Although our cars do take a lot of "tinkering", I have to disagree with Marshall regarding reliability. If you run your engine stock/legal and replace the belts on a reasonable cycle, I beleive our cars are very reliable. The guys who got me into racing were IT drivers and they were also having to work on their cars all the time. A big difference was when they had a mechanical DNF, it was something much more expensvie than a $50 belt. I do agree that you can race a SS or IT and have long periods where you don't have to spend so much time between races on maintenance (like we do), but the guys that do that aren't winning national or ARRC races. In addition to spending $25k for an engine from Sunbelt, how much reliability do you give up when you tweak an SM to the point where it can win national races? I am not trying to flame Marshall, I just beleive that it is accrate to describe our class as very reliable.
Joe Palmer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Marshall, I've also noticed the reliability of the miatas. Heck, it's a street car with restrictor plates. Obviously many racers are responding to it's equation of affordability, reliability, and large grids. I've also noticed . . . they're having fun. However, I've noticed many others on this list that seem to have had the same good luck with their F5, as I've had. I should start by saying that I was one of the DNF's at the Run-Offs this past year. Then I should say that it was completely my fault, not the cars . . . I mistakenly installed a free-spinning bearing on my jackshaft. That was only my second DNF in over twenty events and the other one was a broken suspension pull-rod Heim at the old HPT Road-Cross circuit's ski jump. I'm still on the same motor/top-end and will likely get another entire season outta it (4th). For three seasons in a row now, all I've done is add gas & oil, change normal wear parts - brake pads, belts, sprockets - and wash it. I'd guess that F5's reliability is good when compared to the list of "purpose-built" race cars. As we all know, the purpose-built cars are an entirely different performance level and experience than production cars . . . excluding the new Z06 and a few $80k + monsters . . . but we're talking about those of us that can't afford to throw-away $100k in a weekend. Anyway . . . all this to say . . . an actual semi-statistical reliability analysis might be helpful to our cause, if somebody were willing to volunteer? It could be done the same way Stan did the car counts . . . just take the results sheets and count the number of DNF's for each event/class and calculate the %'s. However, to be useful, it would have to be done for all the classes for comparison. This would certainly take some time and spreadsheet jockying, but would result in some very interesting data. Any volunteers? Of course this statistic would include driver error and car-to-car incidents in the first half of the race . . . but that's part of it, isn't it? Shiny Side Up, Joe Palmer TX Novakar #56 ----- Original Message ----- From: To: Sent: Sunday, July 23, 2006 6:51 AM Subject: Re: [F500] racing car counts > > In a message dated 7/22/2006 3:47:48 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, > [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > <<our > cars. It may sound corny but may get some attention. "Eats F. Fords for > breakfast at 1/3 the price" .....Maybe something that refers to its reliability > too. >>> > > > > Reliability? As compared to what? > > Frankly, guys, F500 is FAR from being a reliable configuration. Compare our > DNS/DNF statistics to the rest of the grid. For that matter, look at > reliability at the Runoffs - and it's not like people don't prepare for that event. > > I'll give you a target to aim for. Last weekend, I ran a Miata in a > regional at Summit Point. 36 cars started, and 35 finished. That's roughly the > same number of cars as we had at the Runoffs - how many DNFs happened there? > How many do we see in an average national race weekend? > > Bang for the buck in terms of speed? Yes, F500 is the undisputed leader in > SCCA. Reliability, however, is probably the biggest problem we have in terms > of reputation and attracting new members. (This is perhaps second to low > regional participation levels.) > > Marshall Mauney > 2002 Red Devil > _______________________________________________ > F500 mailing list - [email protected] > To unsubscribe or change options please visit: > http://f500.org/mailman/listinfo/f500 > *** Please, DO NOT send unsubscribe requests to the mailing list! *** _______________________________________________ F500 mailing list - [email protected] To unsubscribe or change options please visit: http://f500.org/mailman/listinfo/f500 *** Please, DO NOT send unsubscribe requests to the mailing list! *** --------------------------------- Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls. Great rates starting at 1ยข/min. _______________________________________________ F500 mailing list - [email protected] To unsubscribe or change options please visit: http://f500.org/mailman/listinfo/f500 *** Please, DO NOT send unsubscribe requests to the mailing list! ***
