How To Buy A Race Car!

Manor Racing : 2 x Pop Up Trailers and Hospitality Trailer

In the last few years of the NMS blog, we've mentioned a few interesting auto auctions like a recent IndyCar team auction, our local abandoned auto auctions (where we bought the awesome non-running 200 dollar Mustang), cars found on Craigslist, Ebay, junk yards, and even a bankrupt Formula 1 team auction or two. So, if you want to buy a race car, well, it's that time again...

OPTION ONE:  Tons of stuff up for grabs from the now out-of-business Manor Formula 1 team.
Bidding will end on May 16th, so there's no hurry yet. Car bodies, spare parts, clothing, pit equipment, steering wheels, wind tunnels, car models, just about everything but the engine to make a car run. They're still putting together the auction catalog and getting photos of everything, so not a lot of info yet. Here's the link to the company that will be running the auction: Manor F1 Auction

Manor Racing: Over 200 wheels!

OPTION TWO: Maybe Formula 1 is a little too rich for your bank account, or maybe you don't want to buy your car from over seas. If so, then here in the US of A, do we have a deal for you! Take a look at this baby!

Panoz Delta Wing

Yes, one of the DeltaWing IMSA cars is for sale NOW, with a low low price of ONLY $375,000 out the door! Tons of information on this car are available at this link:  Panoz DeltaWing IMSA Race Car

Among the highlights, we'll just mention that it was built by Dan Gurney's All-American Racers, so you'd be in some rarefied air with this little beauty sitting in your garage! 

OPTION THREE: Here's a regular company that sells old Formula 1 cars, and various parts and bits to keep them running. Heritage-F1 has been in business for many years, and they've probably got something you'd like! For instance, they have two F1 cars that were modified with two extra seats, so that you could drive a couple of your friends around at 200mph! Check the two 3-seaters out at this website: Heritage F1 and then pull out your credit card. Both cars can be yours for "only" 525,000 British Pounds.

2001 Arrows 3-seater

Remember, that's TWO cars at this low, low price!

If your budget is a bit less than that, maybe you'd be interested in a 1993 Sauber F1 car, only about 38,000 Pounds!  93 Sauber

1993 Sauber

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How'd Those Predictions Turn Out?

Volvo Swedish Moose Version of the Ferrari Logo

What we said: With a wide open race... someone besides Mercedes, Red Bull, and Ferrari might win! 
Wrong: Those three teams took up all the top 6 spaces.

The Real Ferrari Prancing Horse Logo

We predicted: "3rd place: Bottas of Mercedes." 
NOPE! Not only did Mr. Bottas NOT finish on the podium, he managed to over-aggressively warm up his tires, weaving back and forth on track under a safety car period, when he spun off and dropped several places. In an interview after the race, the Finn took all the blame, and admitted he made a mistake. I'm still thinking he's got a victory in him some time this year. 

We predicted: "By the end of the race, we might only have 12 cars running", 
WRONG! ...we ended up with 15 cars running, so close, but not close enough! 

Of the five cars retired, we had Stroll knocked into the gravel by Perez, Alonso and Vandoorn of McLaren both retired with engine issues, Kvyat stopped for some mechanical issue, Giovanazzi crashed himself into the pit wall (just like in practice). 

There you have it, a perfect record, not one prediction correct!
Maybe at next week's race from Bahrain I can get one right. Better make about 100 predictions, and then just brag about the 1 or 2 that happen!

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F1 China Preview

Haas driver Romain Grosjean, Practice 1 in China

Race 2 of the new Formula 1 season will be this weekend in China, so here at the NMS-North "Go-Ferrari" headquarters, we're looking for a 2nd consecutive victory from our favorite Italian team, the Scuderia Ferrari.

As of this writing, the first and second practice sessions were basically cancelled due to heavy fog, with just a few laps driven in the first session, and no laps at all in the second. The fog wasn't too bad for the cars to get on track, but it was too bad for the medical helicopter to go from the track to the hospital in Shanghai. While this is frustrating, and doesn't make sense on one hand, the reason is that F1 has had this rule for a long time. Even though the cars and tracks are designed to be as safe as possible, with up to 20 cars this year hurtling around at over 200mph, there is still the chance of serious injury and death. For that reason, if the medical choppers can't get to the hospital due to weather, then no one is allowed on track.

So,  hopefully the weather on Saturday in China will allow practice 3 and qualifying, and then the race on Sunday too. Right now the weather should be clear on Saturday, but a 70% chance of rain on Sunday. With the long straights, and incredibly twisty turn 1-2 sections of the track, the added slipperiness of rain would make the race wide open for just about anyone to win. That sounds like a great formula for a memorable race to me!

With a wide open race, what does that mean exactly? To me, it would mean that someone besides Mercedes, Red Bull, and Ferrari might win! That would be great, since those teams, and mostly Mercedes, have won ALL the races over the past three years. Why not a surprise victory for Haas, or even Williams or Toro Rosso? It's been a long time since Williams and Toro Rosso have won, and of course Haas hasn't yet got on the podium in the top 3 either.

Down to business, here's how we see the race playing out, full well knowing that the weather could throw it all out the window

Winner: Let's say Vettel takes a 2nd win in a row, and to the joy of Ferrari fans around the world, his team mate Kimi Raikkonen takes 2nd place too!

3rd place: Bottas of Mercedes. This is his first year with the Mercedes team, and it would fun to see him take a first victory some time this year. I'll predict he'll do that, just later in the season than this race.

Etc: The first race of the year saw a lot of cars retire due to mechanical and other problems, and that will continue this weekend. By the end of the race, we might only have 12 cars running, so let's see how close that prediction works!

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NMS in SportsCar Magazine!

May 2017 cover

Sure enough, right there on page 54 of the new May issue of SportsCar magazine is a photo of some people, and one of them is the NMS Miata driver Brian Nixon! SportsCar is the official  monthly magazine of the Sports Car Club of America, so if you're not a SCCA member yet, their magazine is just one reason to join! Brian is on the left in the photo below:

The photo appears in an article by Jeff Luckritz, who encourages everyone involved with their favorite motor sports to be ENTHUSIASTIC! Jeff was giving a talk on being an enthusiastic club or region leader in the SCCA, and Brian and the rest of the South Carolina Region gang were in the audience.

We'd vote Brian the MED (Most Enthusiastic Driver) at NMS, and to back that up we'd point out that after driving in auto-cross and being a SCCA member for just a few years, he's already served as the South Carolina Region autocross director, and moved on to other leadership roles as well. Behind the wheel, he's been improving every year, which included last year's driving at SCCA Solo Nationals in Lincoln NE, various other major events, and this year will see him teaming up with a LeMons team for some endurance racing too. Of course Brian is a very humble guy, and always says that he owes it all to his great parents!

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April Autocross Report NMS-North

FID: Fastest Italian of the Day!

On April 2nd, the Old Dominion Region of the Sports Car Club of America kicked off their 2017 campaign at the Pungo Autocross Center of Excellence (PACE), with a good sized crowd of 47 drivers competing. I really made up that PACE thing, it just sounds way more cool than just saying "You Know, That Old Abandoned Airfield in Pungo Virginia." Even Facebook will tell you it's the "Pungo Autocross Site", but PAS isn't quite as groovy as PACE in my book. Here's the video: