What to do after building competition vehicle?

[tweak]

Hey all,

After a long hard decision, I have decided not to use my pro formula drift license. Each step up in competitive drifting is increasingly more expensive, and much less fun.  Took a look at the numbers, and I wasn't going to pay $30k+ in tires and transportation alone, just to drive my car 7 times a year. 

Right now my plan is just to drop in a DD LS3 or something, get rid of the dogbox transmission, get some good MPG, do some other fun types of events like drag racing, autox, hill climbs, and just have some fun with the car again.  Was wondering if anybody else has done something like this, how do you keep the loss of extreme competitiveness from driving you nuts?

Thanks.

(Woops, can someone move this to the lounge please, posted in the wrong section.)

[mattster03]

Sad to hear you're calling it quits on drifting... I was always rooting for ya!  Would there be any joy for you mentoring new drifters or being on a team or do you just want to be done with the the drift world if you're not behind the wheel?

[tweak]

Sad to hear you're calling it quits on drifting... I was always rooting for ya!  Would there be any joy for you mentoring new drifters or being on a team or do you just want to be done with the the drift world if you're not behind the wheel?

Lol, thanks for rooting for me all these years.    

No, there really isn't anything to mentor in drifting.  It's a self learned thing, that becomes instinctive after practice.  It's all in the feel of the car, can't teach that. I am done with the competitive drift world.  Will I ever drift again? Sure. Will I have a dogbox and be burning down a pair of brand new tires every 4 laps? Nope.  I will most likely be hitting the big fun events, like NASA drift and such.  Those are fun, and the car would actually perform better being a little more streetable.  Topping out in 4th at 108 MPH sucked. XD     

Really, the amount of money to time actually driving has been the biggest influence, followed by the cost to transport the car to 7 pro events a year.  If you could have the best sex with the hottest super model you can think of, 7 times a year, but have to pay her $40,000 throughout the year, would you? If yes, what if sometimes during those 7 times, she wasn't in the mood and you had to buy her a new $10000 ring (engine) before.. lol If still yes, pro drifting is for you.

Right now, even watching drifting is pretty boring to me.  Kinda the, been there, done that, meh, power, countersteer. wooooooooo meh. Maybe I just grew up in a year. I don't know.

At a minimum, doing 1 local pro-am event a month (not even pro), costs $2000 if EVERYTHING going as planned and nothing breaks. That's $66 a day spread over a month. You could get a brand new xbox game, EVERY day.  If a beautiful girl woke up to you every morning and handed you 3 20s, and said, I will give you this money every morning for as long as you don't drift, would you drift again? lol    /Rant.  Sorry went a little off topic.

So, what else do you not full on race guys do for fun with your LS cars?   Was looking into doing lemons just to have fun.  Got all the gear and tools.

[willcoop]

When mine isn't torn apart I autox it. I plan on getting doing track days also but with how much they are in the PNW I can only justify a couple a year. Compared to what you said you spent on drifting they seem like a bargain though.

[mattster03]

Try drag racing and set a goal to reach 10's... it's harder than you think.    How about a mile event?  Your full cage should allow you go crazy fast. 

Maybe try swapping your setup into a clean chassis and entering a national (or local... hint, hint) street car competition to test your car all around.

[digitalsolo]

Pick some fun things to do, set goals and work towards them.   Go to an AutoX and work on your times, go drag racing and set a time goal.   Do some open track days.   Lot of ways to have fun without spending a million bucks.   I just like to tinker, so I'm a bad example, haha.

[tweak]

Thanks guys!! <3 you all. 

[Jordan Innovations]

I think the $2k/event minimum is high - I'd keep crushing Pro-Am stuff and drifting with your friends.  I totally get not wanting to jump into FD, I don't blame you - and the hottie handing you 3 $20's every morning to not drift is hilarious haha.

Keep the dogbox and keep it off the streets, otherwise sell it to finance a simple motor setup and get back to having fun!  Norcal has their Sonoma Drift stuff every week, down here we have Adams every week (terrible) and stuff at WSIR every few weeks... I'm sure you guys have little fun stuff that comes up.  Keep oil in it, keep decent tires on it (you don't need top-of-the-line stuff, and you don't need to use more than a couple pairs a day).  Have fun!

[cholmes]

Man, if you're thinking of Lemons, give it a try!

I just drove my first Lemons event a few weeks ago at Sears Point and had a blast. We're running a Fiero with a supercharged Pontiac GTP engine, in "B" class, and the racing a lot more competitive than you might think. Sure, there's a few people out there just cruising, but most are driving their asses off, in cars that look like they came from Burning Man.

At Sears, there were 170 cars at the green flag on the first day. Can you say passing opportunities? I've driven Auto-X, Formula Fords and Sports 2000 in the past, including a few pro events, and I was shocked to find the driving in Lemons to be just as intense as in the "real" race cars.

