Kinda a different spin on their build a budget racer they do each year. Now it's all about track times. I see a couple Sentra's and a nice 350Z setting up. Not sure who I'll vote for quite yet...

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/new...-challenge.php

http://www.cardomain.com/features/grm

 

Yeah I saw that too....

you ever hang out on the GBR forums, brian?

 

Don't think so. GBR?

 

er...I meant GRM. My typing hands are clearly drunk.

 

Do you?
I got GRM after I joined NASA northeast after my first track day at Pocono, I went on the forum around then, but that was it. What I do might be too specific for GRM forums though, still enjoy the mag even though I no longer subscribe, and haven't for a while. NASA pissed me off around the time of the whole Konig rim/NASA membership fiasco...then NASA northeast went almost belly up and sold out to PDA.

 

NASA has its ups and downs, but is overall a pretty good club. they're having a rough time of it, trying to compete on the 'real racing' scene with SCCA, and with the track day guys going to BMWCCA, PCA, Vette clubs, ViperDays, etc. so many places to go.. NASA is trying to help bridge the gap between street car/weekend track toy to dood-to-door racing. So many people think they can't go racing because it's too expensive and the learning curve is so steep. That's where NASA comes in and makes that distinction a bit easier to do..

they also have tons of one-make classes like the SE-R cup, Spec Miata, Spec RX-7, etc.

the problem is, they got a bad rap around here for being lax on rules compared to the SCCA, and many of the Spec Miata racers (which is 50% of our club racing scene) quit NASA in favor of SCCA.

Anyway, I haven't had time to look at the recent GRM stuff. I've subscribed for a couple years, but am considering letting my subscription go. they're always interesting articles that I want to read initially, but they talk like they're going to go "in depth" on a subject, then only touch the surface. I see an article on "Dyno tuning- all the in depth stuff for your dyno day" Then I open up to the article and get pretty much "here's a dyno. make sure your car has plenty of gas to run and the engine is in good condition."

 

Honestly, my NASA experience was great, the people were good, both at Pocono and at the one Giants stadium auto-x I went to. If I had the option, I would do another track day with NASA, but I think they're done up here. The thing that pissed me off with NASA had nothing to do with the people, the national office made some type of agreement with Konig, then Konig yanked the deal, and NASA nor Konig handled that well, it was the national office of NASA. The local people is/were great.

 

I love GRM only because a couple times a year you do find info that won't be published anywhere else and that's worth the price of subscription. (Actually sorry I didn't do the lifetime membership when they offered). I don't spend time online over there as much of it is out of my world.

 

Actually, I really enjoy those forums. They're fairly active for a small group, and the discussion is always friendly - no flaming or anything. Plus, if there's some wierd project you're thinking about doing with a car, someone over there has already done it and can help you out. I like GRM forums because it's not about who has the 500whp Evo or the Supercharged 350z - it's about normal people who buy normal cars and then make something special out of them without spending $10k doing it...It's almost a badge of honor to have a cheesy/rare/unique/crappy car that can still perform on the track.

 

it harbors the underdog which is what makes them special...

someday I want to enter the $2006 challenge...or by then it might be the $2010 challenge with a beater of some sort...maybe a b13 se-r at a junkyard

I just wish they did another tire test comparing some of the newer entries in r compounds and street compounds...they only did that one a long time ago, and it was hugely informative...but they were missing a few keys tires, and now there are even some new entries on the tire scene...

 

yeah, me too....seems like a blast
I was still subscribing when that came out, and I agree, they did a good test. I think they used a Spec-V and a Miata, so it was both fwd and rwd, good article.