[5X Racing]

Ok, so I participated in my first Chump Car race this weekend. I was filling in on an established Miata team because they needed 6 drivers for the 24 hour race (yes, 24 hours!). Well, it was a pretty awesome experience, and the best part about it is that you need absolutely nothing more than a drivers license from your state to participate on track. The other thing that is good, is that no car out there is valued at more than $500. I won't go into specifics on the finer details of Chump Car, because a visit to the website is well worth it, everything you need to know is on there: http://www.chumpcar.com/index.php?id=1

5X Racing will be building a Miata for Chump Car racing, and while hard to explain (see: AVI " Average Internet Value" section of the Chump Car rules http://www.chumpcar.com/index.php?id=8), we need to accumulate at least 10 advertisements for crashed, non-running, or easily rebuildable Miata's from around the country that will value our Miata at no more than $500 so we can compete. For instance: 5 ad's for $300 Miata's and 5 ad's for $700 Miata's will give us a value of $500 when added and averaged out.

So what does this have to do with you? Well, it's damn hard to find a non part's car Miata within this price range, they are out there, but are usually crashed, rusted, broken, need something fixed (cylinder head, transmission, rear end, etc...) that the owner does not want to bother with and is just dumping their burden for a couple of hundred bucks. These are the cars that we need ad's from, not to buy, but simply to print out and use towards our AVI value. We know a lot of you scour your local Craigslist ad's and ebay for good deals, and if you ever come across a Miata that is being sold for less than $750 and is not a parts car, we'd love to know about it so we can build our car value.

WE WILL REWARD YOU FOR YOUR EFFORTS with discounts on products from our site if you provide some good ad's for us. The best way to contact us and provide a link is to just email us using the "Contact Us" form on the bottom of every page on our site.

I know this is a stretch, but I thought if any one group out there knows where to find the cheap Miata's, it's the CR crowd!

An advanced thanks to anyone willing to help!

 

[ratfink56]

A buddy of mine started Chump car racing last year and loves it.
True low buck fun.

 

[miata_racer]

John...here's the thing about miatas...almost any miata under $1000 is lemons and chump worthy. If you find one then buy it. Then create a CL ad for it yourself and list it for $600 lets say...then print it and close it immediately.

Simple...done.

 

[smbstyle]

I'd love to race a ChumpCar event, looks like so much fun.

Will keep an eye out!

 

[feligon18]

Send me an email at [email protected] we have a miata chump car and we have over 15 AIV. Our first race is road America in April.

 

[5X Racing]

John...here's the thing about miatas...almost any miata under $1000 is lemons and chump worthy. If you find one then buy it. Then create a CL ad for it yourself and list it for $600 lets say...then print it and close it immediately.

Simple...done.

Then I'll end up $10K in the hole and left with 10 Miata's to sell! Wouldn't work, I need to have at least 10 ad's from across the country that average $500 or less, the cheaper the better as I can add performance parts to make up the difference between what it is worth and the $500 (ie: can add a cheap set of lowering springs worth $100 if I get my avi to $400)

Plus, I wanna play by the rules too. They look very careful at the ad's you bring and are just looking to bust people on those type of shenanigans.

 

[5X Racing]

Send me an email at [email protected] we have a miata chump car and we have over 15 AIV. Our first race is road America in April.

Email sent! Thanks!

I'd love to see and hear about anybodies Miata chump cars out there. What types of performance add-on's are you using if possible with your avi, and some tricks to fuel mileage (super important!). Anyone else racing a Miata chump?

 

[Andrew6691]

We are building a chump miata as well here at Treasure Coast Miata! see you on the track =)

 

[[email protected]]

I've been checking out the Chump Car Series as well. A couple of friends have done the Lemons thing and that sounds cool too. I can't help you with any cheap ads at the moment, though. Although I do commend you for participating and wish you and your team the best!

Question though:

Well, it was a pretty awesome experience, and the best part about it is that you need absolutely nothing more than a drivers license from your state to participate on track.

As a NASA racer, this is something that mildly freaks me out about Chump and Lemons too. Do these events see a lot of contact? I know that in years past NASA wrestled with how to deal with newbie racers in their enduro events, especially the 25 Hour. But to have zero racing experience? Yikes. Curious if anyone has feedback about this.

And again, best wishes to you guys at 5X! Have a blast! Looking forward to reading about your experiences here on CR.net.

Chris

 

[5X Racing]

We are building a chump miata as well here at Treasure Coast Miata! see you on the track =)

I saw you out there at PBIR when I was driving for the 4 Half Men team Andrew, you guys had a strong car for most of the race. Is Treasure Coast fielding two cars in the future? I think all Miata salvage/used parts businesses should have a chump car, it would be so easy to make a good one with all of those parts!

