IT Questions, Updates on me, and more!

So...it has been a while. I doubt any of you remember me. I was a member back when I was fifteen, maybe younger. I updated you all as I built a ITC Civic. Many of you supported me with little things to help that I still greatly appreciate. Those including a website: www.simontibbett.evaluand.com, small amounts of money, car parts, etc.

Anyway, time has gone on and I owned many other cars. I autocrossed and continued karting. My ITC project was "scrapped" after the engine and drivetrain components started acting up, and it was taking too much time out of school to work on it

I owned many more Hondas, and even went to the dark side for under a year with a 240SX for drifting, but went back to Honda and left drifting. It just didn't give me the same rush as racing does.

Now I have a 1990 Miata, I love it to death! However, it has more mods then IT or SM allows, considering the chassis is seam welded by the previous owner, and the bushings are illegal as well. So, this leads to a question! What is ITR? Is it ITE? Would it be legal in that with an IT spec weld in cage? It has a lot of nice mods, and I would love to get it on track! The engine is stock however minus a header and intake, also a high flow cat, just a basic bolt on engine with a lot of suspension! That is fine with me because the car is SO fun to drive.

BTW I graduated high school on time, and now attend Athens Technical College. I am hoping to get a degree in Motorsport Technology at Lanier Tech if I get accepted, if not I am getting a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Also does anyone have a cheap cheap rental available for drivers school in Feb? The double weekend at Roebling? I think it's still Feb? I never got my licence through my years, and with life going well right now I am hoping this will be the year. :happy204:

Anyway, thanks for your time! Hopefully I will be seeing some of you on track!

P.S. I will be at ARRC running PDX Sun. stop by and say hey!

Simon! Welcome back!

Good job on the schooling, keep it up, and make it your first priority, and who knows, you might end up being the cheif aero guy for the Renault F1 team or something!

On the ITR thing. ITR is ITS, but faster. Same ruleset to the letter, except the wheel widths allowed are wider.

Your Miata is an ITA car, except for the seam welding. To my knowledge, seam welding is allowed in classes like DP and BP, but the other mods allowed there are pretty crazy too. Your car could run there, theoretically, but it would be far off the pace, I'd imagine.

The classes are new though, so turnouts are low. You'd be far more likely to trophy there than in IT, LOL.

Not that I'm recommneding that....

You need to decide what your longer term goals are. If you just want to go to school and get your comp lic, then any logbooked car would do, and the ultimate legality isn't an issue. However, if you need to invenst time and funds to get the logbook (for your Miata), then think carefully, as the seam welding will be a sales killer down the road. Impossible to undo ...it would cost more than the car is worth.

If you want to do some racing, look around at cars for sale...in the long run, you can buy a built car for pennies of the original build cost, then sell it later for a large percentage of what you paid for it. Choose a car thats reliable, safe, and easy on parts. That could be a Golf, or any of a number of Hondas or Mazda products. There are lots of great deals out there for pretty cheap. I know coming up with the funds to purchase it is tough, but in the long run, it's much cheaper.

Good luck, and don't be a stranger. See you at the ARRC!

Thanks for the reply!

So there is no unlimited IT class that allows mods outside the regular classes but uses the same saftey equipment? Main concern is with a prod class the cages are a lot different, etc.

Also school wise, I would like to just rent a legal car, and get my lic. and run some races the next season possibly renting other cars. Just seat time as much as I can. I just want to throw all I can under my belt.

Main reason I ask about my Miata is it has loads of mods already done, a roll bar which just needs the front section added to be IT legal (it's a custom weld in bar), race seat, harness, etc.

I will look into used cars as well though. Thanks!

Check with the guys in your area, certainly there will be some at the ARRC, but maybe one of their new ITE brakout classes (ITU and ITO???or SPO and SPU????) might work. Butch who posts here is the guy behind them, he'll know. But....as you know, being competitive in a class like that will be an uphill battle....

To be in the ball park in ITE, you'll need a much higher build on the motor. In a Miata you should be looking for 300hp, which means a built supercharged motor. I had 200hp at the wheels and was underpowered, when compared to others I was running with. It's hard to watch your fellow competitors just blast by in the straights, only to catch them in the next series of corners.

James

Well right now I just want to get out and have some fun :P Dont really care as much right now as winning, just looking for seat time.

Good to hear from you again, Simon - and best wishes with the education...

...which is what I'm going to talk about. I don't have my actual costing spreadsheet with me but you could plan on that Roebling school running a minimum of about $2400 to rent my Golf. How much education will that pay for? :)

Based on what I've seen, you appear to be smarter than I was at your age so I'm HOPING that you'll take the advice that I didn't: Be patient, work ONLY on finishing your degree until you are done, get established, THEN go racing.

You'll race more, longer, and better by starting a little later.

Kirk

Quote:

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You'll race more, longer, and better by starting a little later.[/b]

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With apologies to Sir Stirling Moss:

"It is better to enter racing slow and come out a winner, than to enter racing quickly and come out flat-ass broke."

yea, I was going to go there, but I didn't want to (for once in my life, LOL) lecture. But they are right...set the priorites ...