Cheap Racing Classes - Don't Break The Bank

Legends and Bandolero Cars

Though built for younger racers, Bandoleros can accommodate grown-upslooking for an inexpensive way to go racing. Photo by Kevin Thorne

Legends Cars are easily the most well-known brand of race car when itcomes to scale cars. Built on a tube-frame chassis that's approximatelyfive-eighths of a full-sized car, these racers are powered by identical 1,250cc motorcycle engines. Legends alsorace sealed engines, which are designed to help control costs by makingit illegal for a racer to make unfair improvements to his engine.

When it comes to our six-grand cutoff, finding a used Legends Car may bea bit difficult. Jason Foxworthy of 600 Racing, the company thatmanufactures every Legends Car, says new cars sell for $12,500, and theprice for used cars has settled around $8,500. A used Legends Caravailable for under $6,000 may require a bit of work, or you may alsoconsider the Legends' little brother, the Bandolero. A Bandolero is asmaller car powered by a 30hp Briggs & Stratton engine. It is designedfor younger racers, but there is no age limit as long as you cancomfortably fit in its tighter confines.

One of the strengths of these cars is that all the cars are built by 600Racing, which means that they all meet the same quality standards. Sinceall replacement parts must come through 600 Racing and very fewaftermarket parts are allowed, there is no concern that another racerhas an unfair advantage. All racing is also sanctioned by INEX (which isshort for "Inexpensive Racing"), and a consistent rule book means racerscan travel to different tracks without worrying about whether they willbe legal or blown away by a field that is allowed extra advantages.

Beyond the initial purchase price, 600 Racing also has done a lot tokeep the maintenance costs down. "These are spec cars," Foxworthy says."And with us being the manufacturer and the retail outlet and thesanctioning body, we can control costs by requiring everyone to run thesame parts. We run a spec tire for both the Bandoleros and Legends Cars,which allows us to keep the costs down there. The motors are sealed, soyou cannot go in and cheat them up in any way--which always costs extramoney. Everyone has to run the same shock. You can't change the valving,so you don't have to go spend a bunch of money having all your shocksdyno'd and built a certain way. There are certain Heim joints that youdon't have to buy from us, but we are usually cheaper anyway. We controlcosts by controlling what everybody is able to put on their car."

Some who have raced Legends and Bandoleros have complained that the carsare too fragile, that the steering components break too easily and mustbe replaced too often. That, however, is actually a design feature. Byallowing smaller, easily replaceable components to absorb the impact ofa hit, it protects the chassis, which is much more expensive to replace."If you hit a wall and break the right-front tire off, that means you'vebroken a spindle, a couple of radius rods, and a couple of Heim joints,"Foxworthy explains. "That's maybe a $60 to $75 expense. If you have toreplace the whole front clip on a chassis, you are looking at $450 to$500. In our view, it's better to replace the small things first beforeyou have to fix the big things."

Allison Legacy Series

Allison Legacy Cars are designed to be 3/4 scale Nextel Cup cars.They're powered by Mazda B-2200 engines. Photo courtesy of USAR

The Allison Legacy Series Cars are designed to look and drive a lot likeNextel Cup cars--only smaller. Designed on 3/4 scale, these cars arelarger and more powerful than Legends and Dwarf Cars, but still smallerand easier to work on than fullsize cars. Allison Legacy Cars arepowered by a Mazda B-2200 truck engine mated to a Mazda five-speedtransmission. The chassis also features many of the same adjustments youwill find on a fullsize race car, which makes them popular among youngdrivers looking to make racing a profession.

"There are three different types of people that come into this series,"says Pat Allison, the administrator of CompCar of NC, the racesanctioning body for the Allison Legacy Racing Series. "The ages rangefrom 12 up to 65. We have a lot of young kids looking to learn how torace professional- ly in an affordable series. They want to get startedup the ladder and believe that these cars give them a good feel for whatthey are moving up into.

"Then we have the hobbyists, which are usually older guys looking tohave fun and try racing. Finally, we have the group made up of longtimeracers who are in this series because it's competitive and they canafford it."

Allison also points out that the car engines used in Allison Legacy Carsaren't as highly stressed as the motor- cycle engines that are used topower other types of race cars. "You can run one of the Mazda B-2200motors five or six years, and the only maintenance is to freshen them uponce in a while," she says.

Finally, if you live in the Southeast, the Allison Legacy Series offersa touring series that hits some of the top short tracks in the region.In 2005, the series races on 22 dates, many of which are opening racesfor the USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series.

Mini Stocks and Pure Stocks

Mini-Stock race cars are limited to four-cylinder engines, but thatdoesn't mean the action isn't just as tight on the track. Photo by Jeff Huneycutt

If racing a smaller car just doesn't do it for you, there are stilloptions for racing a fullsize car and doing it affordably. Almost everySaturday-night track offers entry-level classes for racers that areusually called something along the lines of Mini Stocks (four-cylinderengines), Pure Stocks, or Street Stocks (with V-8 engines).

The idea behind these cars is that very little is allowed beyond safetyfeatures such as a rollcage, fuel cell, racing seat, and restraints. Theengine and drivetrain can be rebuilt but must remain mostly stock.

It does, however, require a significant amount of work to convert astreet car to a racing machine. If you enjoy the mechanical aspect ofbuilding your own race car, that's fine, but if you are more concernedwith getting on the track as quickly as possible, you may want toconsider purchasing a used car. Because anybody can build their own carinstead of all cars coming from a single source such as 600 Racing, thequality and cost of what's out there varies tremendously. If you arelooking to purchase a used car, make sure to inspect the car verythoroughly. If you buy a car that's not competitive, then that's merelyfrustrating. But if you buy an unsafe car, that's something differentaltogether.

Most Street Stocks are cars originally made before 1987, which means youcan usually find suitable candidates for less than $200. Photo by Jeff Huneycutt

Be aware that because there is much more freedom to build these cars indifferent ways, it is possible to spend well over our six-grand limit ona car. Many racers also manage to get a safe car on the track forrelatively little money and continue to work on and improve it as theirdriving skills improve.

The key is just to find a way to get on the track, no matter what typeof car you are racing. New, inexperienced drivers don't need absolutetop-of-the-line equipment because their skills simply won't allow themto take advantage of it. Build your equipment and your skills at thesame time and your racing career should continue to be fun andchallenging for many seasons to come.