FA operational costs

[holmberg]

Over on the General Formula Car Discussion topic, I've been conducting a survey of operational costs for each class. Here I'm only interested in costs that differ significantly between the classes, and not, for example, entrance fees, hotel, food, etc.

Drivers from some classes have responded with data for their class, and the result is a spreadsheet in Google docs.

Here's what I have for this class. If you have changes, please reply below, and I will update the spreadsheet.

Class name: FA
Engine make: Mazda
Engine model: MZR
Displacement: 2300
Power at crank, HP: 300
Torque at crank, ft-lbs: 280
Weight with driver, lbs: 1,420
Purchase new, $: 200,000
Purchase used, $: 100,000
Tires set, $: 1500
Tire competitive heat cycles: 8
Engine rebuild, $: 10,000
Engine competitive hours: 27
Gearbox rebuild, $: ?
Gearbox hours: ?
Fuel $/gallon: 10.00
Fuel gallons/hour: 17
Brake pads set, $: ?
Brake pads hours: 10
Other operational costs, $: ?

Thanks,

Greg Holmberg

[holmberg]

I've received input from Bob Wright. Is anyone else willing to share what they spend on tires, engines, gearbox, fuel, brake pads, etc?

If you respond, please provide values for the data fields I've listed above.

Here I'm only looking at the predictable costs that vary between the classes.

Some costs are more or less the same between classes, such as towing, hotel, food, entry fee, and so on. I am ignoring those costs.

Some costs are personal choice, and not inherent in the class, such as how much you choose to spend on your tow vehicle or RV, or paying people to support you. I am ignoring those too.

Some costs, while having some correlation to the class, are unpredictable and so difficult to quantify, such as crash repairs or engine failures. I am ignoring those too.

Regarding the engine, here's the scenario: You have a fresh engine producing power that is competitive in a Majors race or the Run-offs. It produces this power for some amount of time, and then starts to fall off, and at some point is no longer competitive. You send the engine back to the builder, who does whatever is necessary for that particular engine (some classes more, some less) to make it competitive again. How much does the builder charge for this? And how many hours did the engine operate competitively before becoming non-competitive?

Also would like to know what is competitive horsepower and torque?

Thanks,


Greg

[holmberg]

OK, it appears that all the discussions in all the communities have died out, so you can find the results in the spreadsheet.

I still don't have data for brake pads and gearboxes for FA.

[Joules5]

OK, it appears that all the discussions in all the communities have died out, so you can find the results in the spreadsheet.

I still don't have data for brake pads and gearboxes for FA.

The FA discussion is down to a few diehards! I looked, but the spreadsheet seemed geared towards specific models rather than class. There are a number of chassis and more importantly from a cost perspective engines in use in a single class, particularly FA that has a lot of older variants running in vintage and current SCCA. A good example is the P1 class I'm pretty sure running a front of the field Norma M20FC has a significantly different cost structure than a Stohr with a GSXR engine.

Just my 2 cents,
Julian

[holmberg]

The FA discussion is down to a few diehards! I looked, but the spreadsheet seemed geared towards specific models rather than class. There are a number of chassis and more importantly from a cost perspective engines in use in a single class, particularly FA that has a lot of older variants running in vintage and current SCCA. A good example is the P1 class I'm pretty sure running a front of the field Norma M20FC has a significantly different cost structure than a Stohr with a GSXR engine.

Just my 2 cents,
Julian

Yes, it's a good point. I did have two lines in the spreadsheet for P2--one for MC engine, and one for MZR engine. (I have not received any data from P1 owners.)

I'm happy to do the same for FA. The only info I received for FA was from Bob Wright describing a Swift 016 with a Mazda 2300 engine.

If you would like to provide data for other FA cars, I'd be happy to add them.

I see from the Run-offs entries that there are 7 Swift 016's entered, 6 Swift 014's, 2 Pro FM's, and 1 Ralt 41. Some did not list an engine, but of the ones that did, 6 said Mazda (not including the PFM's), and 1 said Toyota.

It seems like a Swift 016 with Mazda is the most common car in FA, but if believe a Swift 014 would be significantly more or less expensive than the 016, or if you believe a Toyota engine would be significantly more or less expensive than a Mazda, then please provide some data, and I will add it to the spreadsheet.

[Rick Kirchner]

Over the years FA has primarily been a 1600cc class. If you look in the GCR there are a bunch of different engine combos now, but there were quite a few others waaaaay back. The 1600 Cosworth BDA emerged as the most popular, and it was eventually replaced by the 1600 Toyota. Then SCCA Pro decided they needed a different car/performance/price level and the Swift 016 was developed with the Cosworth 2300. Those three engines would represent 99% of all entries in this class over the entire history.

FA is also used to capture various classes while the national office tries to figure out what to do with them, since most Formula cars meet Atlantic rules except for the engine. So a chassis/engine combo gets put in Atlantic for a few years while the club tries to figure out weight, restrictors, engine map, etc, and then emerges as either its own class or merges with another.