Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

Wow, cool stuff guys. Good luck this year!

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

Preparation is becoming frenzied for us, as we try to cram in everything we need to do. All the little things like figuring out radios, mounting a better water drink setup, getting more fuel jugs, buying a transponder so we don't have to rent one, etc etc.

Can't wait for RA though!

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

Looks very fun and I'd like to join in some day if I ever had the money/time!

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

says the guy who balls around in 10 second drag cars :P

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

That pile was taken to the junk yard because nobody wanted the shell. That thing just sat around when I broke after I had student loans to pay off and a gf:Flush:

How much if you had to guess would it cost for like a season of racing? Also do you have to be a good driver or past racing (turning racing) experience?

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

It's only as expensive as you want it to be. You can find a full racing suit and helmet for around $600 if you find a deal (http://cs-gear.com/ and http://www.profoxracing.com/ have package deals). The car can be only be worth up to $500, so what you actually pay for it is up to you. Cost for a cage, harness, window net, fire extinguisher, fuel cans, etc. etc. Race entry is $1000 or so then goes down $100 each additional race you do in a season. We rent radios for each race, like $100 or something. A 31' RV to tow the car is $150 a day plus gas.

Our team of 5 guys had nothing more than autocross experience, a couple guys who had less than a dozen events between the two of them. Myself, Shawn and Brandon are all autocross regulars. None of us ever drove on a road course until we went to the Chump Car race at BIR last year. The entire time our car has been running we were consistently in the top 6, so while seat time surely helps it isn't a defining factor. It's an endurance race after all.

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

I'd echo that. Its really hard to say exactly how much it would cost.

To give you a good idea, just to 'arrive and drive' with a team, you can expect to pay 500-800 per event (but we're talking about gobs more seat time than you'd get in any other form of racing) and obviously you need to have your safety gear. So if you do a couple events in a season, plus gear, about ~$2500 would do it. And you don't need to buy safety stuff every year. This year I'm actually upgrading to a head and neck support device.

If you build a car, if you buy a HANS device, if you have fancy stuff (non-budget stuff like radios, gauges, seat, harness, cage, wheels, tires, etc) Then it will start to add up real quick. But a lot of people split car build costs between a few. I'm lucky, and with my team, one guy on the team is paying for the car build so when its all said and done, the car is outright his. Less complications.

Also, my team started with less experience than Matt's. I've done a handful of rallyx and autox's, but not too many. Other teammates had done less. We all did a track day at Brainerd before the first event. Experience adds up quick when you're driving 3+ hours per event.

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

There are teams that showed up to BIR and Iowa last year who had absolutely zero performance driving experience.

Our car survived dyno time at RS Motors today. All I can say is we are absolutely STOKED. This thing is going to rip. Ron had the car for about 6 hours and put a lot of work into it, fabbed us a new intake, modified the FPR so it has a set screw to help increase the fuel pressure because it was running pretty lean at first, adjusted the timing and now it's sitting pretty. He bent over backwards for us and had a bigger smile on his face while working on this car than our team combined. We are forever in debt to Ron. http://th146.photobucket.com/albums/...123/th_bow.gif

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

Sweet! So how much power did it make?

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

haha, Ron is always smilin!

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

+1 on what Matt said, Ron did some great work, as for power goes, the HP line looks like this: / all the way to 7500 rpm redline... Winning! :P

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

ok, you can't leave us hanging, how much power did you make?

we have dyno day #2 coming up this weekend!

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

Here's video of one of the pulls: http://img862.imageshack.us/i/ubm.mp4/

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

haha awesome! Looks like shawn built a good motor for ya, go shake-n-bake!

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

That thing doesn't look so 'chumpy' these days! A resourceful crew.

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

It sure does in a crowd of BMWs.

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

those are actually really healthy numbers for a stock 16v 4A-GE... especially in an AW11 chassis where the intake snorkel is so obnoxiously long.

:banana:

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

Whatching the vid of the pull makes me giddy, cant wait to see how she runs a Road America.

What was great about the engine build is that it is using all stock toyota 4age internals, hone was done using mix of fat tire beer and tranny fuild with a $40 auto parts stone hone tool, and the only mod is the air intake and air filter. Hopefully it all stays together. Motor has zero miles on it, my guess is we gain a few hp once it frees up and we get the 9 month old gas out of the tank. ;)

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

awesome work guys!!

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

We have picture proof that Fat Tire was used as honing fluid. This is not a joke.

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

Very nice! motor looks healthy. What were these things rated stock, at the crank? I'm always scared to hone myself.

It was definitely a moment of tension for us, dynoing a car with like... 20 miles on it (the miles driven to the dyno)

I'm starting to think dyno break-ins are where it's at.

Also, interesting fact - Bill Caswell is driving for a team with a turbo Escort this weekend at The Rock in NC.

I have a feeling we'll be seeing lots of chumpy turbo setups this year...

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

Haha that's awesome that Fat Tire was used as a honing fluid! Looks like it's making pretty good power too. Hopefully it holds together for you guys.

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

A massive 112hp at the crank, haha! Shawn said he was on pins and needles while the car was on the dyno, but I think he's comfortable with it now.

People can build all the janky turbo setups they want, it's just one more failure waiting to happen that will give teams like us a better shot at winning. :)

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

This car is pure awesome.

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

I approve this message. Turbo setups are a increased liability even when done properly. I cannot imagine anything good coming out of a turbo car in a racing series already containing the keywords "Under $500 and Endurance."

Any idea what your setup weighs, Matt?

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

No idea. I hope Jeff The Alignment Guy is in good enough of a mood when we get it aligned to put it on the scales and weight it for us.

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

Ok. Here is a good baseline for you to reference against when you get around to it (from our street MK1) :

http://www.beyondmechanics.com/mr2-weight.jpg

85 AW11 (with sway bars) a little wight reduction.

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

Jebus...sub 2200lbs and that hp, should be a fun track go-kart!

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

It handles like a go-kart, has about the same straight line acceleration as one, too. At Iowa Speedway we were SOL on the oval unless we were able to catch a draf (+5mph on the top end) but we did work on the infield road course.

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

this is the truth!

But, if you're the frankenmiata it also results in 3 lemons wins and a chumpcar win by like 30 laps!

I was just watching some BIR vids... I gotta keep myself calm or i'm gonna lose it before 2 weeks is up.

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

5 days until we leave!

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

Our car is pretty much ready to go. I'll head down and meet with the guys Thursday night and start packing then we head out Friday morning. Since we're sharing a garage there should be a plethora of tools between us.

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

If you can make the Wed night meet then I'll get that GoPro to you. Charging it up right now.

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

Are you guys planning on bringing an engine hoist? Generator? Welder? Compressor?

We are waiting for our new race pads to come in, and we need to re-bleed with some ATE, then we're good to go. We had some weird pedal squishiness and used cheap fluid to flush the system. Car is feeling really well sorted after an awesome alignment from Stellar autoworks!

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

Nice equipment and friendly guys over there. Their regular pricing is nothing like Jeff but I had them take care of my car last year.

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

No. No. No. No.

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

alrighty then... I guess we got it covered. heh.

I assume you guys aren't bringing a spare engine, then?

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

Justin at Stellar did an amazing job. He got all my specs spot on. I was incredibly amazed. Also, something had been cross threaded and Justin took the time to re-tap it and fix everything. I couldn't be more impressed.

BUT, you do pay a lot less with Jeff, so I guess you can't expect him to take that much time and care with things.

Re: My ChumpCar experience
 

Ready to roll!

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-l...Large%2529.JPG