"Powershiftmedia-ResidentDSMGuru" (matt-powershiftmedia)
12/12/2019 at 19:50 • Filed to: Rally, DSM
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"Powershiftmedia-ResidentDSMGuru" (matt-powershiftmedia)
12/12/2019 at 19:50 • Filed to: Rally, DSM | 2
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Yes indeed we are. A 1990 Plymouth Laser RS to be exact. Of course we’re using a DSM because it makes all the sense for us. We have spares upon spares, and we know the cars intimately.
The car is FWD as is all 1GA Lasers; therefore we will be competing in the ARA 2wd open class. Since we will be in the novice class we unfortunately will have to run a 30mm restrictor in the turbo inlet. Oh well.
We’ve got a few people helping us source parts, and this is a fun way to give back to the community. As far as the racing side goes, Nathan will be the driving talent and I will be his co-driver. We’re both talented drivers but he’s undoubtedly got an edge on me especially in loose surfaces. It’s something we’ve talked about for years and we’ve decided it was time.
We have to amass much safety equipment and build a cage for the car, but this weekend I’ll be working on getting the rest of the interior out of the car and chipping sound deadening out. This should be a fun project!
If anyone has any pointers or items for sale let me know!
ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
> Powershiftmedia-ResidentDSMGuru
12/12/2019 at 20:36 |
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A few pointer for getting into racing for real:
Know the rulebook for your sanctioning body verbatim before even looking at a car, much less turning a wrench. If this is a major sanctioning body, you’re unlikely to build a cage yourself that will pass tech unless you happen to be a professional welder (or otherwise have the skills to be one). Every inch of weld will be inspected before a logbook is issued . There are 74 pages of rules governing roll cages in the SCCA GCR last time I looked, and rally cages are a lot more complex than roadrace cages. Budget 3-5k for the cage (and seats, which are an integral part of cage design), and that’s for a roadrace car. An rally cage may well cost more.
Buying a used car that’s already built, logbooked and sorted
is a vastly cheaper way to start racing. Building a car from scratch is the very most expensive way to go racing, and it can distort why you’re there. Building a car is a great way to end up with an emotional connection of some type with the car. You can’t have that when you go racing for real. The car is a disposable object that will get used up. The point is never the car for anyone that is does it for long. A racecar is only a tool that lets you go the thing you’re there for, and being anymore involved with them than that sets up you for heartbreak. It leads folks to build noncompetitive
cars for the class
that should’ve never been built, and it can lead folks to invest in repairing or maintaining
cars that should’ve been scrapped.
Doing cars you know well and have spares for isn’t a bad idea, but it shouldn’t be the reason you choose to run a particular car. An experience driver targets the class they want to run based on purchase costs (the small cost of racing) and, most importantly, running costs (the real cost of racing) of things like consumables, lifespan between rebuilds of components and parts support . From there, you target cars that are competitive in the class.
Buying an already sorted used car lets you focus on the learning to race part of the equation more and less on the learning how to build, sort out and run a racecar part of things. The learning curves in racing for real are significant.
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Powershiftmedia-ResidentDSMGuru
> ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
12/12/2019 at 20:48 |
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That’s a very well thought out response and I hugely appreciate it. I’ll lightly dissect based on our situation:
The cage part is absolutely intricate for sure. While it is a huge undertaking for sure, Nathan is a very professional welder and has done cages in the past. We have a copy of the rule book and a copy of the FIA requirements for cages :)
We had discussed getting a car that was already sorted but settled on what we already have. We know the reliability of this platform and we know what tends to break and how to prevent or minimize said failures. We have a massive amount of disposable parts at our fingertips for the DSM platform. We originally considered a 2g we have but since the car is so nice we went with the laser. The laser makes sense since we’ve had it for so long and it deserves to be used.
Lastly you’re dead right on targeting the class and utilizing the build around it. That was kind of our thought in using what we have since the cost is far greater than my original idea of an A4 or something along those lines. I feel like we landed on the DSM based on that rationale. Without a doubt there’s better platforms, but the cost of entry is far lower on this platform for us and we know the ins and outs of it.
Man that was a really well thought out response. The cage is going to be one of the biggest parts for us; but we’re gonna take our time and try to nail it!
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ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
> Powershiftmedia-ResidentDSMGuru
12/12/2019 at 20:52 |
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Awesome. It sounds like you guys have are going about it in a way the makes sense. And that’s what you want in a cage builder. Not just a welder, or someone who works as a fabricator, but someone who has experience building cages for the way you want to play.
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Powershiftmedia-ResidentDSMGuru
> ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
12/13/2019 at 11:26 |
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I appreciate that! It was something we had to logistically discuss. We’ve had the car for a very long time and he decided the best use was for this purpose for sure. It’ll be a good car for us to learn and compete in the novice class.
Without a doubt the cage will be the most challenging. He’s never done a rally cage before but we’re gonna take our time, follow the rule book to a T and just do our very best. Any time we’ve done that we’ve been okay haha. It’ll definitely be the most intense part of the process for sure. We intend to video and YouTube the whole experience.