Quote:
Originally Posted by newmoon
I'm not a track rat, i couldn't afford to spend a couple thousand dollars on entry fees, track insurance, tires, and brake pads for a day or weekend. Drag racing is much more appealing, $25.00 entry fee, a set of DRs to last you the season and your good to go. The base is all that is needed.
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This ^. I did have a suspension worked over LS3 5th gen I tracked for a day at Millville. That was a blast. Especially running down a Corvette or 2 among the beginners once I started to get the hang of it. The cost was $300 and I vastly shortened the life of my brake pads and tires.
At that time I did not understand the mandatory (common sense mandatory) Track insurance. So just that one day for a rather slow track car should have been $500 for maybe 20 laps of beginner driving.
Also once we start talking about supercars like the ZL1 that number goes way up considering you can easily use up your tires and pads with all day blistering fun. So add $1,600 minimum if you change the pads yourself. And then spend a few hours bleeding the brakes.
And if you are going to drive a car like even the base ZL1 at 8-9 Tenths you BETTER know what you are doing or hopefully you do not meet a wall when you leave the track.
I found this out first hand when my friend flipped over my TT 1LE at Millville. This was supposed to be a couple of fun laps. But my friend accidently met the turbo rush coming out of the first turn at maybe 60 MPH, ran off the track and flipped the car over. I watched this happen from the infield.
Luckily he was fine and his son the doctor sewed up his arm at the track. Looking back I was an idiot to let him take that car on the track. His Mustang runs low 10 seconds at the drag strip and he is good with that but on a race track it is another big step up in driver skill and the dynamic awarenes of the forces of gravity on the car.
And I did not have Track insurance! I threw myslf at the mercy of my insurance and just explained the whole true story. Much to every one's surprise they covered my stock value 1LE. I probably only lost about $15K but I could have lost a friend.
As an aside this track is in NJ and a guy with us had a towing company said to me "I can make that car disappear." I declined but thanked him for the offer. This is NJ!
So tracking supercars is for the well off with disposable cash who aren't bothered by a $2,000+ fun day and have the intensity to approach speeds on a track among real racing speeds.
So yes drag racing is a fun pass time for the rest of us with more reasonable risk and cost. We just have to worry about getting out of it when we are spinning near the line and hope there was not an oil spill on the big end. And a bad day is only a tow and some new axles.
And I also agree I think the track level GT500 with beat the ZL1 1LE. But it won't be by much. That is a high bar for a heavier looser car.
But $10,000 painted stripes? LOL, those are there for Mecum eye candy auctions in 10 years. But it is cool they are offering that.