I race in ITA. Improved Touring A. I also race at the “pointy” end of the field which means “winning”, so the budget ain’t quite as cheap as they say and the racing is not “as” grassroots as noobies in old pos cars. Some of the IT cars would make some Koni challenge cars look bad, and some of the drivers are MUCH MUCH better then Koni challenge drivers, but they came to the realization which this article tries to portray, that racing on TV is so cost prohibitive that is better to do it in your part of the country, with other drivers that are just as good as the guys on TV, but just don’t want to spend their entire life and all of their money doing it.

http://www.speedsportlife.com/2009/03/27/avoidable-contact-25-exploring-the-pyramid-of-speed-the-real-costs-and-stories-behind-entry-level-sedan-racing/

For IT Racing
“Let’s put that in perspective: racing an old VW Golf or Honda Civic once a month costs as much as buying a Nissan GT-R or Porsche Cayman S on a five-year loan.”

For Koni Challenge
“Think about it. At this level, it costs just as much to race a Honda Civic or Volkswagen GTI for a year as it does to own a Lamborghini Gallardo.”

And what “Racing” is
“And once you’ve won a race, the fever to do it again will never truly leave you. Once you’ve put your foot on someone else’s neck — once you’ve looked out of your window net and simply destroyed another man’s confidence on the entry to a critical corner — you will want to do it again and again until it either kills you or ruins your life.”

So I received my roll of blingtastic carbon fiber vinyl today. I had great plans and aspirations of wrapping my fenders and hood with this vinyl and avoiding any further paint work and body work on the race car. Whoa I sure failed. Apparently this carbon fiber vinyl is not like th other vinyl in that it can stretch and form itself to curves very easily. Thus it is VERY hard to place around curves like the edges and curves in the fender. It ended up looking “ok” but not nearly what I was expecting. Guess thats what happens with the $40 stuff instead of the $300. Oh well, it was worth the experiment.

So the new plan! I’m just going to have Mike at Sentry Auto Body paint the fenders red to match the rest of the car. After that, I’ll get KC from RallyDecals.com make me some sort of base design in carbon fiber vinyl. Not sure what exactly, but it won’t be too crazy. Maybe some carbon fiber flames or something like that. It will look black from far away, but really cool up close. Then go with silver stickers for the rest of the car.

I picked up my new fenders and front bumper cover this week. With those parts here, its time to fix the dents on the doors, and the rear quarter panels. Not sure how I feel about the rear panels yet, as the car has had those dents all of last year, but the door definitely needs to be fixed. I think I’m going to learn to bondo/metal work on the door and then see what happens from there. It can’t be harder then touching up holes in drywall right?

I also bought the wrap for the hood and fenders and ordered the rest of the stickers from Keith. Since we’re not going late season skiing, I decided to make the Carolina Motorsports Park SARRC race on March 27th. Should be a nice and easy start to the new season. The track has been slightly redesigned since the last time I was there, so it should be a little more fun. I also have to pick up my new lens, so I finally have some damn in-car video!

Went and picked the car up from Trever’s shop today. She’s straight, corner weighed, new uprights/bearings/balljoints, and the header/exhaust is all welded up. I’m going to tear off the fenders tomorrow, and start working with a sander, hammer, and a touch of bondo to make the quarters/doors look a bit better. I decided to spend some hours of my time instead of the $1000+ it would take to get it fixed at a body shop. If I have a full year of no more banging doors, I’ll get it fixed next winter, but I’m not feeling like dropping a grand in body work just to get it banged up again

So “RedRum” is definitely less bent then I thought. To be more accurate, I’d have to say, its not bent at all. Trever checked her out, fixed the header, built me some new uprights for when the wheel bearings go out during this season, and gave her a clean bill of health. Seems that when I got hit, the front subframe, which is just bolted to the unibody was the only thing that moved. The unibody didn’t bend, but the subframe just shifted over in its bolts. That was the cause of the front camber being slightly off, and also the crack in the header.

I should pick the car up sometime next week, and next up is the bodywork. I’m going to pull off all the stickers from last season, and clean up the doors some. Then she’s off to Mike at Sentry Auto Body to get the dents fixed. Mike is going to fix the two rear quarter panels and maybe the drivers door as well. Going to also get new front fenders and bumper, and she will literally look good as new.

I’m planning on a new graphics scheme for this season. The back half of the car will continue to be E46 M3 Red, but the front half of the car is getting an overhaul. I’m going to vinyl the hood, fenders, and blend the vinyl into the doors. Also, the front bumper skin will remain factory black. The paint cracks too fast with bumpdrafting, and the black bumper will fit in real well with the fancy vinyl thats going over the rest of the front bodywork I’m excited! We might head to Colorado for some late season skiing in March, but if we don’t go, I’m hoping to make a late March date at Carolina Motorsports Park. We’ll see.