MVS Racing

Post by **matthew1** » 21 May 2011, 11:25

Yea, really. My buddy and I might buy a 2001 S60 T5 w/ 180k miles at an auction coming up on Monday, and then race it.

He's a Nissan guy himself, but figures with my connections we'd be better off racing a Volvo. He'll be driving, I'll be managing.

If everything goes well with the purchase, we will -- by necessity* -- start slow, keep it as a daily driver for him for a while so he can start getting a feel for it.

(We might have a roll bar and a baby seat in the car at the same time. He's got a 2-and-a-half-year old. Ever seen that?**)

It's going to be a big, fun, time-sucking good time. I'm crossing my fingers the car goes for our budget, and is ok in most areas that matter.

* also known as lack of money
** we will remove the child, and the child seat, before each race

Volvos rock3 · Post by **Volvos rock3** » 21 May 2011, 12:08

That sounds pretty cool, does Riccaro make baby seats, lol, keep us updated with plenty of pics

Post by **boosted5cyl** » 21 May 2011, 12:29

What kind of racing are you thinking of doing?

SimLyons · Post by **SimLyons** » 21 May 2011, 12:43

Sounds great!!! Is this SCCA? Racing is so much fun, and so much MORE fun when you have sponsors with very deep pockets.

Post by **matthew1** » 22 May 2011, 10:35

boosted5cyl wrote:What kind of racing are you thinking of doing?

SCAA http://www.coloradoscca.org/ IT EVERYTHING (ITE) Class

Volvos rock3 wrote:That sounds pretty cool, does Riccaro make baby seats, lol, keep us updated with plenty of pics

SimLyons wrote:Sounds great!!! Is this SCCA? Racing is so much fun, and so much MORE fun when you have sponsors with very deep pockets.

Maybe one day... until then, I think we'll be driving the car to races, and hoping to drive it home after.

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 22 May 2011, 18:50

Years ago I raced hydroplane boats - Y-88 - but I'm sure that some other team has long since picked up that number from IPBA.

We went to nationals in Oklahoma City one year for the "Big Prize Money" and the purse basically paid for the fuel that we used running the laps. It didn't cover the bail when I got arrested by the local constabulary for going into Lake Overholser without hip waders on to retrieve my teammate that had flipped the boat and crashed into a turn buoy.

One of the of the other competitors was a local lawyer and he dealt with my legal issues and I didn't need to drive back there. Racing families are very much like real families, they tend to have your back off the course even when they are trying to destroy you on the course. I didn't know the guy (the lawyer) from Adam but he totally dealt with legal things without a fee.

Racing also teaches you how to build engines and get things really right. I had a few instances that were catastrophically wrong but you learn from mistakes.

...Lee

Post by **jblackburn** » 23 May 2011, 08:22

What kind of course would you be doing?

I did a track day in my S70 a few months after getting it - bone stock, hadn't done anything to it at that point. This track is set up like a road course - lots of sweeping bends and one huge straightaway. While the off-the-line performance is terrible, the T5 is actually great for circuit racing - even with a stupid automatic transmission; 2nd gear is almost just right for it since it pulls from like 40 on up to 80 and it goes like hell. I was keeping up with most of the 6-cylinder BMW's out there, outran the Mustangs - not bad considering it's FWD and you have to wait a bit more to get back on the power coming out of corners, and most of the 4-cylinder cars were no match at all (stupid little Miatas). My friend had a 740 Turbo at the time that he took out as well.

There were some people with some pretty crazy cars there too. Ferraris, Porsches, Vipers...they're CRAZY fast.

Definitely throw on a strut brace and suspension upgrades. I don't know about the S60, but the S70 likes to throw its tail out if you corner too fast. Then there's always the FWD understeer and turbo lag you've gotta find a happy balance between. If I'm driving fast in corners, I leave it in "L" and "sport" and manually upshift to 3rd when I need it - that way it holds on to 2nd and you don't have to wait on the tranny to downshift and the turbo to spool up again.

Post by **matthew1** » 24 May 2011, 11:13

Justin, I don't know what the courses are like... they will be whatever the SCAA runs their Colorado events on.

My buddy didn't get the S60

It went for $3k, and his budget was less. Back to looking.

Post by **jblackburn** » 24 May 2011, 11:17

You can buy me this:

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/2399600809.html
That 6 would be the first thing to go...

And you can have my car!

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 04 Jun 2011, 06:43

I found the MVS Race Car.

http://kansascity.craigslist.org/cto/2414709798.html

...Lee