GTA Overview

Why GTA?

First of all, I’m going to assume you’re reading this because you’re interested in good old American V-8 powered ground-pounders.  Not the most sophisticated machinery on the planet, but they sound great, haul buggy in a straight line, get slideways coming out of just about any corner and in general are a hoot to drive!  I’ve got experience working on various types of formula cars as well and there’s no doubt many of those turn some remarkable lap times, but they accomplish that by not slowing down very much for the corners instead of utilizing top end speed.  And unless you’ve got the budget for an ex-Indy car, you’re NOT going to run 175+ mph on the Daytona road course in a formula car.

Since Grand Touring America (GTA) is just one version of a road racing stock car, we should probably gain consensus on “Why should I road race a stock car?” before building a case for running GTA.  Granted a stock car (aka – “tin top”, “taxi cab”, “grocery getter”, etc.) is NOT the sexiest V-8 to be found at your average road racing circuit.  The Corvettes, Camaros and Mustangs running in GT-1 and SPO are sleeker and potentially faster than the average stock car on a road course.  Once you get past the idea that you’re racing your mom’s sedan, however, running a stock car starts making a lot of sense financially.

I remember once needing a new set of headers for the ’82 Corvette I was racing.  A nice set (back in 1993) was $550 from Jerry Stahl and I could get them within three weeks after ordering them from his shop in Pennsylvania.  When I needed a set of headers for a car that uses stock car components I went to my local circle track shop and found a nice set of double-stepped Schoenfeld pipes already on the shelf.  I asked how much and the guy behind the counter said $225.  “$225 per side”, I replied, “that’s really not too bad”.  “Nope, that’s $225 for BOTH sides”, he says.  That same cost comparison holds for suspension parts, brakes, bodies, drivetrain, wheels, tires – just about everything you need to make a race car run – plus the stuff is usually available the same day you need it.

It’s a simple case of market-driven economics.  There are maybe 500 people in the country racing TransAm based GT vehicles, so essentially everything you need for one of those cars needs to be custom made.  Contrast that to the 30,000 or so that are running stock cars on any given Saturday night and you can understand why the prices for the stock cars are so much lower – good old supply and demand.  And the trickle down from both the professional ranks and your local short track provides a ready supply of used parts that can fit most any budget.

GTA is just one “version” of road racing stock cars.  The class was originally started on the West Coast as the next step past Improved Touring racing, and the current iteration of the SouthEast division rules (http://www.sedivracing.org) has been developed over the years with safety, cost-containment and close competition in mind.  Yes, the rules can be viewed as restrictive, but the target is around 500 hp connected to a drivetrain designed for 700+ hp to increase longevity.  That way you get to RACE your car rather than replacing broken components every other weekend.  And I understand that you got a great deal on your former brother-in-law’s second cousin’s 800 hp ex-Cup engine that was only driven on Sundays.  Fine, run it in SPO with all the other guys with the thinning checkbooks.

With all the ASA and Late Model stock cars on the market, you can get into a competitive GTA car, set up for road racing, for less than $25,000.  The spec bias-ply racing tires are currently less than $600 a set mounted and balanced, we’re getting 50 hours on the carbureted engines (at least two seasons if you run once a month) before they need freshening, and the fuel-injected ASA engines are lasting longer than that.  When I backed my car into the tires at Daytona in 2005 we replaced the rear bumper and right rear quarter panel, painted it and added graphics for less than $1500.  And on the rare occasion where you hit something hard enough to bend the frame, it’s still a tube frame car so you cut out the damaged parts and weld in new ones.  Not only is a GTA car cheaper initially than a top Spec Miata or American Sedan, they’re faster and cheaper to campaign.  And while we run about the same speed as the front running T-1 Corvettes, see what the bill from the dealer is for nudging the wall (not that any one reading this would EVER do that) with one of THOSE babies!

Gobs of American V-8 horsepower with the attendant offering of joyous noise to the racing gods, off-the-shelf stock car components, well-defined rules, close competition, spend time racing your car rather than writing checks – GTA just makes cents!

Questions? – contact Butch Kummer (Butch @ B-K-Racing .com) or 770-314-2031.

See y’all at the track…