I'm going to look at a legends car for sale locally, hopefully tomorrow morning. I like the idea of using one for autocross and track days. What do I need to be looking for? Do they need anything special to turn both directions? What price should I be aiming for?
Look at dwarf cars also, I think the Legends are 600cc while Dwarf Cars are typically 1000cc to 1200cc.
Not sure there is a whole lot of offset built in, a lot is done with wheel backspacing and weight.
Watch out for older designs that don't have full down tubes or have bolt_together front clips.
Also car built to early rules have the seat bar mounted too far forward, and you can't just relocate it due to side impact issues.
The forward mounted seat biases weight forward and makes for a cramped driver space unless you are a midget.
I suggest a wagon or panel truck body to allow a more rearward driver position. (no pickup or coupe)
Legends run under a very strict ruleset. Changes cannot be made and the cars must keep a logbook to track any repairs and pass strict techincal inspection.
Dwarf cars are built on someone's picnic table and must fit in a box and have pretty loose rules beyond motor size.
If the SCCA lumps Dwarves in with legends, A dwarf may have advantages.
There are issues with oiling (deep sumps and swinging pickups). Clutch baskets take a beating.
The shortened axles seem fragile, Everyone goes to the races with spare axles.
Look also at Mod-Lites You will find most of them have Quick Change rear axles!
Some Dwarf Cars may have quick change axles, Toyota axles started getting scarce plus the fragile short axle thing so some associations stated allowing them.
Good info. Do you own or have you raced one of these? I’m super curious how they drive.
In reply to white_fly :
My own personal take as an observer from the sidelines: Like most purpose-built racecars, they tend to take more time, work, and often money to get setup for autox and running/driving reliable. If you get them to that point they can be tons of fun.
The problem is unless you have someplace you can do testing between events, you end up spending a season or 2 of autox getting the car sorted out. Add to that the complication of since it's not based on a street car there's less parts you'll be able to run down the street to your FLAPS & buy when it's time to work on it(or when it breaks at an event).
Maybe this is better phrased as a question: Would you rather be a driver or a builder? If you'd rather be a driver, stick to production-based cars or find someone else who has a racecar you can pay to let you co-drive.
There was a small group of guys road racing Legends or Dwarfs ( I don't remeber which) at Waterford Hills years ago. They went well until the group switched from a spec BFGoodrich street tire to Hoosiers, then they started breaking welds in the chassis.
Depending on what state you live in they can be made street legal. Which I've always considered worth it for the ability to test it between events.
Legends used to have to have a matching title. Meaning there are a fair amount of them that are STREET LEGAL, oh yeah! oh yeah!
I did not have to hear any of this. Street legal.
Scott
They ran at Sonoma when I was there, the ones on the west coast were fast and loose. End of the race there was a lot of squirming and opposite lock. There was a guy who loaded one directly into the back of his pickup truck for transport. It was awesome. I didn't see how he got it into the bed, but I'm assuming long ramps.....
I guess what I'm saying is they seem like they can be set up fast for a road course, but they are a really short wheel base car. I saw a lot more spins with them than the other classes that ran at the same time (thunder roadster, etc)
I've seen a bunch of them driving on the street in the towns around road Atlanta as well, pretty neat for that alone.
In reply to bentwrench :
The Legends run a 1200 to 1250cc Yamaha engine. The newest ones come with a special head that turns the engine from Air-Cooled to Water-cooled. Great Trans on them. The Rear End is getting dated.
Not a bad little car. However, watch out for used oval cars because the top teams intentionally twist the frame to turn left better!
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