Hot Take: Let’s make race cars street legal

Kamil Kaluski

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Comments

I don’t mean let’s allow Formula 1 cars to be driven from one’s organic coffee shop to the pedicurist. No, I mean let’s build more race cars that can be driven on the streets, sort like rally cars are. I’m not sure if all, but most rally cars have to be street legal because they have to be driven on public roads between the various stages of rally race event.

The above video is supposedly of James Glickenhaus driving off in the Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus SCG 003. There would be almost nothing unusual about that if it wasn’t for the fact that this New York plated car just got done racing 24 Hours Nürburgring. It finished ninth overall after being as high as second overall.

Let that sink in. Jim is doing a nine hour drive in a car that just finished the grueling 24-hour endurance race at the world’s craziest race track.

Like the SCG 003, those race cars I’m thinking of would be required to meet only the minimal requirements – lights, horn, license plates, etc. Just for the fun of it, they should meet emissions of some state with lax, but not none, emission laws. Drive it to the track, race it, drive it home. Imagine Kyle Busch driving home from Charlotte Motor Speedway in his Camry – how cool would that be?

About

Kamil Kaluski

Kamil Kaluski

East Coast Editor. Races crappy cars and has an unhealthy obsession with Eastern Bloc cars. Current fleet: 4Runner, Integra, Regal, Lada

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22 responses to “Hot Take: Let’s make race cars street legal”

  1. Brian Palmer Avatar
    Brian Palmer

    James Glickenhaus IS the boss

    Reply
  2. Vairship Avatar
    Vairship

    The good old days (1960 Riverside F1): https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/59d74800d3c28c914b77b18dbdd1f13cde87f16baf1f34bd5ef1212c5a74a533.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/72fcb35c166ba60c875990d5fec06671674558020d1474cc714fe178a89c0eab.jpg

    Reply
    1. longrooffan Avatar
      longrooffan

      came here to post this!

      Reply
  3. mdharrell Avatar
    mdharrell

    “I don’t mean let’s allow Formula 1 cars to be driven…”

    Any other formula should be okay, though, right? For example, Formula SAE? Asking for a friend…

    Reply
    1. crank_case Avatar
      crank_case

      Hey, there’s road legal Formula Fords.

      Reply
  4. crank_case Avatar
    crank_case

    Rally cars can cope with the weird cambers, poor surfaces and potholes of Irish roads, because that’s what they race on. A road legal LMP1 type thing, less so. Being pedantic – rally cars are generally road cars that become race cars that can still be driven on the road, even if the WRC cars are quite removed from their starting point, the only exceptions apart from Group B would probably be stuff like Davrians.

    Glickenhaus is cool, but he’s late to the party, Ginetta have been building racecars that can be driven on the road for years, though at a more affordable level. I love the the R in G40R signifies not a hot track focused version of a G40, but a road legal version. There’s loads of people doing stuff like this such as Radical.

    Of course the other way of looking at this is why not have more racecars that are roadcars and not prototypes. I mean the LMP1 class will be gone and replaced with a hypercar class. Might be cool if part of the regulations were that these cars had to be road legal (though France is a terribly restrictive place on that front) with number plates and stuff, and had to do a “cruise” beforehand, like pro-street drag cars.

    Reply
    1. theskitter Avatar
      theskitter

      Actual conversation from my career:

      OK, so you want me to take our $80,000 race engine…
      It takes 4 people to start, can’t idle for more than 15 seconds, and runs for 30 hours before needing a rebuild.
      And you want me to hook it to our $100,000 transmission…
      Which has a pneumatically shifted barrel controlling dog rings designed for full throttle shifting only, also with 30 hour lifing.

      And you want me to put those in a car you’re going to sell for $27,000?

      Also, we’re going to have to go through emissions.
      I would love to do an emissions program, we would learn so much!
      That will be another $10,000,000 minimum.
      Instead of using a $9,000 crate motor hooked to a $1,000 transmission.

