Clubs and social structures, build vs buy, Life the Universe and Everything

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NoCoast
I like Chump because I already had a car and steel and seats and harnesses and four or five rally friends that were into helping out. We got to and through our first event with a total of $6328.25 spent. Few missed expenses like the wheel bearing on Sunday morning and fuel in vehicles to get to and from the track 90 miles from home, but whatever. We averaged 1:40 of seat time per driver on the first day of racing. 1:10 to 2:20 per driver. I covered most of the build costs, other three drivers paid $750 or so total for entry fee, tires, brakes, fluids and fuel. It was a little higher than even because I set it up so that I only paid about $400 towards that stuff. Everyone was happy and we're doing another event in six weeks.
The coming up 12+6 hour race in September I have estimated our running budget for the weekend at about $3000. Entry fee, tires, petrol, fluids, pads, and rotors.

"petrol'? Are you importing it from England?

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fiasco
I was able to read the gearhead club story. Haven't poked at any of the links.

There is definitely something with the American go it alone stubbornness that keeps us from being Socialist Car Crashing Crazy People, but I think you see some of the cooperation in the hackerspace community. Grant sort of has a clubbish thing going on with the shared garage/quonset hut.

I think we stoic New Englanders are the worst when it comes to working together. Most of us enjoy puttering either alone or with one or two other people. Brett and I pretty much do the LeMons car ourselves, as we pretty much have the vision for how we want it to be put together. We listen to input from the other two, but too many cooks...especially with a budget ceiling. Judge Phil declared the Merkurian Falcon "Cheatier than hell, but it's a Merkur, so I don't care!" -- but the reality is, any more than three BS laps would be excessive for it. I still bribe them well...and I keep searching for a rotted 76 Chrysler New Yorker so I can make a road-"racing" clone of my great-grandfather's last car (which is the one thing I really ever wanted to inherit, just because it was so full of a 440 cubic inch engine, brown Corinthian leather, and so much failure-prone electric switchgear).

Unless there's living-wage money to be earned racing, there is no point in taking it seriously, so I'll just enjoy puttering at a couple LeMons events per year for now.

Wow, you summed it up well and that last sentence is pure logic. Thank you for taking the time to spell it all out in such a good way.

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alkun
"petrol'? Are you importing it from England?

No. India.

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Grant Hughes

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DaveK
There have been teams who like to inflict pain on themselves enough to have run DSMs at Lemons...

I'm sure. Once the Galant is finally off-site (still need to re-install a steering rack & rear diff), I'll have a 6-bolt, AWD gearbox, DSM & GVR4 prop shafts, and enough bolt-ons to cause some trouble left over. Trying to figure out what I want my next street car to be. Maybe DSM. Maybe Starion. Maybe 70s Colt. Not sure yet. Sometime next year, although that's also about the time I want to seriously look into Lemons.

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fiasco
I was able to read the gearhead club story. Haven't poked at any of the links.

I appreciate your looking around, mate. Trying to do good things for good people. It ain't easy.

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fiasco
There is definitely something with the American go it alone stubbornness that keeps us from being Socialist Car Crashing Crazy People, but I think you see some of the cooperation in the hackerspace community. Grant sort of has a clubbish thing going on with the shared garage/quonset hut.

It's interesting how we jokingly demean such meaningful pursuits as "socialist," because the closet fascism spun as "freedom" in the west these days is so blindly swallowed like gospel.

Is that go-it-alone stubbornness a true sense of independence, or is it a misguided identification with the oligacrchy; feeling ourselves superior to the 99% around us, even though the latter might only be a rung behind us on the financial ladder while the former consistently seek to remove the rungs above us?

The sooner we start seeing ourselves as equals, the sooner we will start seeing real progress. I hope that time comes soon. It's something I struggle with daily. This is water.

Grant's little club is not only an idea that's stuck in my mind since I first saw those pictures of seedy industrial parks at night. It's also one of the reasons why my wife and I are considering a move to Colorado in the next 3-4 years.

Work sharpens the mind. Many hands make light work. Maybe I'll get a chance to interview Grant about these ideas in the near future. (hint)

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fiasco
I think we stoic New Englanders are the worst when it comes to working together. Most of us enjoy puttering either alone or with one or two other people. Brett and I pretty much do the LeMons car ourselves, as we pretty much have the vision for how we want it to be put together. We listen to input from the other two, but too many cooks...especially with a budget ceiling. Judge Phil declared the Merkurian Falcon "Cheatier than hell, but it's a Merkur, so I don't care!" -- but the reality is, any more than three BS laps would be excessive for it. I still bribe them well...and I keep searching for a rotted 76 Chrysler New Yorker so I can make a road-"racing" clone of my great-grandfather's last car (which is the one thing I really ever wanted to inherit, just because it was so full of a 440 cubic inch engine, brown Corinthian leather, and so much failure-prone electric switchgear).

Too many cooks. Indeed. It was easy to start a small club here a few years back. When it was just 6-8 of us involved, everyone showed up to every meet, and we all had a good time. Once we reached 20, 30, 60 members, it all sort of fizzled. Too many options. Nobody could commit. I ended up giving the website away.

That Corinthian leather was so rich.

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fiasco
Unless there's living-wage money to be earned racing, there is no point in taking it seriously, so I'll just enjoy puttering at a couple LeMons events per year for now.

Sooth. If it ain't fun, it ain't worth it.

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Brian Driggs | KG7KCA | PHX, AZ | 89 Pajero
alterius non sit qui suus esse potest