Seat time? Try 14.5 hours of racing for the weekend, split among 4 drivers on the team. Cost? You can rent a seat for the weekend from a competitive team for $1000. Pretty cheap way to see if you like it. If you split ownership of a car with 2 or 3 other guys, the cost to maintain the car is pretty damn low per owner, and the cost per weekend is well under $1000 per owner. Tires have to have a treadwear rating of 200 or more; we put on a new set for the Sears event, drove the shit out of the car, and it looks like the tires will last another whole weekend of racing.

Honestly, Lemons is the most fun racing I've ever done.

[erioshi]

What you're experiencing is a big part of what's been driving my re-evaluation of my racing habit, lol.  That and a couple of rules changes over the last few years that derailed a race car build after I'd already sunk quite bit of cash into the project.


That pushed me towards lemons & chump, which are huge fun for the money.  Aside from that, I did enjoy NASA's time trial stuff, but when you get to the very sharp end, expect some of the competitors to be spending some real money.  I have a hard time getting excited about just turning laps anymore, unless I'm learning a new track or trying out something new with the set-up on a car.


I guess for max fun per competition dollar, I'd say chump or lemons.  As far has just having fun with a specific built-up car, I'd probably go time trials with the understanding that I may not be class competitive.

[ChriS2000]

Honestly I really enjoy just doing open track days with my car.

Sure they're "strictly non-competitive" but you can bet that when you're out there turning laps with a fast group of cars it sure does feel like it. 

Plus, on average they run about $200 a day compared to $2000, and for that you'll get 10x more track time than you would at a drift event. 

Not to mention there's no rulebook saying what you can and cannot do to your car.

[tweak]

I think the $2k/event minimum is high

I used to think that too!  Adds up pretty quick.
12-14 tires $1200-$1400 shipped (Each pair last 4 laps, 45 seconds of drifting a lap, 3 minutes of drifting a pair, or $1.11 a second. lol )
Mounting and balancing $180-$200
Entry fee $100
Pit crew $15 each, $60.
Gas in the truck $100 
Gas for the racecar, $60
Trailer Rental $60
Food for the day for everyone, $50.
Transmission, diff, and engine oil fluid: $75
$2175 already ... lol


Yeup, sounds like I got a plan though.  Definitely going to hit up some lemons racing and just do local events.   I really have no motivation to keep crushing it at pro-AM, really all you have to do is show up to each event and qualify to get top 3.  Basically just paying to win.   Thanks all!

[josh18_2k]

This is basically why I sold my car.   I'm just too competitive by nature. My car started out as my DD, and I basically ruined it in the Persuit of speed (autox speed lol. Not real speed).   At the end I realized that my car will never be competitive on a national level, and it totally sucked to drive on the street. Nothin left to do but try and salvage some cash. Oddly enough, it's now a drift car down in Salem.

I now have a stock s2000 to run in BS, but my racing future is a total mystery at the moment. My old co-drive is halfway through building a nutso XP vette (which I believe WILL be nationally competitive), but no clear idea when it will actually run. 

I've done one ChumpCar event, and yes it was amazing. I think I you can dive full on into competitive ChumpCar/Lemons racing, it will satisfy the racing urges.

As for the rx7...  I kinda view them as pointless cars now. Fun for a while, but pretty useless for most types of real competition.

[MPbdy]

I can drag race very competitively for a lot less money than doing what I would find the most fun.  That also has to do with how we choose to go racing.  Run a heads up class or comp eliminator and watch your check book melt.  I really just want to build new and obscure combinations and be a mad scientist. 

I am an extremely competitive person at heart.  I can find a way to take the fun out of everything.  I have yet to find a healthy balance of having fun and being competitive.

I'm close to the point where I might step back a bit from the competitive side.  I'm trying to reevaluate what I find fun and focus on that.  Competing scratches an itch, but isn't necessarily fun.  I put wayyyyy too much of myself into competing and its a killer when you don't get the results you're looking for. 

For me its kind of like poker...winning never feels as good as losing hurts.

[largeorangefont]

This is a road I kept myself from going down with my car. I built the rx7 to do track days and hone my driving and tuning skills. The car is like a bowling ball or a set of golf clubs to me and there are many parallels to golfing, bowling, etc compared to doing track days.

The competition is mostly with myself to get better. There is friendly competition between friends or others at the track day. In the end if I'm making gains on my personal bests and learning, I am happy.

I plan on doing a lemons/chump car to race. Beyond that some spec class like spec miata is about as far as I would go with racing. I love racing and have been doing it with something since I was a kid, but it does consume you. As much as I love it, I like money in my pocket more.