      Just want to make sure I understand your instructions.

      Reply
      1. crank_case Avatar
        crank_case

        Haha. 🙂

        It kinda depends what level your race car is at I guess. A Ginetta G40 is a race car, but at a more entry level (one make Juniors but can qualify for other series), full cage etc. all that FIA stuff, but mechanically it’s an MX5 gearbox and a mildy tuned Ford Duratec.

        Race car doesn’t neccesarily mean its built from unobtanium bits.

        Reply
      2. mdharrell Avatar
        mdharrell

        “It takes 4 people to start, can’t idle for more than 15 seconds, and runs for 30 hours before needing a rebuild.”

        Wow! I must have owned several race engines without even knowing it!

        Reply
      3. Sjalabais Avatar
        Sjalabais

        30 hours at full throttle is harsh, but those engines needing a rebuild after that ordeal does really put my long line of abused Volvo and Honda engines into a favourable position.

        Reply
        1. theskitter Avatar
          theskitter

          Racing, in the end, makes me love commuter appliances that always start in a state of total neglect*.
          *Unless you take Dr. Harrell’s approach, in which case they remain very racy indeed.

          Reply
        2. crank_case Avatar
          crank_case

          Yeah, but would your Honda/Volvo motors last race distance? What’s reliable day to day and what’s reliable in racing are kinda two different things. e.g. a Mazda Rotary would be seen as a finicky thing in a road car daily, but was incredibly reliable at constant race pace over 24 hours.

          Reply
          1. Sjalabais Avatar
            Sjalabais

            Honest answer would be: I don’t know. But there are some indicators. In the 90s, my mother would drive her Twingo flat out for hours, on a trip from Spain to Germany, eventually reaching an insane 182 kph. The times when I reach the highest engine and brake temperatures are usually when pushing vehicles up and down deserted mountain roads, where a succesion of full throttle and braking are natural. But I’ve never been close to, say, LeMans like conditions.

  5. Zentropy Avatar
    Zentropy

    Ummm… no, unless the licensing of such vehicles requires proof of legitimate driver racing training. I see too many videos of dumbasses wrapping Corvettes around electricity poles or jumping curbs in Lambos. Letting said idiots drive the streets in race cars is a bad idea. Not everyone has the skills of Sebastien Loeb.

    Reply
    1. Lokki Avatar
      Lokki

      I see too many videos of dumbasses wrapping Corvettes around electricity poles …

      Well this guy didn’t wrap his Vette around a pole!

      Reply
    2. Lokki Avatar
      Lokki

      I see too many videos of dumbasses wrapping Corvettes around electricity poles …

      Well this guy didn’t wrap his Vette around a pole!

      Reply
  6. outback_ute Avatar
    outback_ute

    Only in Europe I’d suggest, the car wouldn’t be in one piece after a trip otherwise!

    I’ve done it, although only an historic touring car. Still was an experience because the engine really didn’t want to know about anything below 3000.

    Reply
  7. Lokki Avatar
    Lokki

    Dude… this idea is sooo 1950. A stock Cadillac finished 10th overall at LeMans that year https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/beb343585b48287fa7bf4760650269249c1e591340a2a2872a91d0f5b56ec26f.jpg

    Reply
    1. Sjalabais Avatar
      Sjalabais

      I’d love to see racing become more like that again. Sure, the factory sponsored wheeled spaceships in professional sports are fun…but they are worlds removed from earth.

      Reply
      1. Zentropy Avatar
        Zentropy

        Exactly. It’s not race cars we need on the streets, it’s street cars we need to see racing.

        Reply
        1. mdharrell Avatar
          mdharrell

          I’m pretty sure I need both.

          Reply
  8. njhoon Avatar
    njhoon

    I can’t find it in my 30 seconds of googling but there is a picture of Larry Larson driving home in his Nova after winning the Summer Nats with the trophy in the passenger seat. (I’m pretty sure it was the summer Nats) that was pre Drag Week btw.

    Reply