Retiring from Racing

[126coupe]

Both Cars are going up for sale, check "Cars For Sale"

The Porsche and the Nascar

[Oh Haha]

I saw your 911 ad this morning. I can't help with the sale but I have a question..
What is the red "knob" on the driver's inside door of the 911?

Are you getting out of the car scene altogether or just racing?

[J P Stein]

It comes to all of us.....even we low rent autocrossers. When I retired and realized that I was gettin' slower by the minute........time stop feeding the black hole.

[126coupe]

Red button is fire system I want to do car shows and rallied w the 1969 911S and the 300SL Gullwing

[BK911]

Love that '67. Way out of my price range though. GLWS and the rallies.

[Craig T]

I've seen the #111 car and it is unbelievably clean well set up…And, Allan Faragallah at Aase Motors is the premier engine builder. That motor rebuild will save $15K-$20K for the buyer. That's a good fresh start to racing.

17 years is a long time racing. The average racing tenure with the POC is just over five years. No excuse for selling required...probably just boredom, or tired of not using the Cota de Coza golf membership.

Buying the race car is the easy part. Here is the cost of a typical PCA, POC, or Vara race weekend (to be competitive, you need a new set of tires for every weekend).

$500 Entry Fee
$200 Track prep/Tech
$250 Race Gas
$1,200 Tires
$100 Mounting
$200 Hotel
___________
$2,450

That is JUST the race weekend. To get started:

Car Trailer $2,000 open-$10,000 Enclosed
Tow Vehicle $5,000-$50,000
Nomex Race suit $650-$2000
Race shoes $100-$250
Helmet $$500-$2000
Spare set or wheels $2000
Jack, torque wrench, spare fluids, etc ($500)
_________________
Minimum $10,500

Now factor the annual cost of repairs. Most commonly: Clutch, Syncros, (maybe yearly) - Motor Rebuild (every 3 years likely) - brake pads, fluid changes, master cylinder rebuilds (constant). etc etc etc. You can figure racing one weekend a month will average about $40,000 per year…If you don't crash!

[2porscheguy]

You need to spend more time in the garden?

[campbellcj]

I was having similar evil thoughts just the other day. Life marches on with kids, business ventures and so forth and I'm struggling with the time, money and space trade-offs. Depending how you add it up, these heavily-modified cars are in the $500-$1,500/hour range to run on the track. I think Craig's #'s are solid and you've gotta also consider that a typical "track weekend" is only 3-5 hours of actual driving and 15 hours of waiting around...

[126coupe]

Originally Posted by campbellcj

I was having similar evil thoughts just the other day. Life marches on with kids, business ventures and so forth and I'm struggling with the time, money and space trade-offs. Depending how you add it up, these heavily-modified cars are in the $500-$1,500/hour range to run on the track. I think Craig's #'s are solid and you've gotta also consider that a typical "track weekend" is only 3-5 hours of actual driving and 15 hours of waiting around...

Amen

[126coupe]

Originally Posted by 2porscheguy

You need to spend more time in the garden?

funny

[126coupe]

[John Rogers]

There are way more companies back East that handle vintage NASCAR than out here. I talked to Gene Felton many years ago when he was at race at PIR with a Dale JR road racer that had won the Watkins Glenn race. When I sold my 914-6 conversion I posted the info to The Samba and that was where it was sold from. It is now in a museum in Puerto Rico resting comfortably! Several others are 'Racing Junk" and others that handle race cars. You'll miss the racing as I know I sure do!

[campbellcj]

Consumables have been shooting up too. Maybe falling oil prices will help but there's always a lag time. I'll monitor this weekend but I bet I am up to $300/weekend for race fuel (plus another ~$150 for the truck) and approaching $2K for tires. $400-ish registration. $1,425/day right there, car costs not included. Holy moly.

[kevin993]

Great car. Good luck with sale.

[kevin993]

One more:

[T77911S]

my father in law is in his upper 70's and still races nascar up north. not as much but still drives. sent one over the bank and into the woods a few years back.
still works on them too, mainly rear ends. the man will work til he dies.
he has been inducted into the hall of fame up there.

[ted]

Those are a pair of fun and contrasting race cars similar to my own.
I too have considered life without race cars.

The trick (as you know) is to have the fall back street cars for continued car fun.
I'm holding onto my 70 Z28, 86 Turbo look and C5 Z06 for that day when the race cars go away.

I dream of a day with no trucks or trailers, but that day is still a few years away.
Last month purchased a new bigger truck/trailer and now my driveway and house are being modified to fit it all behind the house.
The not so hidden costs of larger rigs.
This car hobby is a bit of a drain sometimes.
Good luck selling your race cars.

[joe payne]

Seeing that stock car and Willow Springs behind pic of the 911 remind me of the mid 90's when they used to run that stock car class at Willow. They were very quick. like 1.18 quick per lap. And they were very restricted. They also sounded great depending on the header set up.

[chapo]

Derick Cope set the Winston West record there at 1:26, 1:18 sounds pretty fast for a stocker

[campbellcj]

I'm in the same school of thought as Ted. I have deliberately kept my "914R" street registered over the years and retained the glass, softer springs, and other parts in storage in case I want to make it streetable again one day. Or in case I ever sell it and the buyer has more of an R Gruppe canyon carver idea in mind.