aeronca65t wrote: Let me just be the Devil's Advocate here and ask what I consider a reasonable question based on my experience: I was part of a Lemons team in '08 (we ran a Jetta in the Conn event).
The CT event was not the best example of a LeMons race. There was not a critical mass of cars or teams to make it exceptionally fun and the track was not conducive to racing. The fact that they kicked us out of the track at night was disappointing.
aeronca65t wrote: But I also race in NASA with a very low-bucks Escort. The cost of the Jetta we built for Lemons (in terms of actual cash, hour of labor and various horse-trading deals) was about the same as my NASA Escort. The Escort is basically a reliable backmarker car. I've had some great battles with oher low-bucks racers back behind the leaders. I ran it in five NASA events plus one EMRA event in the last year and I had an absolute ball with it. It's still a very decent car right now and I could easily run it in six more events in '09 with ordinary maintainence if I wanted to [*see note at end] Our Lemons Jetta got fairly trashed and we were one of the lucky teams. In real terms, I think it's best to consider a Lemons car a "one event car". So why would I build a one-shot Lemons car if I can built an entry-level, multi-use NASA racer for about the same cost? I know that some of appeal for Lemons comraderie mixed in with cost and seat time. I ran a NASA-NE open track day in early '08 at Pocono. It cost $225 for FOUR HOURS of track time and they gave me lunch as well. But after doing both Lemons and NASA, and working out the true cost and effort required, I have found that an entry level NASA track car seems to be a bigger bang for the buck. And while it might be fun, I don't really have the time or money to do both. But I'm asking an honest question. Has anyone else here thought about this? *Note: Note: ~THE ESCORT~ is for sale at a sub-Challenge-friendly price because I'm involved in some new race car projects for '09.
OK, so you paid the same for a back marker escort as you did for a top 5 LeMons car? (were you the guys next to us who lost a wheel bearing?)
I thought about it. I used our LeMons car for track days, autocrosses, and will use it for hill climbs. It was definitely not a single event car. It has so far lasted 2 LeMons races and I've only had to do minor repairs. It needs a new tranny now, but that is $100 and a couple hours of labor to replace.
I think that you are not being fair with your prices. The cost to enter the LeMons is ~$1200 for 5 people so it's about $240 per person for 3.5 hours of race time. Race time is different than a track day time, wouldn't you say? Race time is more fun? Everything is comparable to me. That gets us back to the license and the cost to get one from either the SCCA or NASA.
