Thanks for sharing this Roy, I have always been curious what an arrive and drive experience would be like. Was great meeting you at WGI, hope to catch you at another one!
Very insightful Roy, thanks for posting. You confirmed my suspicions on the RAD Boxters also. Friends and I have been running an E36 in CCES for 5 years now. The Boxters leave our platform totally uncompetitive just like the Miata. Champcar direction seems totally off for us now and we’re taking a break for 2024. It was a weekend warrior builders series but it’s just turning into an IMSA rich man’s play thing. A way under VPI’d platform, IMSA budget, engineering, resources and multiple fresh sets of RE71RS tires per race…add in pro-drivers… That’s a staggering advantage that is unaccounted for in any aspect of balance of performance. The worst part is; nobody at CCES wants to listen. Comments like mine here are just labelled under the “whiner” category and dismissed out of hand.
I think the series really needs to address tires and small car fuel to level the playing field. The fact that they have good drivers, I think that is just what it is, IMO we should be racing to see who the best builders AND drivers are. The more we can take money out of that equation the better, but driver talent is something everyone is working on, even IMSA guys. I don't know enough about the E36 to have an opinion on that.
@@ruggedbadgerracing The tires I definitely agree with - huge deltas in budgets shouldn't allow such big deltas in potential laptime in tires alone. More than half the field run RS4s because they know they'll get a full weekend out of one fresh $800 set. Sadly, that's a 2-3s lap penalty on multiple-fresh sets of AO52s or RE71s. They've got to either redirect the series back to the entry-level amateurs as it's always been intended or just come out and say that their target members are something different now. VPI needs to be accompanied by a data-driven balance of performance - there's years worth of race data to start putting specific car models at the right VPI. I've no issue with pro-drivers...but they should be competing on an equal footing with the rest of the field.
@theflyingferret77 I ran an E36 325i extensively in CCES in 2022 and now race with the Rockwells so I can speak to this. The e36 I ran was EC class because of fuel capacity (it had a giant cell), but it was just as fast as most of the boxsters are, especially when given equivalent tires. Maybe building one to stay in C class requires more thought than a Boxster, but it isn't impossible. I moved away from the E36 team because I got tired of just lapping, and wanted to compete for the win because racing unclassified is just a track day.
@@adfmotorsports There was perhaps more EC mods to your E36 than just the fuel cell then? If the E36 325s were as quick as the Rockwell Boxters then they’d be fighting for podium places every event. They’re not. In fact, come to think of it…the last time an E36 won a CCES event on the (east coast at least) was…? While I haven’t trawled through the race results I’d wager that there can’t have been many E36 wins in the last 5 years. The simpler solution seems to be to grow a bigger budget and build a Boxter! I need to take this discussion up with the ChampCar groups specifically and not derail Roy’s comments section further - sorry Roy.
Thanks for sharing this Roy, I have always been curious what an arrive and drive experience would be like. Was great meeting you at WGI, hope to catch you at another one!
Thanks Logan! See you at the next race!
great insight. thanks for sharing.
Thanks Benny!
Very insightful Roy, thanks for posting. You confirmed my suspicions on the RAD Boxters also. Friends and I have been running an E36 in CCES for 5 years now. The Boxters leave our platform totally uncompetitive just like the Miata. Champcar direction seems totally off for us now and we’re taking a break for 2024. It was a weekend warrior builders series but it’s just turning into an IMSA rich man’s play thing. A way under VPI’d platform, IMSA budget, engineering, resources and multiple fresh sets of RE71RS tires per race…add in pro-drivers… That’s a staggering advantage that is unaccounted for in any aspect of balance of performance. The worst part is; nobody at CCES wants to listen. Comments like mine here are just labelled under the “whiner” category and dismissed out of hand.
I think the series really needs to address tires and small car fuel to level the playing field. The fact that they have good drivers, I think that is just what it is, IMO we should be racing to see who the best builders AND drivers are. The more we can take money out of that equation the better, but driver talent is something everyone is working on, even IMSA guys. I don't know enough about the E36 to have an opinion on that.
@@ruggedbadgerracing The tires I definitely agree with - huge deltas in budgets shouldn't allow such big deltas in potential laptime in tires alone. More than half the field run RS4s because they know they'll get a full weekend out of one fresh $800 set. Sadly, that's a 2-3s lap penalty on multiple-fresh sets of AO52s or RE71s. They've got to either redirect the series back to the entry-level amateurs as it's always been intended or just come out and say that their target members are something different now. VPI needs to be accompanied by a data-driven balance of performance - there's years worth of race data to start putting specific car models at the right VPI. I've no issue with pro-drivers...but they should be competing on an equal footing with the rest of the field.
@theflyingferret77 I ran an E36 325i extensively in CCES in 2022 and now race with the Rockwells so I can speak to this. The e36 I ran was EC class because of fuel capacity (it had a giant cell), but it was just as fast as most of the boxsters are, especially when given equivalent tires. Maybe building one to stay in C class requires more thought than a Boxster, but it isn't impossible. I moved away from the E36 team because I got tired of just lapping, and wanted to compete for the win because racing unclassified is just a track day.
@@adfmotorsports
There was perhaps more EC mods to your E36 than just the fuel cell then? If the E36 325s were as quick as the Rockwell Boxters then they’d be fighting for podium places every event. They’re not. In fact, come to think of it…the last time an E36 won a CCES event on the (east coast at least) was…? While I haven’t trawled through the race results I’d wager that there can’t have been many E36 wins in the last 5 years.
The simpler solution seems to be to grow a bigger budget and build a Boxter!
I need to take this discussion up with the ChampCar groups specifically and not derail Roy’s comments section further - sorry Roy.
Ecotec out performs the 1.8 on fuel, 1:40ish on a vvt and we would hit 2hrs with the ecotec as long as we had some yellows in a stint.
Interesting. That hasn't been my experience so far. Which Ecotec were you running, the 2.4L or 2.2L? Was this on the same track?
It was great running with you Roy! It would be fun to share a car with you in the future instead of just sharing a team.
100% you guys were flying!
gawd the welding on that cage is horrible!
Wait till you see the welds on the PartsBadger car, lol. I honestly felt it was a good designed cage when in the car.
@@ruggedbadgerracing I'm talking about the Parts Badger car, it shows the welds at the end when you're summarizing the weekend.