Buying a Dedicated Track Car?

[TTA89]

I'm looking at buying a dedicated car in the spring and I was wondering what you guys are doing to prove that you purchased and own the car?

If you even get a Title with the car, is it possible to get the state to issue a new one with your name on it?

What do you do when travelling to an event? If pulled over, how do you prove it belongs to you?

What happens when you cross into Canada?

I'd like to spend the $1000+ a year that would go towards insurance and taxes to racing instead.

Also how do you go about testing things? I mean say you have a problem with the engine or some kind of vibration. You can't exactly go out on the street to see if you fixed it. It would suck to drive a long way to the next event only to find out you didn't fix it.

Just curious what are some of the things that change when you go from a street driven car to a dedicated track whore?

[irondragon]

Mike:
I have trailered racers to Canada for the last ten years or so and have never been troubled by requests for documentation.
As for being pulled over, the troopers may want to see the trailer papers but the car is not their concern - it is just cargo.
Some people do register their racers and for this you may need a title, and will certainly need insurance. As you mentioned saving $$ on insurance I assume that the car will not be registered or need to be street legal.
Hope this helps.
Bill Miskoe

[dinoracer]

I'm looking at buying a dedicated car in the spring

I'll make you a good deal on a '65 Mustang!

If you even get a Title with the car, is it possible to get the state to issue a new one with your name on it?

In NH, If less than 10 (maybe 15 now) years old, title should be transfered to you. Older than that, they don't care. In MA, not sure, check the registry website.

I've only been to Canada once with car, I carry a copy of the bill of sale to me with me in case they ask. Not registered, no insurance.

Also how do you go about testing things?

This is the biggest problem with having a race-only car. I have fairly good neighbors, but I don't rev it over and over in the driveway, and only once in a while I'll idle it around my block once or twice to check something. Otherwise, you can go to the open test days at NHIS once a month, and /or a local dyno. I went to dyno just before NHIS2, and motor broke then, saving me trip to track. Second time dyno again, ran fine, then went to NHIS open day, and broke it there in 2 laps. That sucked, but it was better than driving to Tremblant and breaking it there.

If you lived in NH, you could have a track car registered, find a freindly inspection station (if you don't make it too wild and loud) and skip the insurance, for once in a while drives on the street. But in this age, the risk is probably not worth it, and a real track car won't have simple stuff like headlights....

Good luck!

[Don P]

Hi Mike -

I think Bill answered the first part of the question. The second part -- the track rat -- could perhaps get you more responses if we knew what your thinking is about the kind of car you're leaning to - if any.

Generally it is helpful to have someone with experience to look at candidate cars with you, once the (good) decision is made you should have no extrodinary trouble with the car on track. Motor peformance can be dealt with with a good tuner and dyno, the chassis and alignment can all be done without being on track. Most "issues" on the track deal mostly with the driver first and the tires and set up secondly.

The "bigger" the performance potential of your new rig though will set you up for more involvement in keeping it optimized.

Find yourself a good 'bud' to look with you and buy a car that is already set up. Don't try and do it yourself. The next car - if there is one - you can do.

Best,

Don P

[irondragon]

Mike:
I didn't address the problem of how to get test time on a dedicated racer in my earlier post.
Don and Tom have the right ideas - open track days at NHIS et cet.
Also I sometimes trailer the car to an unused parking lot - local schools don't have much going on in summer. Good for brake bedding, clutch adjustments and general shakedown
Your own street will work if you are quick about it and get home before some unenthusiastic neighbour calls the police. Figure on about three laps.
Moving up a notch, you can enter a driving school, I won't mention any particular one, and graciously decline the need for an instructor.
I remember a COM event a few years back, at a time when people volunteered to be event chairmen. This was when the event chairs got to choose the track configuration. (No chance for that now given the current NHIS mindset.)
Matt and I volunteered for event chairing knowing that we would be running at SCCA a week later. Guess what configuration we chose. Not what was usual for a first event and lotsa people saw through the strategy but no one much cared. Anyway, it was Matt's idea and it got us ready with no harm done.
So, if you use your imagination you can test the car.
Best Regards - Bill Miskoe

[TTA89]

I guess I need to be realistic about what I can afford and what I think I can afford.

I had a blast with my Cobra but after watching a few cars bounce off the walls at Mosport this year I started re-thinking how smart it is to take a 25K dollar car out on the track that I'm still making payments on. Granted I wasn't driving the car at 10/10ths, I was out having fun chasing around people that I knew. If something were to happen, I'd be watching from the sidelines for awhile.

So I spent the last few months deciding if I should just stick to Auto X at Devens and stop doing HPDE days or if I should just face up to the fact that I love this and just get a dedicated car and keep going.

I decided to sell the Cobra and now I'm trying to figure out what to buy. I have had the opportunity to Auto X a whole slew of cars over the last few months which has been a lot of fun.

E36 M3, E36 325i, MCoupe, SVT Focus, Miata, about 10 Mustang/Cobras, C5 Z06, C6 Z06, and I can't remember what else. I liked the E36 M3 the best, what a fun balanced car.

The prices for a setup car are more than I want to spend and then I started reading about SCCA Wheel to Wheel Enduro races and it sounds like a ton of fun.

So without any of my Mustang friends looking I wandered over to the Spec Miata site and started reading. Hmm turn key cars for 8-10K ready to race? Tires and brakes last more than a weekend?

I can say that I understand why there are so many people driving these cars now. Its really the only thing that makes sense if you want to try and run a car on a "budget". I think it would be fun to do some wheel to wheel racing, parts seem cheap to replace and the car doesn't seem to need constant attention other than the normal wear items.

