Battles said:
The car looks really really professional on the inside. I can tell a lot of work went into that. Seems a lot more sanitary than a lot of the other cars I've seen. I'm assuming you have some guys that have done some amateur racing?
I liked seeing the pass on the K wagon. I hear it's a rare event to see it on track.
Seems like it slows down quite a bit.
Now I know why Nemo has a shorter fin on one side. Your driver's description to the judges is
.
Can you share the quick math on how you arrived at the $500? It seems like it more advantageous to buy a $2k car that you can sell parts off of versus a $500 car no one wants anything off of. Do you swap interior parts for junk yard back up engines and transmissions?
Thanks for the props on the cars interior. We're a diverse bunch, but a few of us are anal retentive and ended up trying to make things as "professional" as we could.
The K car is rarely on the track due to mechanical woes. But it has been driven across the country many times and raced by many different teams this year. I'm happy to say that it had it's best race of the year this past weekend.
I agree about Marks description.
He did finally "come clean" in the penalty box and Nemo was allowed to leave after a few minutes.
As for our experience... I raced enduro karts 25 years ago. The guy who did our wiring raced autocross 10ish years ago. Our Nemo punting driver has done some track days (mostly 10-15years ago). We have a drag racing guy who'd never been on a road course before (he did fantastic). Lastly we have another guy who's done two corvette driving schools. We are not what anyone would call experienced or professional. But we pulled it off and had a great time doing it.
The math is the difficult part. The rules state that the car needs to be $500- (excluding safety items). We paid $700- for our car. $500- for the car... $200- for delivery
We sold about $900- in parts out of the car. People pay for all sorts of stuff you don't want or need to race. We sold; AC stuff, switches, windows, seats, heater stuff, interior panels, door seals, tool kits, locks, etc. E30's have a cult like following and these guys eat up parts you're looking to sell. They also have forums that are invaluable for info on figuring out the cars strengths and weaknesses, and how to prevent possible failures.
According to the rules whether you purchase a $2000- car or a $1 car. You cannot go below $0-valuation. Example: If you sell $12,872.53 off a $1-car, the most you can spend on "upgrades"/parts is $500- (can't go below $0- valuation) Back up stuff is NOT considered part of your budget. We plan on purchasing another POC to take to the track next time so we have a spare everything. (just found another junk parts car for $150-) Spare POC doesn't count towards your $500- budget.
The truth is ALL teams cheat. The judges know it and they take bribes! Bribe the judges and your car is adorned with a "bribed" logo. They are very fair and look at the car/theme/team and determine its class (A,B, or C) and the # of penalty laps they'll give you. They've seen it all so don't try to BS them.
Our team has spent
well over 10k on our "$500- race car". This includes all safety items(tires, wheels, brakes, fuel cell, roll cage, belts, Hans, etc.) tools, car dolly, etc. Teams do it for much less, others spend more. We started this wanting a safe, reliable car, that handled well. I think we succeeded. Other teams have different philosophies. There is no right or wrong in Lemons racing, just fun.