[sperry]

Continuing the discussion from both this week's SCCA meeting and SECCS meet, let's talk about race cars.

Specifically, I'm trying to figure out what the best car is to go club racing with, and have a blast driving at track days. So, I'm talking about something that's competitive in its class, with a power/weight ratio that's near the WRX I've got now (so it's as much fun to drive as my current car), but is also somewhat reliable (we're talking race car reliable, not daily driver reliable, of course stuff will break, I just want something that gets through a whole season w/o needing a motor or something), and not back-breakingly expensive to operate.

Of course, Spec Miata is nearly always the 1st thing that comes up. Problem is, I don't fit in one.

Vintage racing is another popular suggestion, but keeping with the vintage rules means old technology for simple stuff... like no ventilated brake rotors... which means maintenance is expensive due to all the bits that need to be replaced perpetually.

Lot's of swap type ideas come up as well... and I'm all for swapping a simple, powerful SBC 350 or Ford 5.0 into something light-weight, but then what class does that run in? I've already got an ITE car (ITE is SCCA's "catch-all" class for production based cars that's currently being owned by a 500hp EVO with 6" of wide-body on it). Plus, swaps are expensive, and finicky to maintain.

So... with all that in mind... is there anything out there? Or is going racing for say $5,000 a season in a 300 hp, 2500 lb, reliable race car impossible?