Then again, its not the fastest thing in the world. I'd be worried that I would get bored to death... But at this point Its better to be running in a slow car than in nothing at all. Hopefully the competitiveness is where the real fun is.

So as I'm "typing" out loud here. I think I need to decide, do I want to do HPDE and Time Trialing only or do I want to start looking into also doing some Enduro W2W racing? If its the later, I think Spec Miata is the only choice. If I wanted to just run with COM and play around in the time trials I could go get an E36 M3 and throw a bar in it and have at it.

At least I have all winter to think about it... But back the original questions, I was curious how you prove ownership. I figured I could do some laps around the neighborhood, I mean what other choices are there...

[JackFFR1846]

Mike,

Afer about 17 years of running my street car, I went to track-only. Some things I found:

This is a great time of year to buy a car. Decide how prepared you want the car to be. What class do you want to run in....or does it matter? If you only want track time, find an IT SCCA car or other prep'd car. You'll pay around $4k for a decent 4 cyl FWD IT car that's got $30k in prep work into it already. If just having fun, get a Miata and throw a roll bar in.

My car came with a title. Someday, I'll contact the seller and actually pick it up.

The heavier the car, the more it costs to run (you know that from the Cobra)
The more exotic the car brand, the more it costs to run (944/M3 parts aren't cheap)

Light cars like FWD 4 cyl stuff and miatas don't wear stuff out. 2 of my hoosiers have 3 years and 30 events on them! Yet, the car is faster than my old M3 that I ran in SSA (previous owner had documented times).

Talk with people who have the same car on the track that you're considering. Most will be honest about their budget. I spend more on gas for my tow vehicle than the entire rest of my yearly racing budget.


Also, for checking things out.....trailer the car to an autocross that you're not competing in. Go to an area away from the competition to test out your car.

jack

[irondragon]

Mike:
More from the Dragon - you'll be sorry you asked.
You are right - no sense putting a car you owe KK$$ on into the wall.
Don't take a car to the track unless you can afford to take it to the scrap yard the next day.
Jack is right too. This is the time to buy a car that someone else has built/prepped and now wants to sell. You will buy that car for about 20 cents on each dollar spent by the seller. Maybe less.
Why do people build cars for dollars and sell them for dimes?? I've done it.
Something to do with experiencing passion I think, but you can drive a hell of lot of cheap laps on second hand passion.
So start w/ a VW GTI or a Nissan 240SX and then go RWD w/ a Miata.
I hope you do it even if you end up beating the wheels off me at some race.
Best Regards - Bill Miskoe

[fact5racer]

You could always build a Factory Five Spec racer. Jim got down into the 1:17s on Saturday. Plus you can wheel to wheel at a NASA event with it and go to the nationals in the fall at Mid Ohio. Even though I build the Indycar I also just recently picked up another factory five spec racer kit for wheel to wheel excitement next year.

[Don P]

Mike -

Another place to look that may help you with your decision is the time trial results right here on the COM web site. You may find that some of the perceived "slow" cars aren't so slow afterall.

Don

[MMiskoe]

I would assume you've already figured out the tow vehicle & trailer part of it all. You'll spend more money there than you will on the racecar.

Kind of the wrong season for this, but you can rent lots of different race prepped cars to get a feel for what they are like. Just some polite converstation will get a few laps out of someone at a COM event.

Street testing - registering a car is cheap. Inspecting is not. However, the ticket for an unregistered vehicle is much more expensive than one that happens to be missing its sticker because the windsheild just got replaced......

Two key differences between SM and IT is that you can slowly build the IT car as time & money allow. SM you need to jump in much more at once. The other is that in IT there are more allowances available to you in order to overcome the car's shortcomings. In SS or SM your much more stuck w/ what you have, or the changes come at much bigger costs.

Spend some time looking at what the different types of car have to offer. SM, IT and Production all have active message boards where you can learn a ton about what goes on w/in th class. I'm sure the same exists for autocross, PCA & BMW club.


Matt

[TTA89]

I'm in the opposite boat as most people doing this, I have a truck and trailer I just don't have a car. So thats not an issue for me.

I like the idea of Spec Miata, I don't have any interest in building a car. I'd rather buy one turn key ready to go that I just have to maintain. I'd like to spend 8-10K for a car and I think puts me in a position to buy something decent.

I have lots of time to figure it out, this is probably a better time to buy a car but I'm in the process of buying a house and won't make a move on a car till early spring.

Registration involves getting insurance and paying taxes, not interested just so I can drive it around the block. BTW, new law that if you are caught with an expired inspection sticker it will knock 2 points off your step or whatever the new formula is now. Its not just a fix it ticket...

[Grippy]

http://classifieds.specmiata.com/detail.php?id=463

How about this one?

[HerbD]

Registration involves getting insurance and paying taxes, not interested just so I can drive it around the block.

I don't know if I missed this, but you do know that Titling and Registering
are two totally separate things in Massachusetts, right?

As long as you get a title or other suitable documentation from the
seller, you can get a Mass. title for the car, and never register it.
Then you can just carry the title as proof of ownership.

[JayBay]

But in MA, you pay the taxes when you get the title transferred to your name, regardless of when you register it. You don't necesarrily have to register and insure the car right away, but if you wait more than 7 days to get the title transferred they charge you penalty fees depending on how long it's been. So if you're buying a used car for a track rig, and don't care about registering it right away, make sure to tell the seller NOT to date the back of the title when they sign it over to you.