Spec racing promises the best of both worlds: the thrill of door-to-door competition with the cost-certainty of knowing your competition has to curtail spending to comply with a rigid set of rules. Spec racers are sometimes based on existing street cars, but also often take the form of lightweight, low-buck open wheel or closed-body dedicated track models, giving you a wide range of options to choose from when deciding which series is best for you.
The Great Unknown
Buying someone else’s spec racecar is always going to be more cost-effective than building your own, but pre-built cars come with their own unique set of anxieties. For starters, there’s the question of quality: how well was the work done on the vehicle in question when it was modified to meet the requirements of its particular series?
If the car spent time at a professional shop—and the seller has the receipts to prove it—then you can ask the mechanics who worked on the vehicle, or try to get a sense of the business’ reputation from the racing community. If it was owner-assembled, then you might want to have the vehicle inspected prior to purchase to make sure the work holds up.
Then there’s the question of how much abuse the vehicle took on the track. Race cars get run hard, so they are subject to stricter maintenance schedules than a street vehicle, which can balance out some of the effects of being redlined for an entire heat. Still, wear items like bushings, belts, hubs, and shocks have finite lifespans, as do transmissions and differentials. Ask for proof of maintenance intervals, a list of what parts have been changed, and if there are any available spares. You’ll also want to inquire as to whether the car has ever been involved in any off-track excursions that could have damaged or stressed hard-to-repair structural components.
Boxsters bridge the gap between low-level and high-level spec series racing.
How High Are Your Limits?
Perhaps the most important advice when looking for in a spec racer: know your limits. While spec racing is intended from the outset to be an affordable form of motorsports, some series are less expensive than others. Spec E30 and Spec Miata are currently two of the cheapest ways to get involved in spec racing using a street car for a base, and they each benefit from a fairly large base of available parts, donor cars, and expertise.
A Spec Ford racer is still inexpensive, and represents a dedicated race car that has no street intentions—but you’re still looking at a few thousand a weekend over and above the cost of the car to support your racing habit once you factor in consumables and fees.
After that, the sky can be the limit as you enter in to ever-more exotic spec series racers ranging from almost-stock B-spec showroom cars all the way up to Porsche, Ferrari, and Lamborghini. If you get bored at the lower end of spec racing, maybe it’s time to check out the various national competition classes offered by the SCCA and NASA as an alternative to pushing up into a top-tier spec series. After all, variety is the spice of life, and there are simply too many cool cars out there not to try to race them all.
