Grassroots Motorsports Magazine

[CarlB]

If you have read this magazine, you probably know about their $2000.00 challenge. Once a year they have a competition for cars that have to be built for two thousand dollars or less. The competition consists of an autocross and a drag race. From the beginning, I have good friends who have built cars, but I never went. I do however read the magazine and I particularly like one writer that goes by JG. He is a national champion autocrosser and I think a national champion in time trials as well. He does a lot of track testing and is very good  analyzing data. He also writes a monthly column. Over a year ago he wrote a column I disagreed with, and I emailed him about it. He had just tested a factory-built race car and said that individuals were not going to build their own cars anymore. The factory cars ware so good with all the electronics. My argument was the magazines two-thousand-dollar challenge was proof he was wrong. My second point was, I had a car without any driver aids that would prove him wrong. We went back and forth, and I forgot about it. Then one of my friends, who always encouraged me to go, told me that I could bring my Caterham, and they started letting people bring anything and run. They also added a track day. The track day got me, and I went this year. I went and had a great time. All of the above gets you to what I wanted to write. I let JG do an autocross run in my car. He came back all smiles, and the first thing he said was this car does what it is supposed to do.  He also drove it on track with full instrumentation and compared it to the MX-5 factory race car. There will be a video and an article in the magazine. His articles show all the squiggly data acquisition lines, and he gives a good analyze of what it means. I do not know when the video or article will come out, but I am confident it will be glowing. He believes the factory MX-5 and Caterhams are the best track day cars he has driven.       

[panamericano]

$2,000 also includes a "Concours" section, I recall.  Some don't quite fit in that description.  It is an interesting bunch.  People with real talent and skills and shops and equipment.  Wonderful that you took your car there and defended the faith.  Sounds like you made a convert, but not for $2,000, ha.

[IamScotticus]

I prefer the 24 hrs of LeMons

[CarlB]

You are correct. There is a Concours, and it counts in the scoring.