So, starting next year, I intend to start prepping my car to run in the NASA Honda Challenge series. As part of my preparation, I set up a spreadsheet, where I basically went through the rules/regulations and made a list of every modification that I'm allowed/required to do, and then I went back and put a price estimate next to each of them and then sorted them by order of importance (all the "required" stuff was first, and then the "optional" stuff was added in the order that I felt it would make most sense, either for competitiveness or safety or whatever).

Starting with a bone-stock S2000, I estimate that it will cost about $9-10K just to get the car track-worthy. Primarily, this consists of just the stuff that's required to fulfill the safety requirements (things like hardtop, roll cage, race seat(s), cut-off switch, tow hooks, etc).

On top of that, I estimated another $3K for driver equipment (race suit, SA helmet, HANS, etc).

From there, I started looking at GoFast parts. Spoiler, splitter, clutch/flywheel, bigger wheels/tires, etc. I quickly got up to $20K (including the initial 10K for safety stuff). This didn't even include costs for suspension, header & exhaust, since I initially plan on using some of the stuff that I already have. And it didn't include the "cutting edge" stuff like overbores, balancing/blueprinting, tuning time.

And that's just the (hopefully) one-time investments. Then you've got to add the wear items like tires, brakes, etc. Plus event entry fees.


So, I'm wondering how many of you have catalogued your actual spending in getting your car on track, making it competitive, and keeping it trackworthy, as well as incidentals (repairs for contact, broken parts, etc). Would you be willing to share the estimated costs for those that are planning to take on this endeavour? Also, if you seperated it into phases, I'd be interested in how you prioritized things. What is your annual/monthly budget for racing (including entry fees, tires/brakes, fuel, etc)?

I know people sometimes get edgy when talking about money, so don't share more than you're comfortable with, but if you're willing, I'm really curious about this kind of thing.

 

*doesn't want to think about it* LOL

Your numbers seem reasonable.

 

I've done similiar calculations. W2W racing an S2000 is not a cost effective venture. From a cost perspective, you would be better off buying an entire seperate track ready car than preparing an S2000, even if you already own one.

For instance, take your $20k figure, add in another $10k of go fast parts. You can get a race car and spares for $30k. The car isn't even worth $30k and as you spend money to build it, you actually destroy value. I'd really only go this route if it's your life's dream to race an S2k. Or you have way too much money

 

Double your estimates and you should be pretty close.

I haven't broken everything down in detail but if I had to guess (taking my car from the same state as yours this winter and having no driver equipment) I've spent on the order of $40,000 not including the car, trailer and accessories and the tow vehicle.

 

This is a very true statement, and worth considering at this stage. It is always less expensive (in a combination of hard and soft dollars) to buy someone else's race car than to build your own. There are tradeoffs, of course (principally, someone else's race car has been flogged already, and things likely will break earlier than if you converted a street car), but it's a very good rule of thumb.

There often are good rentals available, also. Not necessarily in the class you ultimately want to race in, but it gives you an opportunity, without the huge up-front capital expenses, to see if you really like racing. I began racing this year (a Spec Miata--supposedly the least expensive form of racing, but still damned expensive), and I'm not convinced that it's been cheaper for me to campaign my own car rather than to rent a well set-up car for which someone else deals with transportation and maintenance.

Just some thoughts from someone one year ahead of you in the game.

 

Your's is mainly personal opinion based on the assumption that racing a car W2W can somehow be "cost effective". Racing any car is neither cost effective nor financially sensible. It's a black hole for your money.

The faster you want to go the more money it costs. An S2000 is proportionally no more costly is prepare and race than any other car in its class. All of the cars I race against in class which are faster cost more to prepare and run. There are cars that we beat which also cost more.

It depends on the class rules under which you race. You first need to decide which level you want to race at (based on budget mainly, faster classes = more money) and then pick a car which you can convert into a winner for the money you have to spend. Winning may not be your goal, you may just want to run with bigger dogs and try to build your skills.

 

Well, my life's dream would be to campaign a GT3, but I can't afford that. When I bought the S2000 5 years ago my sole intent was to convert it to a racecar when I could afford to. Now I'm getting close to that point. I thought very hard about racing a Miata, and I'd probably already be on-track if I had gone that route, but I just decided that it wasn't the platform that I want to race (at least not right now).

My only concern at this point is the classing and competition for the S2000. I'm concerned that since it's such a limited production vehicle, and since there aren't a lot of people (in my area) road-racing them, that eventually there just won't be anywhere for me to race it. Other than that concern, I'm pretty set on racing the S2000. I'm just trying to make a gameplan to get me on track with it as quickly as possible. I'm not concerned about it being competitive initially (since I know that the driver will be the weakest link in that regards for quite a while).

 

Why to race an s2k?



And if you think a spec miata is substancially cheaper you're wrong. Unless you're content to run in the back 1/3rd of the pack. Most of the costs of racing sans the car are the same between the classes in consideration.

I'm certine mxt knows there are other race classes.

I figure it would cost me ~35k to build a car like mine sans base car.

-Ry

 

^ What he said. $35K to build a competitive car from a stock vehicle. You don't shell out all the money at once and if you run out then you simply have to slow down on the racing and spending until you have more. To get the car on-track you are looking at $25K upfront in parts, accessories and fabrication. You'll spend another $10K in the first season making it a better car when you realize how slow you are compared to the rest of the field. (I just spent $10K in the last two weeks doing just that and I'm getting ready to go out the door to spend another grand).

If HPDE is go fast crack, W2W is go fast meth. It's an addiction and once you have it you'll do what you need to to get the next hit.

 

I think I was right around 16k on my build and if you search you will see what I got.
I made a thread with everthing in it.
that was with out the car too