Budget for a season?

[timhoverd]

Thanks Heather. Do you have any pics of the Wolfe body work? I've not googled it yet, and am suffering internet woes at the moment, but will try.

It's car 49, the silver one, in these photos: in these photos. Not very good but the ones I found first. Tony (he's user "tony") uses a photo of the car as his avatar. Look for him in the "members" link at the top right.

Also anyone near(ish) to Windsor who would be happy for me to pop over and have a look at a car - not one for sale, just to see one in the flesh so to speak.:

You'd be more than welcome to come over here, but it's perhaps a bit of a trek to Cambridge. PM me if you'd like to. Also, if you'd like a phone chat, ask me for my phone number and I'll send it to you.

Cheers,

Tim

[JamesWalker]

Also anyone near(ish) to Windsor who would be happy for me to pop over and have a look at a car

I'm in Datchet. You would be very welcome to come and have a look round my car - although I am probably the least qualified to give advice!
PM me.
Cheers
James Walker

[DavidW]

I'm in Amersham and you're welcome to come over to see the BDN and discuss what's involved. I've raced both a Fury in Class C (now Austens' car) and then last year the BDN S2 in Class A so know the pros and cons of both.

I can also give you exact costings for each of the last 5 seasons as I have an unfortunate habit of recording everything I spend - works at at around £5K - £6k a year, excluding original purchase cost of cars.

As I build my car in a long single garage with power you can see the challenges of working on a "sports prototype" style car in a tight space.

My mobile is 07881 518440 if you are interested

David

[nick997]

As prompted by Tim and adding to Marks comments - if you are looking to race on a budget then a Radical is probably not the first choice. I was tossing up between a Radical for track days/occasional Bikesports races and building a Westfield for RGB when a Radical SR4 came up with lots of spares including an engine at around the price it would cost to build the Westfield. I bought the Radical and with the power of hindsight wish I had gone down the RGB option for racing - the Radical is lovely to drive and a "real" race car by which I mean it was purposely designed for racing rather than a kit car that has been developed to race from a road car. I mean no offence by that last statement, very much a generalisation.

Provided you don't hit anything then a Radical is not that much more expensive to run than RGB I would imagine, main difference being the cost of running on slicks and wets if you don't enter Radical's own race series where parts need to come from them, engine sealed by Powertec, expensive fuel from Radical, etc. But take a corner off and that's where it quickly adds up - look at the shop section on Radicals website for an idea on prices involved. In my experience of racing karts sooner or later you will have an off that will require bodywork, suspension, etc. As Mark commented, there is also additional effort required to run a car with low ground clearance - I bought one trailer which I couldn't get the Radical onto all that successfully so sold that (at a loss) and replaced it with £5000 worth of low slung enclosed trailer. Buying the car is only the starting point...

I only get to race once or twice a year down to family commitments, as and when I have more time to enter more races then an RGB car would make more sense to me. If you are happy chucking money at a car as it needs it then Radicals are great, if you pay for racing out of what's left of a salary after paying a mortgage, putting food on the table and keeping a family happy then RGB seems the better option to me. The RGB boys are also a very friendly and helpful bunch from my contact with them, would be a pleasure to race with.

[josh smith]

Hi,


Buy my old car if it's available, would be nice to see it on the grid again instead of stored away. Was quite tidy (comes complete with shares in Autoglym) and ultra reliable. I would love to have it back!

TimC.....have the owners used it since the initial track day at Llandow?

As most people have already pointed out, the main cost of running a Radical (minus an accident) is tyres at around £600-£700 a set. We got away with 2 sets of slicks and one set of wets on Dads Sr4 doing a full year at Castle Combe. The wets tend to make great intermediate tyres after a couple of seasons as we found out last time around. Bodywork can be expensive but there are quite a few people who have moulds, particularly the club/prosport bodywork. A plus for the Radicals is that anything you do buy from them (which is overpriced) will always fit without cutting/filing/sawing etc which is sometimes the case for kit cars. So tools needed to run one are minimal. Pre race maintenance on a Radical is also very easy. There tends to be a running 'to do list' with kit cars which we always had with my phoenix.

In 6 years of having the SR4, we have had excellent reliability. The only things we have changed/refreshed (other than normal consumables like brake pads etc) are the diff and engine. It has had one chain, one diff refresh. Engines have a 30 hour warranty from Powertec.

You can run the Radicals in lots of series....Castle Combe, BikeSports, Bescar, OSS, SEMSEC and MSVR and they can be highly modified, cars at combe vary from stock 1100cc Clubsport engines to 1300 'Busa Turbos and High compression 1585cc 'Busas that require 24V starting to turn them over!

One thing you will never find anywhere else is the RGB paddock. There aren't many series that have bbqs, partys, awards ceremonies etc at most events. And you definetly wouldn't find a series where if you break your car, you are the only one not working on it because everyone else wants to fix it for you.
There is always someone to race whether you are fast or slow (or anything in-between) or if you have a class a/b or c car.
I loved being part of the RGB group from when Dad started in 02/03 untill I finished in 08 (I came back to watch a few races in 09 due to withdrawal symptoms from it all!), you won't find club racing like it anywhere else.


Cheers

Josh

[TimC]

Hi,
TimC.....have the owners used it since the initial track day at Llandow?

I think they've done two more days at Llandow, but a Cobra and VVC K-series engined Midget have rather drawn their attention - I don't understand it myself.

It's a cracking car - no doubt about it.

[biscuit]

Thanks for all the info and offers of help and advice. I'll be PMing all you kind folks

[TimC]

Not knowing a lot about F750 I started reading their season review last night. I must say that the terms 'a lot of data', 'laden with sensors' and 'slicks' were enough for me to get a call from my metephorical Bank Manager, simply saying "No."

[nick997]

my metephorical Bank Manager, simply saying "No."

Sounds like the wife....

[DanB]

My pretty much random mental budget for 2010 is 5k. Already got the car, so that works out as:

3k race entry fees, championship registration and MSA licence along with some testing
500 quid on tyres
500 quid on fuel and oil and other consumables
1k contingency for breaking stuff

If I total the car (been there, done that...) then it'll end up costing more, but on an extremely rough estimate I think it's a decent ball-park figure for doing all the races (except Mallory - see above comment about totalling the car).