 

[5X Racing]

I've been checking out the Chump Car Series as well. A couple of friends have done the Lemons thing and that sounds cool too. I can't help you with any cheap ads at the moment, though. Although I do commend you for participating and wish you and your team the best!

Question though:



As a NASA racer, this is something that mildly freaks me out about Chump and Lemons too. Do these events see a lot of contact? I know that in years past NASA wrestled with how to deal with newbie racers in their enduro events, especially the 25 Hour. But to have zero racing experience? Yikes. Curious if anyone has feedback about this.

And again, best wishes to you guys at 5X! Have a blast! Looking forward to reading about your experiences here on CR.net.

Chris

Thanks for the support Chris! It is a worthwhile investment, especially if you can get 4 guys together (you need 4 drivers at every race anyways) to build and co-own the car to split costs. Costs are almost comical compared to normal wheel-to-wheel racing if done in this manner! We're gonna highlight the entire process of finding, building, and racing a Chump on our site, so inquisitive minds will know exactly what it takes to field their own effort.

The "no experience needed" invitation kinda worried me at first too. ChumpCar does hold a mandatory 1-hour drivers school for any 1st timer, in which I am sure they explain the finer details of track safety and the flags, HOWEVER, there is no way they can teach skill in a 1-hour classroom session! So, in essence, you will end up with about 75% of the field at least "being cautiously aware" of what's going on out there (despite the lack of skill), 10% of the field will know their $hit (and have some damn good skills) as they are already established racers (there were at least 10 NASA/SCCA SM racers and even some Grand Am racers at the PBIR 24 hour event), and the remaining 15% have no clue what's going on and must be watched closely when in your proximity. Luckily, ChumpCar slows the long straits with strategically placed tire chicanes, so the much faster strait line cars (V8's) will not acquire too much of a head of steam against the slower, better cornering cars (Miatas). The 15 percentile's will block you for no reason, miss apexes badly, spin, go off track, divebomb you in turns if faster down the preceding strait, and turn-in on you if you poke a nose in on them. What it really comes down to is patience, because they will screw up often and make it easy to pass them eventually, whether it be an off, overshot turn, or badly missed apex. We had just one fender to fender that was easily pulled out, but other than that, I didn't see any major damage at all. Major attrition with grenade'ing of engines/drivelines, but no serious accidents. All in all it was fairly safe, and in terms of contact, I'd say there was less contact in 12 hours of Chump racing then there is in 30 minutes of Spec Miata racing, sadly...:fp:

Hope that helps!

 

[stormin'norman]

We've put together a few.. Have fun. Just a word of caution. People show up with Midas brake pads. Watch your mirrors in the braking zones after long straights.

 

[[email protected]]

Oooh the carnage... so sad! John, thanks for the write up about the other drivers, I appreciate your time and thought put into that. I've got to check this series out for myself!!!

Chris

 

[stormin'norman]

It's hands down the best intro to wheel to wheel racing around. Lots of seat time (still somewhat spendy if you want to be competitive).

 

[docrice]

I think you probably get a bit more serious of a crowd in chump than lemons, so if you're out to really race I think it's a better fit. We've done 2 lemons events (not in a miata - see pic) as novice (i.e. zero track time prior to this, lots of autox only) drivers and found we were better than about 2/3 of the field. We have placed in the top 25% both times, which again is pretty good with no racing experience, short driver stints, and somewhat conservative driving to keep our rustbucket alive.

One thing I will say is that we get a lot of pleasure watching pro-level teams DNF and go home early because they're treating a $500 car like a purpose-built racer. You just can't beat a junker like a $25k spec miata. They'll take a lot of abuse (some more than others), but in a 24 hr race, the heavy hand of a lot of real racers gets the better of them.

Good luck in your endeavor. I'll keep an eye out for cheap, crappy miata ads...

 

[5X Racing]

Awesome Chumps guys! Thanks for the pics!

 

[stormin'norman]

Testing in between paint schemes.

Bye Bye Kitty

 

[5X Racing]

Testing in between paint schemes.

Bye Bye Kitty

How'd you get away with the hardtop on there? Or does that not count towards the AVI? All the Miata's I've seen in chump have homemade hardtops of some sort. You can probably sell that hardtop for more than $500!

 

[SR20DE_MAN]

This looks to be even cheaper than 24 hours of Lemons! Hmmmm......... I can probably gather up a few people for Buttonwillow race.

 

[01cblue]

Why on earth would someone put a late sixties Mustang out on that track???

This looks so fun.