Why did you choose the car you race?

[greenamex2]

I chose my car (Toyota Corolla GT Coupe RWD) because I saw one clean up in sprinting and thought it was therefore a fast car.

I subsequently found out it didn't even come close to being within the class regulations but have never had the courage to take a massive hit on selling it to buy something more suitable!

[graham bahr]

i bought my bmw 2002 because i was offered a Tii at the right price (read very very cheap, but good shell), i already knew they were good, and had just read about Colin Galie's championship winning car, and it wasn't an escort! i never felt is was as much fun using the same tool as everybody else.

it started out just a bit of fun, but then when things started getting serious i realised i like you denis had bought the wrong car, as all the proper kit, was either stupidly expensive or not available, still that made it more of a challenge, in in the long run i have a far better understanding of how everthing works as i've had to learn and develope for myself rather than just bolting on x,y,z, and the rewards of beating some very quick "normal " race cars are huge.

eventually i wrote off the beemer and couldn't face the thought of spending months welding up a rusty old sheel or paying a fortune for a really good one only to rip it to bits, and by now fancied a change, as well as thinking about cheap and easy parts avaliablity of a newer car so i bought an E30 to transfer as much of the old car as poss, this was mistake No2! ok the engine, gearbox front brakes, wheels, ecu and pedal box carried over, everything else, had to be sourced, it would of been cheaper to pay a fortune for a really good 2002!

[ss_collins]

Because its well known, a championship winner (in 1971), dead sexy and no one else has one.

[Richy_Rich]

It was my main road car for a few years. Then I broke it down intending to fully restore it. Then, whilst it was in bits and pieces I caught 'racing' and rebuilt it as a race car.

[retro_msport]

ok so i know 2 of the cars.... BMW and Toyota.. but whats the resto turned racer and the '71 championship winning car????

[rcarr]

I started to race with a fiesta xr2 with twin 40s on it, so it wasnt eligible for the xr2 challenge so I raced in the sports n saloons at the back of the field for 3 seasons! A good novice car!

I then bought a spaceframed stiletto, I used to watch them race at Ingliston and Knockhill when I was younger, since then I hankered after one.

When I could afford one, it was a toss up between the stiletto or a v6 eurocar, the stiletto came up first!
That 1st season of the stiletto I entered 7 races and had 7 DNFs, its been off the road since the start of last season, now Ill race it again this coming season, it is a good car to learn on because it is so simple!

[Richy_Rich]

retro - my car is a 1972 Triumph Spitfire there's more about it on my website (link in the profile)

[graham bahr]

[QUOTE=rcarr]I
I then bought a spaceframed stiletto, QUOTE]

that reminds me i had an Imp once, why did i buy it? it was cheap (could be a common theme here, come to think about it thats usually why i buy most of my cars), oh and i'd heard countless hours of stories about a friends rallying imp

[Tim Wilkinson]

I wanted to move from trackdays to racing, found out my track car was outside the regs for most things, so sold that and looked around for a budget race-car that I could use as an emergency road car. I'd noticed the car for sale before, but hadn't considered that model as being much good (Mk2 Astra), until I spoke to a friend about it who told me he used to race against that car in roadsaloons, it was well-prepared and sound, he knew the person selling it and would give him a call to see how low he'd go on the price.

So the first thing was budget, secondly it was road legal (after a little work), and my mechanic brother is a vauxhall nut so he'd be more likely to give me a hand.

Since then I've lost the engine (the work of the friend who helped me buy it) and have a few months to wait til i have enough time / money sort out the new one. So sometime next year it should race.

[graeme]

Because it was in The Prisioner

[COLIN STUBBS]

i was ready for a change at the end of last year and the capri was getting harder to source parts for and ever more expensive to run. my mate and mechanic worked at a rover dealer and knew the 216gti inside out so i bought the tidiest ex cup car i could find.weve had a good laugh in the toyos 1600 class and won a couple of trophies[one with a 9th overall outof a full grid of tintops and sportscars at cadwell]. done 7 races and 3 trackdays,only put 2 sets of pads,one set of discs and a s/h driveshaft on it. the honda motor is superb and when weve got the gearing sorted out it should be ok. shut up denis!!!

