Every once in awhile I have to exercise my right as the host of f500.org to stand on a soapbox and editorialize. And yes... I know I'm opening myself up for flames by doing so! Bring it on!
This isn't strictly F500, but I think it is F500 related in a way. What has happened to F1000 in the course of being adopted by SCCA is a great example of how good ideas and intentions can get derailed. Formula 1000 was originally conceived as being a (reasonably) low cost, grass roots class. The intent was to get some older, no longer competitive FC cars out of the garage and back on the track and to do so inexpensively. Flat bottom car with a factory stock 1000cc bike motor, chain driven, and no go-fast / spend-faster trick parts. Sound like a familiar theme? The original spec was for a simple flat bottom wings & slicks car with a factory stock 1000cc bike motor and a chain drive. The first F1000 cars built were just that - older FC chassis like 80s era DB-3s with a wrecking yard bike motor. All told you could buy a chassis, put a motor in it and even with fabrication costs have a F1000 track ready for about $20K. Not bad for something that turns close to FA times, right? I'm not ashamed to say, I was intrigued enough to start looking into it very seriously. Then the fun began. Once SCCA started showing interest in sanctioning F1000 things started to change. I'm not going to go into all the details of what happened, how it happened or who's to blame. Heck, I don't know all of the details and it's be more speculation than fact anyway. But somewhere along the line F1000 morphed from a grass roots, low cost, home-builder friendly class to being another big bucks class. Original concept: Retrofit existing older FC chassis and provide a place for them to be competitive again. As adopted by SCCA: New, purpose built F1000 chassis are the norm. Several manufacturers have either released or will release for 2007 at around $40K. Now that's a big jump from doing $2000 of fabrication on a $10K chassis. Original Concept: Factory stock 1000cc bike motors with no modifications allowed. As adopted by SCCA: Stock bore, stroke and displacement - than means BUILT engines with aftermarket parts, blueprinted and balanced. And of course all the care and feeding that goes along with a built up motor. Basically you are looking at DSR engines - they start about $8000 and go up from there. That $1500 junkyard engine is going to need $5000+ of work to make it competitive. The net result - The $20K F1000 concept has become a $50K car. Yeah, you can still build one for $20 and run around in the back of the pack, but you won't be competitive. Kinda like running a Kawasaki in F500. No conspiracy theories here... but I find it interesting that by the time SCCA adopted the F1000 concept, it's costs has skyrocketed to the point that Enterprises' FSCCA cars are a lot more cost effective. Anyway, the point being that the best intentions don't always come to fruition. Keep that in mind when talking about fundamentally changing the F500 concept by adding coil-over shocks, bike engines, etc. While some changes are going to have to happen over time to keep F500 a viable class, we must remain VERY vigilant that the concept of F500 is a grass roots, home-builder friendly, low cost formula car. I guess I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that there *may* be an opportunity to revise F500 to fill the void left by the hijacking of F1000. There still is considerable interest in a low cost bike engine formula car. If there is a way that a bike engine could be added to the existing F500 spec as an additional configuration, it could be a very good thing for the long term health of the class. On the other hand... if done wrong, it could obsolete the 2 stroke / CVT combination and current chassis and raise the cost of the class dramatically (ala F1000). We must remain vigilant... ----- Eric D Christensen Proadmin, Inc. ________________________________ FormulaCar Magazine - A Proud Supporter of Formula 500 The Official Publication of Junior Formula Car Racing Subscribe Today! www.formulacarmag.com or 519-624-2003 _________________________________ _______________________________________________ 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! ***
