I have been asked to help put together a budget for a racing movie and one thing they want are approximately 20 Formula Fords (or similar open wheel race cars).
A quick search turned up nothing. Anyone have any ideas? Not looking to build them but could assemble if we can provide drop-in drivetrains and chassis.
Could you get away with buying a couple "hero cars" and see if you can get the local SCCA chapter to volunteer their FFs with drivers?
Depending on location and scheduling, you just might be able to hire 20 cars/drivers. Could you mix in some formula Vee cars, to make it easier to get 20 cars?
More importantly where do unload a gaggle of open wheel cars when you are done with them?
i'd call Bondurant
The best place to connect with the open wheel racing crowd is the forum on Apexspeed.com.
I imagine the first reaction would be concern about taking 20 cars out of the pool of active race cars, so I would guess they would be more receptive to to something where the owner drives his own car rather than selling. Not sure that works for you, though.
Also note that 2019 is the 50th anniversary of Formula Ford in the US, and there are a couple of big anniversary events brewing which seem to be bringing cars out of the woodwork.
Whatever happened to the Skip Barber school cars that were liquidated not long ago? I think there were some formula cars there.
Are you looking for current cars or some particular vintage? Newer FF cars sell for $50-75K, older ones (but not serious vintage cars) vary a lot but are more like $10K - $30K.
Call the various racing schools. Bondurant has a fleet of Formula Mazdas and they're always looking for income. They might even be able to provide drivers.
DONT DRIVE UP THE PRICES, IM SHOPPING!
If you do buy a bunch of cars, please let me know when you start to liquidate them after you’re done.
pkingham said:Whatever happened to the Skip Barber school cars that were liquidated not long ago? I think there were some formula cars there.
That's where I'd start too. If the auction house will give you the name of the buyer you might be able to find most of them there. I think they were mostly Formula 2000's though.
There's also 2 Elan Formula 2000 on Racing Junk right now I bet there's more where they came from.
You're about 18 months late for the Barber sale...
I am no help on finding the cars but I will be looking forward to the movie!
I'd call Kevin Kloepher at Comprent. He's got his finger on the pulse of the open-wheeled world. If he can't help, he can probably point you in the right direction.
706-543-1797
akylekoz said:More importantly where do unload a gaggle of open wheel cars when you are done with them?
On here, clearly. For cheap.
TED_fiestaHP said:Depending on location and scheduling, you just might be able to hire 20 cars/drivers. Could you mix in some formula Vee cars, to make it easier to get 20 cars?
From a looks perspective it might be easier to mix in a couple of Formula FSTs, as they look a little more like FFs.But FST is mainly concentrated on the East Coast.
There are also the Russell Formula Mitsubishi's. No idea where they all went to but they weren't useful for racing when Russell closed up shop. They certainly had more than a gaggle of them.
pkingham said:The best place to connect with the open wheel racing crowd is the forum on Apexspeed.com.
Great. Just Great. I thought (there's that word) 'Hey, I've never heard of that!' So I clicked on it. That is a deep pool. Consider this your warning: "All who enter, Beware"
Maybe some Formula Mazdas? Might be worth giving Texas Autosports in Cresson a call.
Today, I realized that I need a new job.
In reply to Donebrokeit :
I came to that conclusion yesterday...
I think you are coming at this backwards. You are asking car enthusiasts for a source for movie cars. Maybe you should check with movie production companies.
Maybe the Auto Film Club, or ProductionHub?
Is there a reason you want to buy instead of rent?
Take a page from the great, late Steve McQueen. Buy a few cars, enter them INTO a race. Film the race. Do the race results play into the movie? Fudge em.
For Budget purposes, figure $25k-30k per car. You can easily find a bunch of Formula Continentals in that range. Or $15k - $19k for Star formula Mazda’s.
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