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part of the allure of historic racing was / is that the development race is much much less intense than in most modern high profile series that still get amateur participation
you can do and finance VLN, a friend of mine does it
but the cost to run competitive in something like GT3 or Ferrari Challenge and similar is eyewatering (had a friend who did that and had to throw in to towel, allthough he prepped the cars himself)
you can top this of course and try to enter the proper Le Mans 24 hour race......
when I started out in Formula Junior the idea was that You built a car, did that right and could race it for a number of years
thats no longer the case in many historic forms of racing
the development race is on, unfortunately
more in some formulas, less in others, depends a bit who is racing with how much money to throw around and how tightly this is policed
Simon hit it on the head with his remark about driver qualification
the more modern cars mentioned above can pull 3 gs or much much more
that should not surprise because even 1980ies Group C cars would pull 5 g in period if well set up
You should to go to the gym and work out to drive a Group C car like the Sauber Mercedes, Jaguar XJ14 or somesuch at competive speeds for more than 5 minutes
BTW I am convinced that the relative lack of success of the Porsche 962 in Historic Group C which is the complete opposite of what happened in period is down to the fact, that the infrastructure in amateur racing is not able to set up and dial these cars into their working window on the control tires available.
driving a 2,5 litre Lotus 18 GP car, that pulls about 1 g is babysitting in comparison, it can scare you witless, but it does not tax your personal fitness that much as it slides so much, not over the 25 minutes of a historic race
was different for Moss in Monca 1961 over 80 laps, of course
a slicks and wings F3 Ralt will demand much more fitness that a 1960ies f1 car on L section Dunlop tires
a late 1970es F2 is quicker than a early 70ies F1 car and surprisingly will demand a ligher fitness level
been there, done that, speak from experience
so the ideal historic racer for the more modern sophisticated cars would have to have :
- tons of money
- good level of personal fitness
- driving ability
- respect, time and willingness to get one with the car
that might not be present in all applicants
exactly as Simon said......
the upsurge in Historic Formula Junior prices could be partly explained that some moneyed racers realise that this is more within the the scope of their abilities
yes, I would love to see more modern cars out
why not
enjoyed the M3s at the Donington Historic Festival, for instance
I love watching Historic Group C and HFO
buuuut, lets make sure nobody gets hurt.
and of course, Louis is right, the electronics in the modern cars make it a challenge
either you rip it out and replace by something easier
or the cars that are for sale dont have to full works engine and software spec in them anyway as they were stripped out long ago.
RuE
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