Vx capabilities

[keithvx]

Hi
I have just started racing a vx coupe which i am slowly developing.
My log book lists my car as the equivilent of 3400cc due to supercharger calculation. Of course this calc is more suited to turbo output. However
I think your biggest challanges may be traction , chassi stiffness and gear ratios. With those sorted the vx should be quite competitive. Im hoping so anyway.
regards keith

[Rich Ellingham]

Hi Pete, what was the original series Classic touring car? If so certain Lotus sunbeams put modern super tourers to shame. There are some deep pockets there. I think the LMA is good choice for circuit racing I think the classes are reasonable but its still a person that decides on your class, so depending on what you do if it proves not to be competitive then it can be dropped upon discussion, I don¢ž¢t believe the regulation are the 'law' in a club championship.

Would I rally a car, no way I'm scared enough going round a track let alone through trees, although perhaps you can 'practice' tarmac a bit more. No idea, the only thing stopping you from having the choice would be your roll cage, if its rally spec then you could guest enter a circuit race and do a tarmac rally too (might need a co driver).

I've come to a number of realisations about circuit racing; I spend far too much time worrying that my car is un-competitive, while I believe the truth is I'm uncompetitive. I'm sure if I let (Chris) Unoracer round in the tipo he'd see what it could do. Experience counts for a lot and think that is true of any motorsport. But its awfully costly, I do like it and 20minutes race seems a lot longer then it is.

Delve through my Tipo thread http://guy-croft.com/viewtopic.php?t=20. Yes I learnt a lot, and relied on GC a lot so good education. Would I do it again? Would I recommend someone to build a race car? Unfortunately I cannot. I would only recommend buying a ready built car and one which had been a part of a 'challenge' series like the vectra, or Clio cups. These are bargain cars developed on large budgets and built in fairly large numbers, they benefit from experience I simply don¢ž¢t have and funds I can only dream of. Now some will mention if you build it yourself then you can fix it as you know it intimately, we'll for the huge saving in money and potentially far better package I'd risk the having to learn another car scenario.

I think a beta racer would be a good project and with a high spec GC engine it would hold its own, but what against? Put it this way there are 5 vectra's racing in the LMA series, all ex-challenge cars, going on the price of 1 I saw for sale, I could have bought all 5 for the cost of the tipo.

Once I wanted to build a car and learn the requirements I did that; and forgot anything to do with it as soon as I race. While now I just want to race and be out there and competitive, if I had spent less on a ready built car I would have been out sooner, gaining more experience, and getting better.

Build if you want to build, race if you want to race, but to do both and not be hugely rich don't seem to go together in my view any more.

Regards

Rich

[Guy Croft]

Rich, hi

can't find fault with anything you said there. Constructive advice from someone who has done it. Been there myself and had the same feelings as it happens, in race and rally. I would do it again.

However. Look at what you've learned. I figure you wanted to learn, am I right? And my goodness you've learned a lot. Got to be worth something in the otherwise rather silly western world fixated on celebs, pop music, NHS and doing up houses. You don't get that exp and knowledge if you just go and buy a ready-prepped car (well, not till it breaks anyway).

Hence the GCRE forum!

GC

[Pete]

Hi,

Thanks for the advice and I have taken note.

I did think about buying a ready to race car but that would defer time and money from the Beta, and I really want to race a Beta; especially one with a GC prepared engine.

I've followed your thread from the start Rich and have found it inspirational. I did get bogged down with my own build at one point, hence thoughts of buying, but then I followed your thread and remembered what I wanted to achieve.

I am under no illusion that I will set the racing world alight and I will probably be Tail End Charlie whilst learning the craft and developing the car, but I reckon that's all part of the fun. Winning races is not my goal, driving my Vx to the maximum of it's own and my abilities is, then I will have won.

Keith, it's nice to hear that someone else is racing the best kept secret since hyroglyphics, I hope it's going well.

Regards

Pete

[Rich Ellingham]

I can now say Pete that best thing I have done in the car was Last Wednesday. I booked 3 sister circuit for testing (just my car) and and an instructor who races in my series to help me with the driving. This was invaluable in so many ways I dont think I have time to list them.

Not only in driving tuition I got the instructor to drive the car around the circuit with me on board - watching his skill, abd felling how the car worked. Then I got his feed back on the car. Which was all good, so then I had confidence that what I put together worked.

After that a return to driving really let me relax about the damn car and focus on the driving - this netted me 4seconds off my earlier dry times in the wet.

As one man bands we cannot do it alone, but with input from a good instructor on driving and set up having actually physically been there has really calmed my nerves.

I now have a plan for tackling a circuit and the knowledge that the car is better then I thought.

regards

Rich

[Julian]

Aye to that!

I have to confess that I've never had any professional tuition although I've had more than a few rides with professional drivers - including F1 level and it is a real eye opener to what a car, any car is actually capable of.

One of the big problems I had with my Dallara was trusting the car itself. While I knew pretty much every component inside and out and I knew it was all bolted together right there was always an element of doubt. The Punto on the other hand was prepared by someone else and created an almost instant degree of trust. The fact that an awful lot of money had been spent on the suspension and drivetrain (not forgetting the engine itself) meant it was almost foolproof but if I had done the work myself I still wouldn't have trusted it as much.

I'm still doubting of my lap times but without running it in FRC against identically (near enough) spec'd cars it is hard to say if I am doing well or not. Racing in LMA meant I was always at an immense disadvantage so it was exceptionally gratifying to actual compete against anything and in some ways it made it even more fun. It still took the best part of half a season (spaced over two years) behind the wheel to really get the most out of it and it was only the last race at Silverstone that I really got to the limits of what the car could do. The highlight though was racing it at Rockingham despite the incredible degree of misfortune, it was still one of the best races (actually 3 races over two consectutive weekends) I think I've ever had.

[Guy Croft]

Julian, hi

about time we saw some pictures of you & race car here, maybe? I'd like to anyhow..

GC

[Julian]

Always happy to oblige :D

I'll put a thread in the reader's cars section