[Porsche-O-Phile]

Every year at the Long Beach Grand Prix I enjoy it immensely and walk away from watching those racing teams and all the vendors at the "lifestyle expo" with only one thought on my mind:

"Winning in racing is all about who can spend the most, the quickest".

That said, I imagine it's a hobby best done on someone else's dime - kind of like flying airplanes. This is why even with 3,000+ hours in my logbook I haven't touched the controls of an airplane in 3+ years. Not for want of doing so, but because I realize how bloody expensive it is when you have to pay your own way. Far easier when someone else is footing the costs (and yes, I thought about starting a charter/air taxi outfit to make it a "write off", but it's still damn near impossible to make the #'s pencil out).

Me and a few other 944 guys looked at doing a spec car racing team a couple of years ago. There were six of us. We were all enthusiastic about the idea, knowledgeable about 944s, pretty well-equipped with spare parts, tools, etc. Even given that we had several DOZEN 944 chassis and sets of spare parts between us, it still would have been (by my conservative estimates) over $5,000 PER PERSON to do this and have a good, solid, competitive entry for the year. Realistically, probably closer to $10k per person per year - that's between $30k to $60k for a year of racing, which is not unrealistic at all. AND it assumes that all the members of our team realistically were going to pony up for it, on time, without a million excuses or without bailing out halfway through the season. Tire budget, fuel budget, transportation, suspension mods, licensing, entry fees, etc. etc. etc. It all adds up quickly. Put a car into the wall? Holy hell can it get expensive in a hurry. Not to mention it's virtually impossible to put the requisite hours to get the car ready if you have a day job. This is just for a lowly 944 spec car - nothing fancy or especially exotic or high-end.

Long story short - I'm sticking to going to the track on my own for fun, once or twice a year (whenever I have the time), auto-x, etc.

If I want to get into competitive racing, I'll do what my coworker did and get a shifter kart for about $4,000. MUCH cheaper to operate, faster, more fun and thrilling. I honestly don't know why more people DON'T get into kart racing. It's an absolute blast. I've just scratched the surface of it myself and don't have my own kart or anything, but it's something that if I had more time, I'd definitely be more into.