So ideally, you've got your diesel tow master, the awesome trailer, and a place to store it all. But in the meantime, there might be a time when you've got to drive the race car to the track regularly.

Now, aside from the obvious stuff like registration, insurance, and not driving 300 miles in pouring rain with R-comps--what sort of tips will keep me alive and/or out of Jail?

Rollcage--bad idea to drive around with no helmet and a cage, yes. so how do the drive to the trackers cope?

Legality--assuming i keep the headlights operational and have a legal exhaust system, what other potential violations are waiting for me? What things do i need to keep other than the seat belts, headlights, and emissions equip? (Car is in CA, btw)

Lastly, any drive to the trackers have any regrets? Worth it to buy the beater truck even with no real place to keep it, and no money to afford maintenance and insurance on 3 cars?

 

Roll cage is okay as long as you have lots of padding and a harness. Anything that you can hit yourself on needs to be padded well.

The usual stuff, make sure its registered, has valid tags, is inspected and has operational lights, wipers, etc.

In the ideal world you'd want a hauler.

 

unless you plan on taking off and adding vinyl at the track, you're going to get messed with because of numbers and classifications and whatnot on the side of your car.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tnord &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">unless you plan on taking off and adding vinyl at the track, you're going to get messed with because of numbers and classifications and whatnot on the side of your car.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I daily drive my Accord... it has nice majestic 6" car and class numbers on the side. Sure I get some half wit revving at me once in a while, sometimes the local law authorities give me a dirty look, but for the most part its just people curious about what 22 HS means.

 

are we talking about an AUTOCROSS car or a RACE car?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tnord &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">are we talking about an AUTOCROSS car or a RACE car?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Autox car... a couple of HC guys do drive their cars to the track. I know a few SS guys who drive their cars to the track. The GRM Mini got driven to the track. I wouldn't recommend doing it, but necessity is the mother of all inventions.

Dodging cones in racing dammit!!!

 

Que la fvck would you leave autocross numbers on a car outside of an event unless they were vinyl or painted on and the car was a dedicated car?

Are you familiar with the term "wiggity-wack"?

 

accord's talking about an A/X car.

this will be a H4 race car (eventually.)

 

IMO bad-monkey will have LOTS of fun with the police. He lives in Socal and the cops down there down right HATE imports. I know a few people who have done it, and they are always freaking out on the trips to and from, plus if you break out on track, hope you have AAA insurance

 

I drive my car to the track. Have not come up with the van/trailer purchase yet. Don't want a gas sucking tow vehicle as a daily driver. I have a full roll cage too. "Regular" cars are not some kind of magic safety pillow hazard free interior (b pillars, roofs, etc. still injure) but yeah, a roll cage increases the hazard.

I just make sure all my lights work. My race wheels sit nicely in my roll cage structure like a tire rack and I put "bad things" like the jack down in the spare tire area as far away from me.

The only other thing I do is make sure not to stand out more than necessary as in "going with the flow" and staying out of the loud pedal. It doesn't hurt when the cop looks at the car and sees an old fart in it instead of a young "thugger".

Barry H.

 

ear plugs.

i hope your tracks are close, i can't imagine driving the miata more than 30 minutes to the track. you'll also need a tire trailer to tow your real race tires. and you'll need to be prepared to not be competitive.....i have yet to see with my own eyes anyone roll through the gates in a winning (or podium) race car. there are just too many compromises to be made in order to make it street worthy.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by slammed_93_hatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">IMO bad-monkey will have LOTS of fun with the police. He lives in Socal and the cops down there down right HATE imports. I know a few people who have done it, and they are always freaking out on the trips to and from, plus if you break out on track, hope you have AAA insurance</TD></TR></TABLE>

i agree with this statement also.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TeamSlowdotOrg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Que la fvck would you leave autocross numbers on a car outside of an event unless they were vinyl or painted on and the car was a dedicated car?

Are you familiar with the term "wiggity-wack"?</TD></TR></TABLE>

The 94 Accord has no resale value, 90% of the miles this year have been going to and from events. It might as well be a autox only car, but I think I'll take off the numbers this winter.

I'm from WV... I do stupid things...

 

I left magnetic numbers on my car one day after an autocross in October and got a red light ticket for going through a yellow light. I didn't feel like fighting it, but I wasn't lazy about taking those things off again.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 94accordsedan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Accord ....
I'm from WV... </TD></TR></TABLE>HOw are you not dead yet?

Oh, as far as loose stuff you're afraid will hit you in an accident: not such a good idea to put it far away behind you. I would suggest putting loose stuff you don't want to hit you directly behind your seat, with no room to wiggle around. Less distance between you and the objects means less likelyhood Mr. Jack Handle will come for your head if you hit something or are hit by something.

 

Go to a rental place and get yourself a truck and trailer...

 

Pussies.

This was for the VIR NASA enduro this past season...



