The Cost of Racing a Featherlite Modified

For those of you who are interested, here is a rough breakdown of the major costs tied up with racing this style of car.

Over the past few seasons, many different powerplants could be found under the hoods of Mod Tour Cars. Some of the names I have seen are: Nats Racing Engines, Hutter, Bob Bruneau, Performance Technology, Stapleton, Caraccia, Horsepower Engineering, Tony's Competition. This is a major spread of new engine builders from past years. It used to be that there were three or so major players that built the engines for most of the field, but that has changed drastically. I believe that one factor is cost. A brand new motor will set you back about $35,000 - $45,000.

In 1999, NASCAR allowed a newer style cylinder head to be used, which is an 18-degree design. After one season's worth of racing, it is obvious that these newer style cylinder heads made more power with less modifications. So, to be competitive everyone has to buy this new motor configuration to stay even. This "monkey see monkey do" mentality has caused a major rise in racing costs in this division. With other motor builders in the mix now, maybe engine cost can be reigned in a bit since now teams can go shopping for the best deal. For the race team on a budget, this is a welcome change.

Despite being assembled with the highest-strength materials allowed, these motors are treated very gently. To get the most horsepower from the motors, these engines do not have typical oil pans, just a metal plate that acts to seal off the bottom end of the motor. All the oil circulates from a tank usually placed behind the driver's area. As soon as the oil flows through the top of the motor, it starts its travel downward to the bottom of the motor and out through several large hoses back to the tank. Why do this? Well, at the RPM's that these cars turn (7000-8000+), any oil left near the cranshaft will whip up and wind around the crank like taffy, slowing the crankshaft down, robbing horsepower. So, evacuating the oil from from the motor as soon as possible keeps the crankshaft spinning free and clean. A heater built into the oil tank keeps it warm and thin--thick oil steals power,so the thinner the better (within reason of course).

After logging about 1000 laps, the motor is pulled out of the car, put in a crate and sent back to the motor builder where all the major components that could possibly fail or break are replaced. An average cost to freshen up a tired motor is around $5500

Up until 2000, there were two main brands of racing tires available to competitors--Goodyear and Hoosier. If given the choice, most racers would opt to stay with the Goodyear brand since they have been in the business of designing racing tires for much longer than Hoosier. Hoosiers are viewed as the "new tire on the block", and most racers won't touch them. Each brand of tire has different requirements as far as how much pressure should be in each tire, how long they should last before they need to be changed during a pit stop, etc. Hoosier tires came on very strong in 2000, with many winning cars using them. They had been improving step by step over the past several years, but it appears as if they are now good enough to run with the Goodyear-shod cars. Effective for the 2001 season, Hoosier became the sole tire distributor for the Featherlite Modified Series.

As far as cost goes, each Goodyear costs around $175 a pop, while the Hoosiers come in at around $145. So now you figure you will need to burn up a set (four tires) for practice, then you will bolt on a new set for time trials/beginning of the race, and then NASCAR allows you to change between 3-4 tires during pit stops. The common strategy is the three-tire stop, usually the left front is kept on the car since most folks believe it is the tire that gets abused the least, so it should last--HAH! So, to compete in a race with good tires will cost you around $2100!. When you look at how much money you can win, you usually need to finish in the top 5 to pay for your tires...any lower and you are losing money...

There are several different companies currently producing chassis for the Tour. Troyer and Spafco and the two largest fabricators, each company having been around since the start of the Featherlite Modified Tour. Other companies that design chassis include Raceworks, Chassis Dynamics, Diablo and Nudyne. This is by no means a complete listing...these are the styles that I have seen at the tracks so far...

The cost for a bare chassis or "roller" will run about $17,000. Once you add all the components: brakes, wheels, fuel cell, all the electrical and fuel lines, body panels....basically complete except for motor, you are probably up over $22,000. You are better off buying someone's complete chassis at the end of the racing season since they have done all the assembly work for you and you can probably get it at a reduced cost...just be sure you tear everything apart and check EVERYTHING before you go racing with it...

All these manufacturers fabricate chassis that must adhere to very strict guidelines concerning tube thickness, material type, construction of the driver's area and actual chassis design. After a string of fatal accidents in the 1980's, NASCAR, drivers and the chassis makers got together to come up with a more safely engineered race car that would bend during a crash, thereby transferring less impact to the driver.

Every year these companies upgrade their chassis styles. Changes can be small...possibly allowing for a longer panhard bar or they can be large...changing the placement of the engine in the car. Whatever the case is, everyone has their own favorites. I have only worked on Troyer type cars and they do need a bit of help to get them to behave on the race track. Now I know why these cars are called "Modifieds". We are constantly cutting out tubes, rewelding bars, moving suspension locations, etc. effectively reworking the chassis to where we are happy with it.

So, why don't we have the company produce a chassis the way we want? Troyer cars are essentially mass-produced for lack of a better word. They are in the business of producing "cookie cutter" style chassis, and to pay special attention to one car would be cost prohibitive. So, we take what they give us, cut it apart and rework it...Someday we will try another style of chassis to see if life gets any easier...