Those who have street legal cars who race... Options

[Steve91T]

What series are you racing in? Are time trials about all that's really practical? I'm not interested in autoxing.

[GlennCMC70]

There was a 4th gen CMC car that was driven to and from the track in Ohio. I also know of an S-197 that did it while those were legal in CMC. It won Nationals if I recall.
It can be done, with compromise. Risk is high too.
Skip a season and buy a trailer. Open 16-18' ones are not too bad and don't need more than a modern 1/2 ton to pull it. I use my enclosed as storage for the CMC car or other projects year round.
Open trailers are a safe investment as well. I've never lost money on one and the last one I almost doubled my money over a few years. Steel is almost always going up.

[Fair]

What series are you racing in? Are time trials about all that's really practical? I'm not interested in autoxing.

I think W2W racing is too compromised to do in a street car. It is done, rarely, but also these are rarely winning cars. Maybe once in CMC, long ago, but not today. Street legal cars can be done in NASA Time Trial, however, but there are always compromises...

(IMG:https://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-Events/NASA-TWS-042515/i-JsBjZsX/1/M/P7A_7020-M.jpg)

We ran NASA TT3 for 3 years (and TTB/TTS for the 2 years before that) in our 2011 Mustang GT, above. It was technically street legal, but during the last 3 years it got pretty difficult to street drive it with the aero we ran. In the TT# classes (TT1/2/3/U) the aero is virtually open, so you are going to be held back there in a true street car.

(IMG:https://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-Events/Drivers-Edge-MSR-C-091915/i-Th4G9Zg/1/M/B61G2591-M.jpg)

The Time trial letter classes (TTB/C/D/E/F) are a different story. These classes are "points" driven, and you have only so many points to use for modifications before you bump up a class. So if you keep the aero mods to a minimum you could still street drive your car.

(IMG:https://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects/2001-BMW-E46-325Ci/i-33xq848/1/M/IMG_0857-M.jpg)

We're building the 2003 BMW 325Ci above to run in a NASA letter class (TTD) and it will be the car I tell my customers to never build: dual purpose daily driver street car + TT car. We're doing this to show what compromises you will run into tracking your daily driver. It will have a roll bar (see below), racing seats, harnesses.... but still keep all of the glass, A/C, and most of the interior. A compromise, to be sure.

(IMG:https://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Instructions/E46-roll-bar-install/i-59cSrGv/0/M/DSC_0780-M.jpg)

A full roll cage is "difficult" to pull off safely in a street car, as you have steel tubes running next to your head. Same goes for harnesses - you need to keep auto-retracting seat belts in place for street use, then switch to your 6+ point belts for competition.

(IMG:https://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-Events/NASA-at-Hallett-062114/i-5DQzxmQ/1/M/20140621_113259-M.jpg)

Of course Time Trial has minimum safety requirements, so it is up to the competitor to chose their own safety upgrades beyond "SFI helmet + 3-point belts". Convertibles do have to have at least a roll bar. Luckily there's virtually no contact in NASA TT, and fewer crashes than in W2W classes. But peer pressure is at work, and the TT directors and other TT competitors do a pretty good job of pressuring people to up their safety gear as they get quicker. Probably half the TT fields in Texas are caged cars with driver's in full driving suits and HANS units. The car above was fully caged and the driver in a HANS + suit when he drove off track and through the barriers. Almost flipped. But again, extremely rare in TT.

(IMG:https://vorshlag.smugmug.com/TechArticles/S197-Mustang-wheel-teesting/i-tPbf7LB/1/M/B61G1626-M.jpg)

The TT contingency winnings can be as good or better than W2W club racing classes. CMC and AI pay out Toyo Bucks, right? Every TT event for 3 years netted me 4 Hoosier tires, if we had 5 in class (we usually did). 2 tires per day to f1st, 1 tire to 2nd if we had 7 competitors. We ran on sticker sets every weekend, racked up dozens of wins, and only paid for one set of Hoosier in 3 years. And never had contact with another driver or even did any damage to the car in 5 years of NASA TT events. So.... yea, TT isn't all bad. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/cool2.gif)

This post has been edited by Fair: Oct 11 2015, 06:36 PM

[SuperMacGuy]

I think one of the biggest (IMO) reason to not drive to wheel to wheel race events in your race car (unless you literally live down the road from the racetrack) is that if you have a crash, how are you getting home? I've had breakdowns on non-racing track days, 2.5 hours from home, parts stores not close by, repairs difficult. You could really be up the creek without a tow vehicle and a trailer.

[Steve91T]

Oh I didn't mean to imply that I intend to drive the car to and from the track. I always throw the car on a uhaul and trailer it. I have a F250 with the 7.3 powerstroke, so I have no reason not to trailer it. I'll get a trailer eventually. My DD is an E36 M3.



Great information about time trials. Thank you.

I realized I didn't give much information so here goes. The car is a 97 SS. It had a 396 LT1 making 380 rwhp and suspension and brake upgrades. I was tracking the car, just doing normal track days/driving schools and I got bored. I really enjoyed when I was trying to chase somebody down. So I decided to turn the car into a CMC car. I got the car to the point where I was ready for a cage and go racing. That's about when I changed my mind. CMC isn't big enough in my area. I also realized how much I miss driving the car on the street.

So, I bough a 99 SS roller to make the car street legal again.

Now my 97 SS has all the interior plastics, but all unused brackets are gone, no radio, no AC, ABS or airbags. It does have heat and a light weight carpet. I also swapped the LS1 front end over for a new look.

The 4 point bolt in roll bar is still in the car, so I'll keep that for now. I'm going to, for now, use the stock seats for the street. I have a Butler seat that one of my NASCAR buddies gave me. That'll be used for the track.

Since I have the 99 parts car, I'm going to start saving for an LS1 swap.

I'm building the car for me to enjoy as a fun weekend street car that'll also be a blast on the track. I just need to figure out what rules I will fit into so I can do some sort of competitive racing. It really sounds like time trials will be perfect for me.

[dailydriver]

Although NOT the case in NC (pretty sure at least?), but either a full NASA spec cage, or in some draconian states, even a roll bar, might get you failed at the yearly safety inspection, with the stated reason being that steel tube so close to your head (as was stated above), NO MATTER HOW MUCH high density, closed cell foam you have covering it. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

[Steve91T]

Although NOT the case in NC (pretty sure at least?), but either a full NASA spec cage, or in some draconian states, even a roll bar, might get you failed at the yearly safety inspection, with the stated reason being that steel tube so close to your head (as was stated above), NO MATTER HOW MUCH high density, closed cell foam you have covering it. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

I was going to start a separate thread about the cage to see what my options are. For now, I'm going to just keep the 4pt bolt in.