Spec Racer Renault as a track car? Learn me...

I'm still going back and forth between buying a street car and building it up as a track car, and just going berkeley this and buy a "real" race car instead. Problem with the latter is my current budget, it just doesn't buy much of a pre-converted race car.

That said, I'm looking at something to use for HPDE/PDX and SCCA CT/TT so I don't need it to slot into a ready made series or class like SRF. At the moment, I'm not planning for W2W, although I was hoping to eventually get into vintage racing.

I just found a couple of SRR cars for sale that supposedly are in good condition. Either would fit my budget, but is this a good idea?

And yes, I realize that this will require that I purchase tow vehicle and maybe even a trailer (I guess they're not going to fit too well on a U-Haul trailer), but given that we've started to slowly redo house and garden, I need a pickup truck anyway. This just gives me an excuse to go Diesel truck shopping.

Nice try. You don't need a Diesel truck to tow a spec racer. A snowmobile trailer behind a VW Diesel would be enough. Good excuse to use with the SWMBO though.

That's where the "excuse" part is coming in .

Actually it's more a case of having a large truck around is going to make it easier to do other things that I need to do house wise, and that I can't easily do with a VW TDI...

Always wanted a Sports Racer of some sort. They are like mini Can-Am cars, which is kinda cool from a nostalgic standpoint.

Other than possibly finding parts for the Renault divetrain, they are pretty decent cars from what I understand. Certainly aged a bit and slower than current cars in its class, but its a trackday car and you can improve it as you see fit since they are fairly simple tube frame cars with 4-cylinder drivetrains.

I say do it.

On a similar note, I pine for an SRF, made streetable, with SOHC F-series Honda power.

I dig what this guy did with an old formula vee ..

I would think a spec renault would be a hoot. Not sure the chassis changed all that much when the scca went to spec ford

I didn't know there were still any Spec Racer Renaults still left, I figured by now they would have all been converted to SRFs. That would lead me to think it hasn't been used for a number of years so it may need some reconditioning. The Renault engine/drivetrain parts may not be as easy to find today. They were fun to drive, I did my driving school in one.

As for towing one, they only weigh around 1500 lbs so I don't think you'll need a special vehicle - you could probably haul one around with a Yugo if you wanted to.

Bigger question, do they allow them on the track at the same time for HPDE?

I was under the (asking because I might be mistaken) impression that they werent because of them being almost invisible to people in larger cars due to their dimunitive size. Plus 1500lb car vs 4000lb sedan possibilities.

Just concerns about being limited in the events you can take it to.

Yeah, they run them together with the other closed wheel cars for Novice races in SCCA. Its rather scary to try and keep them in site, but its pretty well managed.

Good point re allowing them on the track. We have a pretty eclectic group of cars running TT (that one ranges from Formula Vee to a Formula Atlantic with a lot of "regular" cars thrown in) and I think there is at least one SRF running in there. Not sure if they'd let me run in the lower groups, though. Guess I better find out.

IIRC the Spec Racer Renault has more or less the same chassis as the first generation SRF, and at some point you could get conversion kits but I don't think they're cost effective anymore. There's a company in NorCal that still supports them and runs kind of a race series with them so I expect parts not to be a massive problem.

I could have sworn I've seen some SRR at vintage races....

I have an SRF. I can tell you that you don't want to be on track with a lot of heavy hardware in one of these things. You could do it, but I don't think I'd take those kinds of risks.

One thing that I will point out is that the SRFs are undergoing an engine upgrade cycle currently. This means that every car is going to need a new engine over the next few years. These are sealed spec engines and they are costing around $10k per upgrade. So the market is going to be a little weird for a bit as people figure out what a car with the old motor is actually worth since the legal lifespan is only a couple of years. You might want to start shopping for a SRF instead of a SRR.

I'm not a super expert on this, but my understanding is that there are SRRs being converted to this new third gen motor. This is going to put SRRs and 2nd Gen SRFs on more equal pricing footing because both will need engine upgrades to run the new SRF class once the deadline hits in a couple of years.

I'm sure you've been over to SpecRacer.com to research this idea. And, yeah, fun car!

A quick google suggests that SRR might be eligible for vintage racing with some clubs.

I doubt I'll get into the Monterey Historics with one anytime soon, though .

In reply to AaronBalto:

Thanks for the info from an owner's perspective. Yeah, I've been lurking a bit over on specracer.com.

Decent SRRs seem to be available for about $5k-$7k, most people seem to be asking more like $17k for an SRF. I guess once the engine upgrade kicks in you're right, they might very well be at a very similar price point.

I am shocked that there are still any Spec Renaults out there. I'd love to have one as a fun autocross toy, but I wouldn't want to be on the track at the same time as anything with doors.

Did you find them locally?

oldtin wrote: I dig what this guy did with an old formula vee .. I would think a spec renault would be a hoot. Not sure the chassis changed all that much when the scca went to spec ford

Funny that you should mention that...

Yesterday afternoon, I looked at a pile of parts that consisted of a poor fiberglass RS60 replica sitting over the worlds worst Formula Vee chassis, buried in snow. The guy was asking $5000, but the whole mess was probably worth $500 at best.

Woody wrote: I am shocked that there are still any Spec Renaults out there. I'd love to have one as a fun autocross toy, but I wouldn't want to be on the track at the same time as anything with doors.

Yeah, I'm beginning to come around to that point of view myself, especially as I discounted at least one other potential purchase on the grounds of it being too small for my liking.

Woody wrote: Did you find them locally?

For Southwest values of "locally". I think they're about 500 miles away.

AaronBalto wrote: I have an SRF. I can tell you that you don't want to be on track with a lot of heavy hardware in one of these things. You could do it, but I don't think I'd take those kinds of risks.

What he said. I was on track with one once at a 'practice day' with a non-race organization. It was a couple of seconds ahead of me and spun on the outside of the corkscrew at Laguna Seca ending up near the apex at the exit of that turn. I didn't see it over the dash of my Spec Miata until I was at the apex. Missed him by inches...

There's still a few here in the Midwest. In MCSCC they are allowed to still race as SRRs along side of the SRFs. There's even support for them and an engine sealing service if I remember correctly.

As a side note, I once met a guy at Gingerman RR quite a few years ago and he was there for a race with two SSFs. I asked him how he runs 2 cars and he said he didn't. One was his race car and the other was a show car. He happened to work for Chrysler and when they took over AMC they found SRR chassis #1 back in some warehouse and he asked what they were going to do with it and he was told that if he wanted it just take it. Of course at the time no one knew what it was, it was only after he got it home and starting asking some former AMC people. Now how valuable is chassis #1, who know ?

We used to have a guy run track days with a Diasio. It was fast and really hard to see at times. I always thought he should have run it with one of those Big Wheel flags they put on kid's trikes so you know what you just backed over.

I think I'm back to looking for a regular car .

In reply to BoxheadTim: Don't you love it when a fun, yet horrible idea is allowed to run its course in your head before you spend ANY money? And then it's on to the next (in my case) dumb idea...

I do. And if it's any consolation, you're not the only one who then promptly comes up with the next dumb idea.