How one $2000 Challenge winner is spreading the GRM gospel

Colin
By Colin Wood
Sep 7, 2023 | $2000 Challenge, UTCC, Ultimate Track Car Challenge, gridlife, Lime Rock Park, LMP360

Photograph Courtesy Gridlife

What do you do after winning the Grassroots Motorsports $2000 Challenge presented by Tire Rack? You enter your low-buck racer in even more motorsport events, of course.

Daniel Cummings, creator of the wild Subaru 360-based mid-engine LMP360 that won the 2022 Grassroots Motorsports $2000 Challenge, hasn’t left his creation in the corner of the shop to collect dust. Instead, he’s been working to make it even better while racking up some serious track time in the process.

[This is what happens when budget builds compete against cars more than 10 times their value | $2000 Challenge recap]

Most recently, the LMP360 caught plenty of attention at the Gridlife event at Lime Rock Park, getting a few minutes of screen time in the official live stream (skip to roughly the 1:38 mark).


Daniel even had the opportunity to discuss his build with motorsports photographer Larry Chen for a planned YouTube feature.

What’s next for the LMP360? Daniel is hoping to have the car ready to compete in our Tire Rack Ultimate Track Car Challenge in October, this time sporting a 300-horsepower EJ257.

Join Free Join our community to easily find more $2000 Challenge, UTCC, Ultimate Track Car Challenge, gridlife, Lime Rock Park and LMP360 news.
Comments
David S. Wallens
David S. Wallens Editorial Director
9/7/23 2:39 p.m.

Woot!

Colin Wood
Colin Wood Associate Editor
9/7/23 2:40 p.m.

I don't know what I'm looking forward to more, seeing it run at the UTCC or appear on Larry Chen's YouTube Channel.

ChrisTropea
ChrisTropea Associate Editor
9/7/23 2:46 p.m.

In reply to Colin Wood :

Right there with you. I am excited that I am going to be at the UTCC this year and will get to see it in person. 

Lof8 - Andy
Lof8 - Andy GRM+ Memberand UltraDork
9/7/23 3:33 p.m.

I think its the coolest and most impressive $2k Challenge build to date!

preach
preach GRM+ Memberand UltraDork
9/7/23 3:36 p.m.

You could see skateboarder/Rally driver Bucky Lasek's mind blow in his Mid-West Subiefest video when he ran into Dan and his LMP360.

The LMP360, such a fantastic story.

David S. Wallens
David S. Wallens Editorial Director
9/7/23 3:44 p.m.

In reply to preach :

Bucky is also fluent in autocross. He’s totally one of us. :) 

nocones
nocones GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
9/7/23 5:11 p.m.

LRP is such a great facility.  The LRP people really enjoyed seeing the car, and public reaction was again crazy.  

I have seen a lot of social media of the car on track at speed which is great because I just don't get to see it from that view.  

Here is a recent one with some very Artistic shots. 

 

I'm particularly relieved that the revised sidepods photographed well.  That is literally the exposed mounts and ducting with the old sidepods just kinda hacked up and attached.  They worked really good also.  

I should have incar up today.  

Thanks GRM for letting the car fly the banner.  It looks really cool with the flag on the fin and I'm so glad the revised radiators allow the fin to stay on on track.  

I was hopeful I would get Bucky a chance to drive it this year but Subiefest Midwest overlaps with Gridlife Heartland Park.  

grafmiata
grafmiata UltraDork
9/7/23 7:40 p.m.

One of my favorite Challenge builds, so it's awesome to see it still getting flogged.  It was cool to wander around it at PRI, and see so many cool details that really don't show up in magazine articles.

It really is an amazing build with incredible attention to detail with regards to planning, vision and execution.

 

Early on in the build process I chirped up that I felt that it was going to be, quite frankly, a death trap. Because we see a lot of people with grand ideas with regards to chassis fabrication and execution that I wouldn't allow my worst enemy to strap in the seat of. And I firmly felt that this was going to end up being one of those instances. I couldn't have been more wrong. And I'm glad that I was wrong. Because the end result could not be further from what I frankly feared it would be. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, the end result of this build shows when planning, focus attention to detail and execution all come together and the end result is simply angelic. I couldn't be happier to be proven wrong and I tip my hat. 

 

 

Also, can we arrange getting it made into a hotwheel car? Hot Wheels is really missing the mark not having a GRM Challenge collection.

nocones
nocones GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
9/8/23 8:41 a.m.

Thanks so much everyone.  It's been an amazing journey and I'm humbled that so many have followed along.   It's always been my hope that the build would demonstrate to people that you don't have to spend $100k+ to build something amazing.  You just have to have an idea and learn whatever it takes to build it.   I know the builds cost have risen but I feel it still flys that flag of low budget performance.  

 

Here is the incar action from GL Circuit Legends.  Thanks to Nukem for the exterior shots.  

 

You'll need to log in to post.

Our Preferred Partners
txfaEKvWEmZFuL7DTlOPK1nnQEjVuzF3N7w94zm74VCMvtBWhDy19cHxVhaYQ7KZ