Learn me: Apartment Living + Racing Cars

After my divorce, I moved out of a giant house with 3-car garage into a 2-BR apartment in the big city. A racing buddy of mine and I went in together on a small shop space. He's got a racecar and an HPDE car; I've got my race car and one other project car. It's more money than I wanted to spent, but it's been worth it. 

The best way to autocross is in someone else's car. Go halfsies on a set of tires at the beginning of the year in a well prepped car someone else has (if overall season points are important to you). It's a lot of fun and you learn a lot hopping in other peoples' cars.

I spent all of 2017-18 codriving a different car at every single event because I was doing club stuff and just didn't want to deal with the car prep on top of everything else I was doing. That easily made me a FAR better driver than anything else I've done.

hunter47 said:

hybridmomentspass said:

In reply to hunter47 :

That looks really cool! But at 600 (plus shipping?) how much would a local small storage building be?

Any way of renting at a different apartment with garages on site?

Motorsports are great, Ive been involved for almost 20 years (off and on, and yes, I know that's nothing compared to most here) in various ways. But, as stated, there were the 'off' times when I had to make a decision to step away for a while. In 2013 my suv got totalled and I was driving so much that I made the decision to step away from motorcycle dragracing and get an economical car for the time (500+ miles a week, I literally saved enough on gas that that was my car payment). It sucked, but you got to sometimes.

If youre in a position to take a great job or something, go for it bro. And hopefully the tire/garage situation isnt too bad and you dont HAVE to walk away, especially since youre talking about how much youre doing it this year.

Just keep it simple like some guys have stated, it'll all work out.

yeah, the cart is just an example. Maybe I'll fab something up before moving. 

So... the job will be in the Seattle area. Any apartment with a rentable garage would be way out of budget for me. 

Luckily, there is an outdoor karting track nearby that offers arrive and drive league and endurance racing, so maybe I can forgo autocross for now and take up some wheel to wheel karting. I won't have to pay for maintenance or wear items, either. Typically the same price I'd pay for autocross/time attack pricing, as well. 

I rent a storage unit right close to PGP Motorsports Park that's just used for storing race car parts, if you are interested in using it, let me know. It is right on I5 South on the way to all the autocross venues.

I have this same dilemma when I consider renting in Seattle. Right now I have a house, but it's in Tacoma because Seattle isn't affordable for me.

There are definitely places in SoDo that let you store your car and work on it there as well. They are $300+ per month, though and the car has to be really nice and not ratty, since it's kind of a showroom/club as well.

But yeah I have a storage unit with a roll up door, and it's been pretty convenient. I think like $240 a month which is obviously a lot, but since I don't rent in the Seattle area anymore it doesn't hurt that much.

Edit: didn't realize this was an old thread. Offer still stands!

In reply to LanEvo :

I've actually considered something similar. I'm just trying to find the right place somewhere in the East Bay. Fortunately, there are a few folks in my auto club that would also love to have a separate space to store their cars/tools/etc. 

Thinking back, autocrossing while living in an apartment might be easier today because you can run your 200tw all the time. Back then, autocross was chunking my street tires, so I picked up a used set of R-comps. 

What's really made it easy for me was the introduction of XS. Now I can run a formerly XP car on 200tw that work fine in the rain here, and be competitive on index without having to change tires or bring slicks to events. Even more convenient is being able to class both of my race cars in the same class (XS-A/XS-B) and only have to read/follow one set of rules. I'm in heaven.

I think OP was worried about running the RT660 on the street here in the pacific northwest. I've been running them for years and they are fantastic. Both my cars are on them for daily use. They wear quite well.