[Al Weyman]

Well my yellow Camaro came about because after racing a Sunbeam Ti and being a big lad I built a Chevrolet Monza Spyder V8 as I always liked the light car/big engine combination and fought it may compensate for my 19 stone bulk and this was about the ultimate I could find. Unfortunately I think it had been in one and I could not get it to go around right hand bends right despite having it pulled about on a jig. In the end it just went straight in and up the bank at the bottom of the straight at Lydden instead of turning right so that was the end of that. My mate Ellis was running a Camaro so I scrapped the Monza and bought a nice 2nd gen road car and went on from there because despite the disaster with the Monza it became clear to me that the Chevy is the best bang for the buck for power bar none! Tell me another normally asperated engine you can build for sub £4k and can get a reliable 450 plus bhp (I will stress my current car 2ND gen has less than that but then the engine does not have that sort of money in it either). And as for the gearboxes and axles, well the strength of the Muncie is legendary and the 10 bolt LSD axles fitted as standard in Z/28's and Transams cut it as well.

I built the black Camaro because it was no heavier than the Monza as it shared the same Vega floor pan. Not a brilliant excercise as it turned out as the only guy in the country racing one it has been an uphill struggle and I would have been better putting the Clive Bond built all roller motor in the old car and kicking some butt but there you go we all make mistakes and anyhow it is still potentially a great prospect with the mods I am going to start shortly so I am hoping to come out in TRC and give it a whirl as the new regs were written for the car!

[richard brent]

My brother started racing hillman imps back in the 80's which led to a natural progression ( Peugeot Talbot ) of racing peugeot 205's in the 90's.
Hence when i decided to race, the pug was the obvious choice.

[Ali Rushforth]

Mini Cooper 1.3i.

I raced karts from aged 8 till 18, and after many very expensive years we decided to go car racing. Dad used to rally and Hillclimb minis and my first road car was a mini so we thought that between us we knew a bit about the cars.

Bought a road going mini cooper at end of 1997 and built it over the winter to race in mighty minis. Raced MM from 1998 till 2004 with same car. A few new panels fitted in that time, but engine only re-built once (after running a bearing).

Got kicked out of MM (For being a consistant front runner!!) so moved to Tintops this year.

Run that car as its a hoot to drive, easy(ish) to work on and handles like a rollerskate!!!

[chezza]

Originally Posted by ss_collins

Because its well known, a championship winner (in 1971), dead sexy and no one else has one.

Dead sexy...more like dead at the moment! She'll be lovely whens shes fixed!! also your a lier...there is another one

[Simon Mason]

I chose the MaX5 because I wanted the toughest closest competition from as many cars as possible and I only had £5k to build a car with. Speed was'nt an issue thank god because its slow, Oh my god is it slow, but the racing more than makes up for it!

My first ever race car was a BMW 2002Tii which was also my road car. I was an 18 year old total 02 anorak at the time because my father was into them. With the BMW Car Club starting a challenge just for 02's I thought I'd have a go. It was also allot cheaper to race in those days. No way could I do what I did then, now.

[Al Weyman]

Originally Posted by chezza

Dead sexy...more like dead at the moment! She'll be lovely whens shes fixed!! also your a lier...there is another one

What is it?

[chezza]

Shes a Porsche Austro Formula Vee. Driven by Brian Henton amongst others.

[retro_msport]

Originally Posted by chezza

Shes a Porsche Austro Formula Vee. Driven by Brian Henton amongst others.

Well thats that cleared up .....

Cut and paste to google images..... will i be back in time to edit this to say ... Oh one of those

Yep ... just in time... only one image came up though a Chassis, but I saw the driver profiles

[graham bahr]

Originally Posted by chezza

Shes a Porsche Austro Formula Vee.

A Wot? in english? the phrase clear as mud comes to mind

[Chris Y]

It's a single seater, Graham.. You know, those little things with no roof

Additionally, it's a Formula Vee, which means it's made out of old VW Beetles

[greenamex2]

Originally Posted by Chris Y

Additionally, it's a Formula Vee, which means it's made out of old VW Beetles

I thought Porsche's were also made out of old beetles?

[graham bahr]

Originally Posted by Chris Y

It's a single seater, Graham.. You know, those little things with no roof

Additionally, it's a Formula Vee, which means it's made out of old VW Beetles

hmm thought that might be the case, so i now know its a single seater with the most unsingle seater likely suspension ever divised, but whats the Porker bit? has it got a proper engine, although i guess its probably powered by the 914 flat 4

[chezza]

Thats her at Brands in 2004.

If you google Porsche Austro Formula Vee/Vau it will bring up loads of info!

[Al Weyman]

It's what turns you on I guess and is IMO, reasonably pretty I suppose but sexy..... never! :-)

Joking aside just how do you soften up those VW torsion bars for a single seater application. I built a Beach Buggy once and it rode like it had no springs, ruddy awful thing and I could not work out how to soften it up.