SPB operational costs

[Greg Holmberg]

Originally Posted by itsnotanova

80% of my customers are SPB or WRL. I've had a few that made the jump from Miata to Porsche and I've heard nothing but the opposite. It takes about the same amount to convert a good car into a race car, but the porsche is much more expensive to keep on the track.

The biggest cost surprise (to me, at least) in the data I've gathered for the Miata is the cost of maintaining a competitive engine, and the small number of hours until it's not competitive. The Boxster has a very reliable engine whose HP can't really be increased by a pro build. Not so with the Miata.

To be clear, in this survey, I'm not asking for the cost of the average mid-pack car in a regional race. In order to make an apples-to-apples comparison across so many classes, the scenario is a car that's capable of winning a Major or finishing in the top five at the Run-offs. In some classes, such as Formula Enterprises, nearly all cars meet this criteria, so I have to make that the scenario for comparison.

As for Porsche's other than the 1997-1999 Boxster, there's no doubt that costs can get crazy.

[seningen]

Originally Posted by Greg Holmberg

The biggest cost surprise (to me, at least) in the data I've gathered for the Miata is the cost of maintaining a competitive engine, and the small number of hours until it's not competitive. The Boxster has a very reliable engine whose HP can't really be increased by a pro build. Not so with the Miata.

To be clear, in this survey, I'm not asking for the cost of the average mid-pack car in a regional race. In order to make an apples-to-apples comparison across so many classes, the scenario is a car that's capable of winning a Major or finishing in the top five at the Run-offs. In some classes, such as Formula Enterprises, nearly all cars meet this criteria, so I have to make that the scenario for comparison.

As for Porsche's other than the 1997-1999 Boxster, there's no doubt that costs can get crazy.

What's the definition of a weekend for this purpose (how many hours/heat cycles?)

I just bought an SPB -- so I don't have data (yet)

Mike

[Greg Holmberg]

Originally Posted by seningen

What's the definition of a weekend for this purpose (how many hours/heat cycles?)

I just bought an SPB -- so I don't have data (yet)

Mike

You can look in the spreadsheet, but I said sessions are 25 minutes, and there are 8 session per weekend including Friday testing (so 3.33 hours per weekend), and 8 weekends per year (26.67 hours on track per year).

I had started with 10 sessions per weekend, and 10 weekends per year, but I got feedback that while that was certainly possible, it wasn't common. So I reduced both.

If this doesn't match your plans, you can use the per-hour data in the spreadsheet to create your own per-weekend and per-year costs. Keep in mind that this data only covers items that differ significantly between classes, and comes nowhere near covering all the expenses in a year of racing.