Just drove 750hp race car... Wow!
 

A good friend that I grew up with racing MX, shooting, building stuff etc, just bought his 14 yr old son a Late Model dirt track car. His son has been racing quarter midgets for years and now he is getting him into more serious equipment. This chassis is two years old and will get him started. They have been renting a local dirt track on weekends and as soon as he proves he can hold his lines on all parts of the track while laying down some fair lap times, they will run some races this summer to see how he does then probably buy a new car for next year.

I have always disliked oval racing in general and never really got into sprint cars and late models, but today they invited me to come out and try a few laps. My god was it fun!!! The track we were at is pretty small, http://www.oakshaderaceway.com/news/ so speeds probably are below 70mph in the short straight sections, but mashing the loud pedal of a 750hp lightweight car on dirt is pretty exhilarating.

I ran about ten laps and the last few, I was getting on it pretty good. I really did not want to hit a wall with the kids new toy so I pulled into the pits all smiles and got out while the car was still in one piece. :D

My friend's son with his new toy.

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Me getting some last minute tips from a teen on how not to wreck his car and how to work the two speed transmission in the pits with goofy hand clutch for first gear.
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Very cool.. so what kind of an investment is that ?? I'd think carts would be the way to go for a 14 yo ?

I always thought it would be fun to buy one of those and try to adapt the suspension/transmission for road racing.

About $15,000 a low-end, used car, no?

I think the car was somewhere around 12k, but he had to buy a bigger enclosed trailer and no doubt had to buy a bunch of stuff to get set up. They have been running the quarter midgets for years and his son does very well, but there is not much in the way of shifter cart racing anywhere close by. They are both Nascar followers and my buddy Terry always went all out back when we were racing MX and non-shifter go-carts ourselves. Nice friend to have when racing as he and I worked for his dad back then and he always had the cash to set himself up when racing. It meant I got to use his enclosed race trailer/generator/powerwasher etc back when I was a broke college student. :) He now runs the family business and this kind of money is pretty painless for him.

His son is a great kid and spends his evenings with dad working on the racers.

I asked him if they would try running at Toledo Speedway (pavement), but he said the the ashpalt guys use a completely different chassis. These things have odd suspensions with all kinds of non traditional weight transfer stuff on them to get them to slide around the turns properly.

As I said before, I am not a big fan of the Saturday night dirt racing, but d@mn was that fun driving that car. :D

IMHO nothing that costs 12k generally has 750 hp. At least not if you buy it turn key. What's the engine?

George

Tim, did you get your lap times? How did they compare?

Very cool BTW.

My neighbor builds motors for the local 360 and 400 sprint car guys. They run Skagit Speedway, Spanaway, and places like that. Every now and then they run them on the local paved oval out at Monroe, a 5/8 mile track. The sprint cars lap it about five seconds a lap faster than the Northwest Tour cars, which are essentially one step below Grand National cars.

Most cars run small block Chevs, but there are some Fords. The motor sizes are indicated by the class designations. They run on methanol fed by a fuel injection system and, yes, they make some serious power. Well over 750 hp for the 400 sprints. And no, they don't spend squat on motors (or cars) if you look at it from a 911 perspective. My neighbor builds winning sprint car motors for less than half of what it cost me to build my 911 motor, and I did all the work myself. Two different worlds...

My dad used to letter all of the cars that they ran at the local speedway. As such we spent lots of time out there and it is a nasty sport. There is always dirt in the air and you feel disgusting when you leave. Now it does look like it would be great fun.

George, I am pretty sure that 12k number is correct, but it has been a couple of months since he actually bought the car and I may have remembered a wrong number. That said, I am pretty sure he said buying the used car was much cheaper (by half maybe?) than buying brand new "latest/greatest". He did say that the top runners are in the 800hp range, but that their motors are running closer to the edge than his which should last a season. They run race gasoline in these cars not alcohol.

No lap times, but I wish he had timed me as I am guessing my last couple laps were probably close to his son's who has had alot more seat time/practice sessions. I am guessing somewhere around 18-19 seconds on the dry unwatered track whereas the experienced guys supposedly turn laps in the 15 second range on the prepared track during races. By no means was I "fast" after only a handful of laps, but I was pleasantly suprised at how comfortable I was feeling even with my lack of experience in this venue...... Must have been all those years racing MX, carts, snowmobiles, AX and most importantly, watching the Dukes of Hazzard as a kid. ;):D

One word: Chevy.

$12K would be spot on for a car like that. Lots of them available: Either racing has broke the underfunded owners after 2 or 3 season or they have enough money to move on to fresher equipment. Either way its a buyer's market.

I ran a dirt limited late model (650-750 hp and 2200 lbs) for 10-12 races for a friend who was injured about 6-7 years ago. They are an absolute hoot. The uninformed think that they are primitive but in reality they are pretty sophisticated. To me they are harder to set up than a road race asphalt car...think about it: EVERY corner of the car is set up differently. Tire diameter, compounds, pressure, width, offset, spring rates, ride height, etc are different on each corner. Cross weights, side weight etc is also critical and assymetrical. Then you have to deal with tghe track itself...over the course of a night the track can go from wet tacky to dry slick between a heat race and a feature. In long races the track conditions will change drastically from beginning to end.

Ok, educate me and show me a 750 hp chevy based engine for under $10k.

George

757hp, 802lbs of torque..............under 9K

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/PRO-STREET-750HP-CHEVY-BIGBLOCK-SUPERCHARGER-ENGINE-_W0QQitemZ350181899457QQcmdZViewItem

Cool! If you read the specs and prices of the parts you wonder how they do it. That said though, I can see how a used race car can go for 12k if someone put 30k into it to build it.

George

a guy i work with use to race those on dirt. did pretty good from i understand.

That is a big block, with a blower. Circle track it ain't.

One that will last, or just one built for under 10K? The elephant motor will make that kind of HP pretty easy with compression, big cams and adequate breathing. The SBC used as the NASCAR based motor will take some additional parts to get the rev's up, like all titanium valve train. If you can get the stuff used, it might be possible. Otherwise, figure about $40K for one that will last.

To give you an idea of how soft the market is, look at these classifieds:

http://www.dirttracktrader.com/classifieds/CPViewInCat.asp?ID=197