The spousal unit and I race a 1964 Autodynamics Formula Vee in RMVR (Rocky Mtn. Vintage Racing, Colorado). We bought the Vee back in 2008, with my hubby using my beloved and perfect '00 GTI VR6 to earn his competition license (we bought the car a month later.) He got to race solo for '08 and '09 (broken wrist, no drivers school for me!) In 2010 I earned my competition license, also using my beloved VR6 because the night before the school we found a broken motor mount, the victim of a hard off the last race from the year before. My hubby instructed 2 GTI's in the Precision Driving School that runs concurrent with the racer's school. I had to play with the Precision students the first day and a half until a friend loaned me his FV so I could race wheel to wheel. I hate the heat so I race the early year races and he does the ones that I would pass out in. We haven't raced since 2010 because of I became ill, but we're hoping to get back to it this year. We had a brand new racing engine built in late 2010 and will be installing it this weekend.
The beauty of racing in Vintage leagues is that in FV, ALL the engines must be the same size - 1382cc's in RMVR because of the altitude. The only "freebie" is a $2,000 intake manifold good for 2 extra horsepower if you're going downhill, in a tailwind, drafting with the pack. Otherwise, the only differences in cars are kit-specific (Autodynamic vs. Zink vs. Caldwell), tires (we almost all use Hoosiers we get with one or two runs on them from the SCCA FV guys for $40/each), and the blob of flesh between the seat and the steering wheel. We didn't opt for the intake manifold, we both lost a lot of weight instead
. We also make sure the blob between the seat and steering wheel is well practiced.
A front-running Fomula Vee with a trailer can be had for under $10k, often a lot less. We paid $6,500 in 2008 for our car and open trailer and $1,300 for a fully rebuilt racing engine (a new case would've raised it to $2,500) in 2010. Our car is a front runner if the Hubster is driving it, I'm still hanging out in the back 20% of the pack until I get more experience wheel to wheel. We use aviation fuel so we can easily drop $100 on fuel in a weekend. We're having a very hard time getting used Hoosiers (we pronounce it Hoo-Ze-Ays, 'cause they're expensive like French wine), $125-$150 for a test-n-tune lapping the Friday before the races, and ~$275 for a weekend of racing. Our "investment" in racing has also included a Nomex racing suit, helmets, socks, balakavas, gloves, pop-up tent, camp chairs, ice chests, the expensive straps to tie the car to the trailer, and the biggest, a new F150 V8 Supercab truck to haul all that crap! Our trailer once belonged to a racer who towed his Vee on that trailer with a Mini Cooper S - NUTS!!!!! Our mechanic who we bought the car from and who rebuilt our racing engine tows his Vee with a Golf TDI. Before our new F150, we towed with a '98 Ford Ranger 4.0 V6 with a *manual* transmission. We need the F150 to tow our '65 911 but it's much easier to tow the Vee with it, especially when we bring all the racing crap to the track.
Vintage FV racing is a great way to learn to race or if you need/want to race on a budget. Since the cars have ~50 hp, you can never lift. You dive into a corner and brake only when you see God. Because open wheel cars tend to crawl over one another instead of simply swapping paint, you have to race clean. You learn the racing line, drafting, when you do and don't own a corner, and momentum driving. If you can race a FV well, you can learn to race a high horsepower vehicle more effectively. You don't crawl into the driver's seat (if you have one, we don't, just some padding) as much as you fall into it. Getting out takes a few yoga lessons, unless there's a fire or accident, in which case I understand you can get out VERY fast. On the Monday after the race I'm black and blue, exhausted, and SORE but WOW am I a happy camper!
There are now 4 women in the RMVR Vee Hive and our fastest racer is a woman we refer to as the Queen Bee. She never plants a tire wrong and is forever leading the pack. We've had only one serious accident and that was caused when a Formula Ford driver from outside our region got impatient with the rolling chicanes known as Formula Vees, dropped 2 wheels off the track, over corrected, hit a Vee right behind the driver, then dragged him down the track against the concrete wall. It was the final straw for most of us so we'll no longer share a race track with other open wheel cars in the "wings 'n things" group. We're the only group asked to race with cars that our much, much heavier and faster (Formula Fords and ex-Indy cars, just not a fair or safe field.) When it's just the Vee Hive, and maybe a couple BSR's, we rarely have contact and when we do, it's almost always fighting for a corner and minor damage. We've both had off-track, agricultural excursions but they've only resulted in a broken motor mount, a bit of welding, and some fiberglass damage I only finished what the previous owner had started.
The only downside to FV is that it's still expensive to even attend a race. We figure we spend about $1,000 if we go out of town but only $600-$700 if it's at High Plains Raceway which is a bit over an hour from our house. We calculated the costs, and it's cheaper for us to spend a weekend racing than it is to take our car for open lapping, we take my Golf R to the track, or we do a 2-day Driver Education event with PCA. There are no trophies: he who finishes last gets the exact same thing the winner gets - a bill for fuel, tires, entry fees, food, etc. But it's some of the best racing you'll ever do with some of the best people you'll ever meet.
We have "worker rides" at lunch for our volunteer corner workers, starters, pit and grid workers, steward, tech people etc. with many racers having extra seats so we can give these rides. Many racers will take spectators on the track as well. We've let several folks drive our Vee in the hopes we can add to the Hive. RMVR also offers a Precision Driving School at the same time we run our Racer's school. Attendees get the exact same instruction as the racers with the exception of wheel to wheel since they aren't in race cars. It's cheaper than 2 days of open lapping but you get awesome instruction. Our Porsche has a passenger's seat and we give rides when we bring it out.
Hopefully other racers will chime in on this thread and getting it going again.
Cheers Ya'll!
~T