I've been doing budget enduro racing for the past five years (Chump, Lemons, WRL). Enduro has been great (because seat time!). But in the next year or two, I'd like to have my own dedicated race car. That way, I'd have control over the level of car prep. I'm not ready to run my own enduro race team. So that has me looking at sprint racing classes.
There are a lot of options. But I'm getting interested in vintage or more likely club Formula Ford 1600 racing. The idea of racing a 1100 pound car good for 120 mph sounds very appealing.
I gather that ~20k will get me into a semi-competitive car. How fragile are they? What are they like to tune, race and maintain? This would be racing at the the local level.
There are SCCA regions and some other series that support Club Ford - 1600cc Kent motor older chassis cars running a spec Hoosier 60 (hard) compound tire. We have an active small class in the DC Region MARRS series. Since everything from Formula vee to Formula Atlantics and the sports racers all run together I get to see them during the races as I lap them. It looks like a lot of fun and they only use a couple sets of tires a year.
There's also a semi-pro series if you get really serious or just feeling totally outclassed for a weekend (at least the pro weekends give you a ton of seat time for the added cost).
f1600championshipseries.com
Unless you are a very lithe man, I would recommend testing one before you take the plunge and buy one. You may find that you don't fit or don't fit comfortably or don't have the muscles necessary to pull one around a track (they pull a lot more G's than a crapcan racer).
Well Lux since you took time out from the "Sado County Auto Show" I'll throw in my $.02
Newer = less fragile, I'd go for an early 80s car. Some of the cars will not tolerate pounding over the kerbs and if you do any off-road racing you may end up tearing a corner off it. Most of the cars are
amateur driver tolerant and maintenance not to intensive.
Currently on Bring A Trailer there is a Winkleman WDF-1 on auction at 11K, they are very pretty, pretty sturdy and competitive.
20K should get you a good car, I'm not sure about the prices for Honda Fit powered cars.
As JG and I are sold on them have you looked at Formula 500s? 20k will get you a Runoffs winner plus some and they turn the same times as Formula Fords.
I believe Motomoron runs a D-sports racer, 1000cc bike motor 900lb car, your 20K would buy one but dependent on chassis they can be rather labor intensive. Also unless you have some Karting experience or pretty extensive racing background they are a huge step up for drivers new to the class. I ran one a decade back; I set the lap record for the class which at the time was only about 1.5 seconds slower than Mike Lewis in an ex Roush Trans Am car. They are a pretty serious car. The plus of a sports racer is you can run them at track days.
You could also check on a Spec Racer Ford or an original Sports Renault which many vintage groups will allow.
Back to FF I personally like Crossle and Swifts but I'd also be good with a Winkleman or Tiga. I can't remember which chassis it is but I think it was Mondial that built school cars that were absolute tanks, you could check around on those.
Tom
Skip Barber used Crossle 35's back in the late 70's as school cars. I drove one in a school I took back in 1979 at MidOhio. There should be some of those still around. I have a friend that races in CFF with MCSCC in the Midwest. He runs it hard and has beaten faster cars in FF just because he runs "flat out". Parts for the trans & engine are also easy to come by but not always cheap. The engines can last 1-2 seasons or more if you keep the revs below 7K and the number of extra gear sets you need depends on how may track you plan on racing at.
I have three friends that race SRF, spec racer ford. very reliable Escort 1.9 engines. SRF will be switching to a 1.6 engine. Not sure which one. May be the current Fiesta.
The guys say that SRF is the most competitive and bang for the buck class out there. One of tem finished 4th at Daytona
In reply to LuxInterior:
$20k will get you right into my GTV race car 
Which will get you into any vintage event, and should get one into the vintage road rally events (Like the carrera paramaericana)
That's what race cars are supposed to look like.
drdisque wrote:
Unless you are a very lithe man, I would recommend testing one before you take the plunge and buy one. You may find that you don't fit or don't fit comfortably or don't have the muscles necessary to pull one around a track (they pull a lot more G's than a crapcan racer).
I'm pretty lithe at 6'0" and 168 pounds. But I'm also pretty tall in the torso for my height. One of the guys on the enduro team stands 6'2" or 6'3" but, I'm taller when sitting. Fitting & upper body strength could be a problem. I'll have to cajole someone to let me sit in one.
Woody wrote:
That's what race cars are supposed to look like.
Beautiful and local to me. Also sounds as though it will fit taller guys.
I've been racing a Zink Z10-C in SCCA Club Formula Ford in the midwest for 10 years. I love the class - fast enough to be really exciting, but not crazy. Also, I greatly prefer running a purpose-built racecar as opposed to a street car turned into a race car.
A few random thoughts based on your intro and the comments so far:
Newer cars tend to have tighter cockpits as the quest for aero efficiency became dominant.
Older cars can be as robust as newer ones if they have been recently 'gone through' by a knowledgeable person. Their suspensions are generally more stout, and they are usually run a little higher, so they are typically less susceptible to damage from a simple off-course excursion. Newer cars, however, have the huge benefit that their suspension attachment points are typically bolt-on parts so the frame usually isn't damaged at all in a moderate collision.
For any class, I always recommend that you look at what the scene is like where you want to race. In some areas, vintage racing draws more FFs, and in others, it's mostly the pro scene. SCCA regionals vary a lot, too. It's no fun to spend some money and effort to get a car and get it to the track only to find very little competition.
One disadvantage of open wheel cars in general (the obvious safety issue notwithstanding) is that it's much harder to find track days (not races) that accept them if you want to do some testing or just get familiar with the car.
A good Club Formula Ford can typically be bought for about $10K. Newer cars can approach that number and go up to more than $60K. There is a great Swift DB1 for sale on Apexspeed.com for $13K which seems like a crazy good deal to me.
Apexspeed.com is a great resource for all things amateur formula car racing.
I'm happy to answer questions. I've never received a PM here, so I don't really know how they work, but feel free to contact me at my screen name followed by the number 9 at yahoo.com
Thanks for all of the input guys. Much appreciated. 
pkingham you've got mail 
Lux, the Winkleman is hotter than a bunch of Bikini Girls with Machine Guns; seriously if the car is local and you are ready to jump the auction is only up to 11k, if the car can be had for 13-15k it would be a great deal. The joy of a single seater is you can adjust the seating position quite a bit.....I'm not up on the rules of BAT auctions but if they allow you to view the car in person go and look at it.
Tom
As beautiful as the Winkleman is, (and it definitely is) I'm not quite ready to jump in. I'm still learning. For instance, pkingham pointed out (via email) that I should understand how much 'real' racing there is in the vintage class. If the local vintage class is allergic to hard driving and the risks that accompany it, I'll want to be in the club class in a newer car.
I run with VARA and they allow us to race; The big difference I've found between vintage and modern racing is vintage race officials seem to reign folks in before they get out of hand. If you are choppy and aggressive then yes they are going to say something. I pound over the curbs, out brake people 2 at a time and routinely go sliding around the outside of people without issue, the key being the passes are well executed.
The thing I like about vintage is the straight up racing and you seldom have people blocking or pulling other shenanigans.
For sure check out the orginazations that you'll be running with and see how they run things.
Tom
