Autocross and the Birth of an Amature Race Team

Hi Steemit! I'd like to tell you a little about one of some of my passions. Here is the first in a series I'm starting on my fun projects with cars! Stay tuned as this project, and some other blogging projects I am working on develop!

In the spring of 2015 I got a 2015 Dodge Challenger Scat Pack. This giant beast of a car boasts 485bhp and 475 ft/llbs of torque. It is the epitome of the modern muscle car. I got the car partially to deal with my mid-life crisis, partially to reward myself for 20ish years of driving the shitty car in the family so my wife would have the nicest car we could afford to drive the kids around, and partially because I've always loved cars.

Having always been an enthusiast of performance driving and racing, as well as a Formula 1 fan I was delighted to learn of autocross, and a local SCCA club that regularly holds events. Autocross is a timed driving skill event. These events are designed to provide a safe way to drive your car at its limit. Autocross allows you to pretend race your street car with very little chance of hurting yourself or breaking your car. Autocross events are generally held in parking lots, with cones set up to define the course. This shot shows one of the local club member's custom designed car on the course. You can also see an airplane in the sky. This event was at an airport.

Just about any car can participate in autocross. Providing the car is not top heavy. For instance, most SUV's and pickups can not participate without lowered suspension or other modifications that would reduce the risk of rolling the vehicle. Here is a shot of some "race cars".

I've really grown to enjoy autocross and I love both participating and helping in conducting the events. All events are run my volunteers, racers are also required to help work the course.

My car is a very large muscle car. It is very heavy. It probably out weighs 6 buses. For this reasons, while it does have a decent modern suspension, it is no Miata. People will tell you the Challenger doesn't turn. That just isn't true. The Challenger turns surprisingly well for its size. But... it turns well for its size. Which really means it does not turn THAT well.

I love driving the car in the summer. I don't think I'd get rid of it, but I also have been really interested in finding something more interesting and dedicated to autocross. Something I could wrench on, tweak and have fun with.

Seemingly unrelated (but not) I also own a 1989 Kawasaki ZK-10.

I have not ridden the ZX-10 in some 10 years. The reasons why are a fun story, but far to long for this post. The bike has been buried at the back of my garage the entire time. Unmoving, untended, nearly forgotten. Over the years the break seals gave out. The tires are garbage. It would cost me some $1000USD to repair the bike. Maybe I could get $1500 when I sell it. Hardly worth the effort.

So I started brainstorming. Is there some way I could put together some sort of go cart with the bike motor? I started discussing it with some friends and looking around on the internet for some sort of suitable go cart frame. One day I happened to mention the idea to my old boss. He mentioned when he was in engineering school he participated in a program called Formula SAE, where student engineers design and build an open wheel race car powered by a sport bike motor. He suggested I look into it.

I started by going to reddit and finding the Formula SAE subreddit and asking if people even sell these cars. Surprisingly I received several responses. I filtered through the ones that were close enough that logistically we could even get the car. Almost like it was destiny one of the respondents was not more than a 5 hour drive away.

Over the course of email conversations with the team we were able to work out a deal for us to acquire the car. We go pick it up the weekend of August 26th. This post is the first in a series to chronicle the acquisition and build of this car. We have already begun tearing down the bike.

I have several posts to catch us up to where we are at.

Stay tuned for more!