Twenty-one driver schools, time trials, road races, enduros, rallycrosses, and hillclimbs in two seasons and I've trailered the car to three events. To be fair, it's pretty lucky that one of those was the rally in the middle of Nowhere, TN where I pitched it on its head. The other two were 12+ hour enduros where bustage should have been a huge problem but wasn't. In fact, I drove the car home from Summit Pt. to Greensboro for the 13th, 14th, and 15th hours of that enduro, when the trailer needed to be elsewhere to move a squashed Miata - and all we did was check the brake pads and tiewrap up the rear exhaust hanger.

I have a quieter-than-typical race exhaust, so sound isn't a big deal. The windows are all there and the heater works. I have lots of room. (I speak in the present tense despite the roll, because we're building another of the same car and all of these things will carry over.)

I've never been hassled by law enforcement but I drive well inside the speed limits. I put a crapload of stuff in the car but DO pay attention so that there indeed are as few projectiles as possible (e.g., jackstands go under the plywood that I put the jack on).

I have a real license plate, state inspection sticker, and insurance of course. I figure that, even if I have to pay Cletus $300 bucks to drag it home from CMP, that's still only one truck payment. I also get 30+ mpg on the highway, but I do have to remember to stop at the QuickieMart to fill up when I get close to the track. It's also handy to stop at the quarter car wash on the way home (I scope them out going to a new track), so the car is clean to work on when it gets home...

...and I thought I was doing well until I met that dude in the H5 Civic who drove to VIR from Norway or whereverthehell it was. He's my new hero.

K

EDIT - let's be clear here. In a previous life, I did the whole van and enclosed trailer thing. I had two racing cars fall OFF of their trailers, and one empty trailer fall off of the back of a truck. Racing is a hell of a lot safer in my estimation than towing.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bad-monkey &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Lastly, any drive to the trackers have any regrets? Worth it to buy the beater truck even with no real place to keep it, and no money to afford maintenance and insurance on 3 cars?</TD></TR></TABLE>

When 2 out of 3 HPDE's I had to call my friends and beg them to pick me up after my car was unable to make it back from the track. Make sure you get Triple A

 

Yeah, I think that'd be the nicest part of having a trailer: being able to tow home after breaking/crashing. That being said, if you're not trailering, someone suggested earplugs, and another someone suggested "not standing out" which I took to mean "don't drive like an asshat". Those should cut it for you.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sscguy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Yeah, I think that'd be the nicest part of having a trailer: being able to tow home after breaking/crashing..</TD></TR></TABLE>

I tow my car to HPDE's just for this fact.

 

In addition to the things mentioned above, if you are running racing brake pads, make sure to give yourself plenty of room to stop since racing pads do not have the best bite when cold...I know of several guys that had small fender benders driving to the track and rear ended people.

When I drove my ITC car to the track, I drove nicely and stayed out of the loud pedal and had someone follow me with most of the tools in a truck so parts hitting me was not too much of an issue.

 

i've driven my autocross car to events and for a couple years daily drove it too. i had all of the national SoloII stickers on it, some sponsor stickers, some contingency stickers, plus class and number. ignoring the nit wits that think you want to race them on i-95 i had no issues. i did get stopped several times by the cops, but received only warnings. the only ticket i received was for no front plate which the magistrate later threw out. (the cop actually told me what to do to get out of the ticket as he gave it to me) at one point, in a 2 week span i got stopped for failure to yeild to pedestrian, 83 in a 65, and excessive mv noise. during that time i had a failed inspection sticker on the car. one written warning, the rest the cop just asked a bunch of questions and let me go.

i think you would be hard pressed to find a more unstreetable, street driven car then mine. race valved koni's, ultra low ride height, race seat, stiff springs (850/750), no radio or a/c, and loud exhaust. i still drive it to national events. most trips are 1000miles one way. topeka is 1500miles one way. iPod, earplugs, lots of water, and a pillow to sit on make it perfectly doable.

nate

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 94accordsedan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Roll cage is okay as long as you have lots of padding and a harness. Anything that you can hit yourself on needs to be padded well. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I disagree with this statement 100%. No amount of padding is sufficient to protect your head if you get in a major wreck in a car with a cage and are not wearing a helmet.

I used to drive my racecar to the tracks, until I totalled it in southern virginia, and realized that I had no way to get it home. Then it wasn't fun.

I got a Jeep V8 for $4k, and the trailer for around $1500. Consider it part of the cost of entry into the sport, and if you can't afford that, this isn't the sport for you anyway....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by speedracer33 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I disagree with this statement 100%. No amount of padding is sufficient to protect your head if you get in a major wreck in a car with a cage and are not wearing a helmet.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I am not saying its a good idea, but if you "HAD" to do it then you'd want lots and lots of padding. Truck and trailer is the way to go, a decent combo of those can be yours for under $10k.

Or just drive around wearing a open face helmet. Sure you'll probably get laughed at but your head will be safe.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tnord &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ear plugs.

i hope your tracks are close, i can't imagine driving the miata more than 30 minutes to the track. you'll also need a tire trailer to tow your real race tires. and you'll need to be prepared to not be competitive.....i have yet to see with my own eyes anyone roll through the gates in a winning (or podium) race car. there are just too many compromises to be made in order to make it street worthy.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Ask Zephyr about this, he won H5 this year in a car that he drove to every event.