How much would you pay..?

[Learjet45]

How much would you pay for the opportunity to drive one of these?



I proposed the idea at my aero team meeting for Formula SAE tonight to do a fundraiser of letting students, faculty, alumni, etc. to pay to drive one of our old cars. I believe that is last year's car in the picture.
Note: This is an actual racecar built for competition. I'm guessing an autocross type layout would be set up with the opportunity to drive 2-3 laps because I don't see us making any money letting people only drive 1 lap. I'm going to push for 3 laps.
Yes, it's faster than your Miata. And your RX-7. And your 6. And your 3. And I think you get the idea 0-60 in 3.0 seconds.

Promo video for RPI Formula SAE:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiEGcXb6DtE"]RPI Formula SAE Team 2012 Promo Video - YouTube[/ame]

Thus leading to the final question, how much would you pay? Please choose from the options in the poll ^_^ Feel free to post any questions you may have, and feel free to check out my new "build"/project thread on 6crew that I'll keep updated as the year progresses! It'll probably be mostly aero related stuff as that's the section of the team I'm most involved with, but come on, aerospace engineering is badass.
http://www.6crew.com/forum/showthread.php?26292-My-new-quot-project-quot

[geo2maz]

Three-fiddy.

[vierte]

I built and drove one of these for Formula SAE Hybrid, the Formula SAE cars are wicked quicker... please re-tune it without the restrictor.. for the sake of fun.

One thing I will bring up is that your school may frown on the liability. I would be skeptical that your school would allow individuals not associated with the team to operate a prototype vehicle. Way too many things could go wrong.

[Learjet45]

That's the plan to investigate tomorrow or early next week. There would obviously be waivers involved removing the school of any liability. It's also basically a roll cage on wheels, and it would be in a big empty parking lot with nothing to crash into.

And my plan is to somehow be involved in team leadership next year if I can. I know there are some graduating seniors this year that are team leaders (like the current overall team leader who is also the aero leader).
I don't think I could push retuning an old car without restrictions until I'm leadership. But when I do, I have a friend on campus that builds engines. His 06 STi is putting down 480whp/520wtq and he's going to rebuild to get it in the neighborhood of 650whp and 750wtq. I'm trying to convince him to come out to CO and do it since there are so many subaru owners out there haha.

[Shadowden]

The go kart track by bandimere (Action Karting) charges $40 to run karts that are beaten and not nearly as impressive as that. 10 laps on a .63 mile track.

Having said that I tihnk I would be far more interested in 3 laps on a road course than 3 laps on an autocross course. THe courses I have seen these karts on didn't seem to challenge them at all.

Also, against my interst, but you might check with the local autocross folks and see if you can't work something out with them and let other racers drive the kart before the first heats and after the last heats. This way they already have signed liabilities, you are off school property, and people have an idea of how to drive. Problem you run into there is drivers on course in vehicles before their runs though...so maybe after only...dunno...just thinking out loud.

[ecam8000]

I think your best bet is an autocross type course. Spinning, missing a brake zone or corner means a cone goes down. Road course, would likely inflict damage to the car. Track rental fees are huge compare to lot fees. Sanctioning (insurance) should be $10-15 a driver (guess) for the day. You'll have to figure that in to what you are charging. At the auto cross the sanction fee is built into the entry fee. One lap is expensive, many-many laps are far more economical. The fun runs we run after the event is over are cheap, because the track and sanction is already paid for. That test and tune $15 for all day was basically a free lot fee and sanctions.

[Shadowden]

If the course is set specifically for this type of car, the autocross style would be awesome. I'm sure even the courses I have been on in my car would be fun, but given the handling and acceleration of the karts, you could make a pretty amazing course.

Speaking of which, layoing out a good course is equally important...There was an article in the SCCA mag recently that discussed some important aspects of course lay out. I found it interesting. I'll see if I can't get it scanned in next week and posted here...or email it.

Also, given the tires on the car...I don't think it would be economical to charge anything less than 25.00. It would be very interesting to see how well the mechanical aspects of the kart hold up after lots of inexperienced kart drivers run it. Seeing it sitting on hoosiers, your looking at ~140/corner for tires alone, which are probably good for 60 runs? If 60 runs is fairly accurate and you allow each person paing 25.00 to take 3 runs, then you guys would actually be losing money...

[ecam8000]

Not sure how long the tires would hold up. Heat, surface, car weight, cool down between sesions all play in there.

[Shadowden]

I was just estimating as I have no experience with race tires except on mountain bikes. The top end race tires for a downhill mountain bike are good for a weekend..so about 15-20 runs before they are worn down and knobs are getting torn.

[Shadowden]

Not sure how long the tires would hold up. Heat, surface, car weight, cool down between sesions all play in there.

Perhaps I am not imagining it right, but in my mind, Isee only one kart, a line of people, and the thing just cycling on the course.Otherwise, it is a hard sell as people won't want to hang out to drive it.

One way around that is to reserve it for groups of people. Say 5 people per group and block out 45 minute windows for each group to get their runs in followed by 15 minutes to let the cart cool down and make sure everything is mechanically sound. Most peope want to be competitive with their freinds, so knowing that they are driving in similar conditions they can compare times better.

[Learjet45]

This is all really great input everyone, I really appreciate it! One idea thrown around on 6crew was that having a session be a little longer makes it seem more worthwhile when spending a larger sum of money, so maybe 3-5 laps? I know endurance is one of the tests the car undergoes at competition in Michigan.
Also Shadow, I do believe we have 2 running cars right now and I don't think it is supposed to take much work to get at least one more running. I was thinking lower costs for pre-registering and higher race-day costs. I like the idea of groups as well for people to be more competitive. Still have to get in contact with the school and figure out about waivers and insurance and stuff, but again all this info is really helpful.
And I checked briefly into local autox races, and I believe the season is over out here in the capital region so as amazing as that idea was, it's out the window :/

[ecam8000]

The season might be over but that group (SCCA) could probably help with setting up the event. Not one of their events but a co-op with your school. Just might be worth it to talk with them (waiver, sanction, staff and equipment help).

[Learjet45]

Thanks for the info! Gotta get in contact with the MANE department early next week and figure out if this is even a possibility.

[Learjet45]

Bump! need more votes please!

[Learjet45]

Relevant videos: R12 runs again! After figuring out that coil packs 1 and 2 weren't grounded and fixing that, swapping out the starter, and disconnecting the data acquisition system, the car fired up.

TURN YOUR VOLUME DOWN! The exhaust is insanely loud in such a small space and as a result, the video volume is stupidly loud.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=4204737471324
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=4204688030088
Should not require a facebook account to watch.