SCCA, NASA, SVRA, etc.

[jimmylukeii]

Just completed 4 days at Radford Racing School.  Fantastic program, and I learned a tremendous amount.

 

I am assembling a Caterham 310R with the intent of tracking it.  But now I want to consider joining my friends and actually racing.

 

For SCCA, it looks like I would need a full roll cage unless I wanted to autocross only.  Is that accurate?  Any work arounds?  This will be a semi-daily, so the roll cage is not very desireable.

 

For SVRA, it looks like a modern Caterham would need to be retrofitted to original 1960s era specifications.  Is that also accurate?

 

Any other groups that I am not considering?  I am in Atlanta if helpful.

 

 

 

 

 

[Kitcat]

Why not just do track days and avoid the bureaucracy, cost  and carnage of racing? 
 

The SCCA is highly regulated and the Caterham is pretty restricted there. I will let others who do race them fill in the details.

 

Whatever you decide, you have a great car to enjoy on the track!

[jimmylukeii]

Track days are great!  They are what got me hooked a few years ago.  But I'd like the chance to compete a bit more if possible.

 

I suspect that you are correct on the regulations.  In my simple mind, I was romanticizing about the days of folks showing up and racing what they had.  Those days may have long passed!

 

[dallasdude]

Two ways to run a Caterham in SCCA without backdating to 60's specs.

 

As a S3 narrow chassis Zetec with a full width cage.  You can build your own approved cage but it must have a full width of the cockpit front and back.  A fuel cell is required.  Most one the cars with the spec were brought over a part of a spec series here about 20 years ago.

 

You can bring over an Academy car (Sigma engine) from the UK (or replicate it here). The SCCA allows more modifications than the series does there, but someone brought one back after racing it there, put on better tires than allowed in the UK and was competitive.  The FIA cage used in the Academy series is approved.  The SCCA requires fuel cells in cars where the tank is not protected by the main vehicle structure. Your 310R probably could be modified to this spec and would probably be cheaper over seasons to maintain with a Sigma rather than a Duratec.

 

Both these cars run in E Production. A class with a lot of history, but not one of the classes on the way up as far as participation.

 

A car with a Duratec (MZR) would race against Miatas with the same engine...that would have to weight hundreds of pounds more.

 

I see you are from Georgia.  Last year a Caterham set a new record (or close to it) at Road Atlanta.  To give you an idea of what Zetec in SCCA trim can do, I think it was about a 1:36.  The back straight is a limitation for a Caterham at that track, I could never do over 130.

 

I almost ran a NASA race a couple times but their fuel cell rules are more strict.  Their classes were (and I believe still are) based on power to weight based on a required dyno test.  There are modifiers that move that up and down, but from what I could see you would be in a group with some very large powerful cars.  Difficult to compete with and not as safe.