New Chumpcar Racer!

My wagon is now a Chump Car racer! After the newest head i put on decided to warp, I parked it to find another car for SWMBO. The other car i recently have acquired is another Volvo 850! Haha. The new one is a Turbo, in decent shape. So here is my Plan:

1. Take good interior out of Non Turbo and put it in Turbo

2. Put one of my spare race seats in the Non Turbo

3. Get a cheap cage welded in

4. Get my used R888's mounted up on the stock wheels

5. Get another head and slap it on. Yes i know it needs to machined as the last head i purchased was supposedly planed. Hopefully the Head Exchange shop has a good one that all i need to do is exchange the one on the block now for a good machined one and slap a new head gasket on.

WALLAH!!!! A Chump Car!

I dont believe you are allowed to run R888's. Must be a 200 treadware rating IIRC.

I ran a sedan version in our local "Crash A Rama" Series and with the interior stripped out it was actually pretty quick. I say go for it!

Greg Voth wrote: I dont believe you are allowed to run R888's. Must be a 200 treadware rating IIRC.

thats what i was assuming/scared of. Also, they use their "Average Internet Value" to determine the value of the car. Hoping i can get it past the judges...

does this mean you are out for our team?

In reply to itsarebuild:

haha, not as of yet. Trying to see if i can get this within budget. Can I haz two car team?

2 car teams? sure you can! far be it from me to go against the GRM enabling! I just wanted to make sure you were still interested in our cause too as the car just went to Ian's house this weekend to get started.....

I'll be at Road Atlanta helping with a team doing the Enduros. If you want to PM me your number, I can give you a shout when I am out of the gates and can come turn a wrench

While I really like your idea... I must ask why? Presumably, you are looking to have fun? After having seen what teams had to do thrash-wise to get a car together in six months, I can't see doing chumpcar and spending the $8k required (and it will be $8k, unless you are a shop god) to get to the first event in a non-competitive vehicle.

In reply to HiTempguy:

Well, i have access to a shop that is close to something a "Shop God" may have. I am in no rush or thrash to get it ready for an event. Just want to go out and have some fun. The other race car is the one i will try to have as competitive as possible, i know the Volvo wont be anywhere near as competitive as the E30s and Miatas lapping. Just would be fun to see a Volvo Wagon with the TWR livery on it...

HiTempguy wrote: While I really like your idea... I must ask why? Presumably, you are looking to have fun? After having seen what teams had to do thrash-wise to get a car together in six months, I can't see doing chumpcar and spending the $8k required (and it will be $8k, unless you are a shop god) to get to the first event in a non-competitive vehicle.

I think we had less than $2500 in our car on race day. It was fast in a straight line but finished mid - back pack. Car ran well the entire event. The main thing that hurt us was a 4 hour penalty for spins. That and going through roughly 11 sets of pads.

Non running V8 RX-7 - $500

Used fuel pump pulled off a parts car - (free) $50 value

Used Autopower bolt in cage - $500

Aluminum Race Seat - $200

Harness - $60

Racing Beat Springs sitting in shop - (free) $50 value

Front rotors, 1 front caliper, 1 rear caliper, a couple lines and several pad sets - $400 (mostly closeout from rockauto)

Used Sumitomo tires and rims - $100

New Sumitomos on stock rims - $250

Misc. such as the cut off switch, roll bar padding, fluids, used tach and gauges. - $250

To go back I would have sprung for real race pads and some 15 tires we could put real rubber on. This would have put us over $2500.

As of right now we are putting in 2nd gen RX-7 front brakes and a mustang rear to get the more common bolt pattern and better brakes. Sumitomo isn't making the HTR in 13's anymore so we have no even remotely sporty tires to run.

We are going to run mustang 17X8 take offs with one new set of Star Specs and one worn out set of spares. We got 9 17x8 mustang wheels for $150. By the end of this build you could add in another $1000 to the car to go back through the brakes, get the rear end and buy new tires.

It can be done cheap but looking at the equipment of some of the other teams I dont doubt that they are $8k or more. Hell if you ad communications and a fuel cell to our car it would come pretty close.

At this point we will be as competitive as we can without chopping the car down for weight, going to a $2200 fuel cell, in car communications and pit stop training.

I have the Volvo that im "acquiring " off my girlfriend for - Free. Spare race seat in the shop - free, harness - $50, used tires - $100ish, BrokeDick Racing Weld in Cage - $350, still pricing up brake lines and rotors/pads

Greg Voth wrote: I think we had maybe $2500 in our car on race day. It was fast and finished mid - back pack but ran the entire event. The main thing that hurt us was a 4 hour penalty for spins. That and going through roughly 11 sets of pads. Non running V8 RX-7 - $500 Used fuel pump pulled off a parts car - (free) $50 value Used Autopower bolt in cage - $500 Aluminum Race Seat - $200 Harness - $60 Racing Beat Springs sitting in shop - (free) $50 value Brakes and lines all around $400 Used Sumitomo tires and rims - $100 New Sumitomos on stock rims - $250

$8k split between 4 people including safety equipment is pretty reasonable. It's cool that you are fine with a bolt in cage, but around here, it's minimum $1200 for a quality, welded in cage. And I'm talking about a competitive car, so running starspecs or azeni's with spares, fixing all of the replaceable items that they allow you to, etc etc. I just added over $1k to your list, simply by going with real tires and a decent cage. Add around $500 per person for gear, I've just added $3k to your budget. That $5500 is a lot closer to $8k, and you still didn't include the licences, entry fees, etc etc. I look at how much it's going to cost me, not "oh, this will be cheap if I simply focus on one aspect of the whole deal".

Any racing is not cheap, and chump car proves that. It is mildly cheaper (and insane bang for buck track time-wise) then most other racing.

Edit- I guess what I am saying is, you are being unrealistic. 95% of people won't be able to do what you did at the pricepoint it was done at. I've rarely saw ONE 17x8 rim go for $150, let alone 9 of them.

Greg Voth wrote: The main thing that hurt us was a 4 hour penalty for spins. That and going through roughly 11 sets of pads.

Also, Lemons does not equal chumpcar. I've never heard or saw chumpcar give a 4 hour penalty for spinning. Also, at the race we had, going through 11 sets of pads you would never podium... you'd have been lucky to break the top 10 out of 30 cars! I don't do the whole "lets race for E36 M3s and giggles thing" very well though, hence why I haven't done lemons.

No doubt that all in a team will be around $8k. Just a set of star specs will run about $500 - $700 depending on size. I just look at what I am putting out since I am not paying for anyone elses entry fees or equipment.

Between car, equipment, entry fees, towing, gas etc you will end up right around there for the whole team.

Even with an existing car and equipment I am figuring about $1000 to redo the brakes, tires, gas and entry fees for the next race for just myself. I might be a little low in the end but the car build is primarily financed by me and one other guy.

well, basically gutted except for the back seat and headliner. i have no godly idea how to remove the back seat. Getting towed over to Chris Smith Racing next week to have the cage fitted. Guy who is paying for the cage and welding it in is now our third driver. Taking the Turbo wheels off the turbo wagon and slapping em on the turd wagon since my girlfriend doesnt like the turbo wheels. Whatever, cooler wheels on the race car!