When you REALLY start thinking about it, racing ain't cheap,
> ESPecially for
> what you're doing, Kit.
>
> Lessee... I paid $5800 for my Miata, $110 for the front sway
> bar, $225 for
> my race wheels, $500 for shocks, $1100 for my VLSD (including
> a complete
> rebuild), $320 for my Borla catback, $30 for a K&N, about $4K
> for collision
> repairs... sheesh, my trip to Nats is really costing me close
> to 16 grand!!!
>
> Time to get on my knees and pray that my Cisco stock goes
> through the roof
> ;)
>
> Scot
> '91 CS Miata
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kit Wetzler" <kitwetzler@mindspring.com>
> To: "Kelly, Katie" <kkelly@spss.com>
> Cc: "'Craig Boyle'" <craig_boyle@yahoo.com>; <JLawre4746@aol.com>;
> <Smokerbros@aol.com>; <jerry@moutons.org>; <ba-autox@autox.team.net>
> Sent: Friday, August 25, 2000 10:30 AM
> Subject: Re: SFR First Time Nationals entrants -- SFR will refund
> yourentrance fee
>
>
> > > Oh, well if that price includes EVERYTHING, that means he
> might as well
> go
> > > to Nationals. That's just a drop in the bucket compared
> to all that
> other
> > > stuff. I've never actually calculated how much I've spent
> on Lucy. There
> are
> > > things one must do to combat depression, and living in
> denial is one of
> > > them.
> >
> > It is pretty scary... I mean, I've had the M3 7 weeks now and I've
> > spent:
> >
> > New Yokohama AVS Sports $800
> > Alignment $100
> > New clutch pedal $75
> > new Brake light switch $5
> > Floormats $85
> > Jack Pads $18
> > 4 bottles Motul brake fluid $40
> > 7 quarts mobil 1 $45
> > 1 oil filter $5
> > 1 X-brace $129
> > 1 UUC exhaust $525
> > 1 new exhaust gasket $15
> > 1 set Koni shocks $504
> > 1 set H&R springs (used) $125
> > 1 set Ground Control shock mounts $104
> > 1 set K-Mac camber plates (used) $200 (thanks jim!)
> > 1 set TC Kline trailing arm bushings $400
> > 1 pressure bleeder for brakes $40
> > 1 K&N cone filter intake + heat shield $50
> > 2 sets Hawk Blues $350
> >
> > = $3615
> >
> > Oiy. And I still need race rubber and a spare set of
> wheels. Whomever
> > said racing was cheap is on crack.
> >
> > -kit
> >
>
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