Is it worth the 80 or so dollars?

 

Wow, you could open up a big can of worms with that question. The question is what kind of activities are looking at? Autocross? Rally? Racing? HPDE? (High performance driving event).

SCCA and NASA are the two biggie organizations and you could open up a huge debate on politics of the two but in both cases there are really good people in both. So I guess your question needs to be a little more specific.

 

I'm an SCCA member and its worth it to me. I save $10-15 per event (autocross) so it pays for itself pretty quick. I am told that by being a member you are afforded better protection under their insurance plan in the event something really were to go wrong. Hopefully we never need to find out if that's true.

I think it really depends on what you are looking to do? Autocross, or wheel to wheel racing at some level. American Sedan (SCCA) or CMC, American Iron (NASA). As with any group, it will be what you make of it.

 

what are you spending the 80 bucks on? membership?also i thought you need some sort of license or permit to be able to participate in autocross that would (im assuming) cost more

 

The $80 is split between the national club and your local region (55/25 maybe). Currently it costs me $35 to participate in an autocross event with my local region (Philly) as a SCCA member. Non-members pay $50. So that is the obvious and most tangible reason to join, if you plan to run all or most of the events. As I said before, I believe the insurance coverage you are afforded is better as a member, in the event something were to happen. You also get a yearly subscription to Sports Car Mag (or Grassroots motorsports maybe).

The regions closest to me (Philly, SJR, NNJR) regions host HPDE events at local tracks and will open participation up to members first, and only if the event doesn't fill will non-members be offered to take part. I think they see membership as a filter for these bigger events.

It makes registration easier. I can go to a yearly tech inspection, which is a more thorough and detail car and saftey equipment check, then at every event I don't have to wait in line to have the car tech'd. I get a permanent number assigned etc etc. I believe in order to run at Divisionals or Nationals, you need to be a member.

your probably checked this out already....
http://www.scca.com/joinnow.aspx

If you are a casual particpant, and won't do but a handful of events, then maybe there would be little reason to join. But if 5-6 events is possible you'd probably break even.

Membership by itself does not equate to having a competition license or anything like that. If you intend on racing in a wheel to wheel series like A-sedan, or Spec Miata or something, then you have to be a member and get your credentials by attending driver schools. Its like the NHRA, just being a member doesn't let you get behind the wheel of a 7 sec door slammer.

Autocross does not require any sort of competition license, at least for the SCCA.

 

There is a local TX Nasa chapter that is big down there.
http://www.nasatxracing.com/ I like Nasa but to each his own.

 

I don't any experience with NASA, so my comments are based solely on my experience with the SCCA and even that is limited to autocross.

 

Sorry for such a broad questions... But I did get lots of great info from you guys.
Is anyone from the Houston area? It sounds a little creepy but I’m looking to tag along to an auto X event or a road race event to see what goes on and try and figure out how to do it on my own without being totally lost. I’ll bring my own car, haha.

 

http://autocross.com/texasregion/

www.scca.com

Whether its SCCA or NASA all newbies are welcomed with open arms, and if you show up to an autocross ask questions and without question you will find a great bunch of people. Some autocross events have a day in advance registration so that would be the main thing to check before you go if you have to drive long distance. From what I hear Texas is a fairly large state.

 

I look at registering for some of the events I see listed... maybe I’m a little slow or looking in the wrong place... but I have no idea what class my car would be, or if I would even pass tech.. Should I buy some rules and reg.s book of some sort? I'm so lost...

btw.. i did end up joining the SCCA

 

Well heres the link to the 2009 rules


http://cms.scca.com/documents/Solo_R...Solo_Rules.pdf

Now its lengthy and you will end up probably saying HUH??

But the questions that will be asked will be...

What is done to your car?

If stock you will fall into a couple places Either F Stock or some Street touring class. In FStock you can run sticky DOT tires. In Street Touring classes the cars run on full tread street tires. So thats a choice

If you have just bolt ons you would most likely fall into ESP. Limited mods and sticky tires.

If you have gone internally into the motor cam, aftermarket goodies you will probably fall into CP which is a monster tube frame allowed race car class. Cool class and good guys just be ready to fight 12 inch wide slicks and gutted race cars.

I'll leave it in that nutshell for now and there are exceptions. Not knowing your car, I'll stop there

 

I have the GM LS hot cam, ls6 heads, ls6intake, tune, long tubes, custom air intake, all spohn suspension, and eibach pro lowering springs, power stop breaks, B and M short throw, 4point racing harness.... and more...
I know i keep asking stupid questions, and i have several more im sure.
#1 are they going to make me have a cage?

 

Im not looking to place... I just want to go have fun!

 

w/ all that stuff and no cage, you can run Time Trials. NASA has a nice Time Trials group here in TX.

 

No such thing as a stupid question. You can have fun with your car as is other than all out wheel to wheel racing. Its just a matter of where it drops in.

For autocross. I think the STREET MOD (SM) fits you best. But you must run a full treaded street tire. No shaved soft compound tires in Street Mod.

If you want sticky tires your cars other choice is C prepared. This is a monster class with 12 inch wide racing slicks and gutted tube frame cars at the higher levels. Your car doesn't really fit here at this point in time but you could run this class on sticky dot's if you chose to do so.

You can attend SCCA autocrosses, and

HPDE (high performance driving events) These are at race tracks with passing rules and no actual sided by side racing in the corners. You do not need a cage to do this but with the speed potential of your car and you enjoy doing this stuff alot I would suggest a cage of some sort down the road. But is not required.
Looking at your list of mods I don't see any mods to your cooling system. I don't know how leaned out your tune is but for open track events you might put a more conservative (richer) tune and take some timing out (if theres a lot) to keep the car cool. For autocross you should be fine.

Go have some fun with that hot rod.

 

What are some good "cooling mods"? I thought about a new Be Cool radiator and maybe an engine oil cooler of some sort...

 

run the car first and see if you need it. i ran 450rwhp 98 Z w/ a stock rad and no oil cooler for a couple years.
160 stat, fans reprogramed. i had an oil temp guage to monitor all that.
like i said, run it first to see if you are going to have a problem.

 

Sounds good... I can't wait to get out there give it a try. I just have no idea where to start. I thought about going to a "Drivers Edge" driving event/class at Texas World Speedway. "Im really close to that area"

 

Texas World is a very fun track. NASA will be there in April for round 3 of the 2009 season. i'll be there in my CMC car. there is a 3 race weekend format for round 3, plus an 8 hour enduro race that starts Sat at noon. i'll be running that also. sign up for this NASA DE event while its still cool outside. a few of us who post here will be there in April.

besides Drivers Edge, look into the Motorsports Club there at TWS. Misty runs a nice program for beginners.

 

I'll second what Glenn has posted.