A sportsracer is a road racing car, by that I mean it races on a road course, not on the public roads, unless they are of course closed. Funny sentence eh? Anyway, sportsracers are usually open top racing cars that have a body mounted that covers the wheels as viewed from above, from the side they look much like a convertible street car with the driver's head all poking out in the wind.
In the much lamented Can-Am series from the 60's and 70's the cars were sportsracers. Big, hairy chested sportsracers, but sportsracers none the less. These monsters had big horsepower and light weight, very few rules and drivers who feared no evil. If you ever wanted to experience what strapping a big block V8 to your backside might feel like, then an original Can-Am car was for you. You should leave your fear of death or injury behind as these cars were fearsome and deadly. The reward for driving them was just as big as the potential downside. It's the conundrum of racing, if the lows weren't so low, the highs would not be so high.
Nothing prepares you for the intensity of one of these animals, you strap in and look out over the nose of the car, feeling like you are sitting on the ground looking between your feet. You flip the switch and prod the starter button as the hounds from hell are unleashed behind you. There is little to compare to 500 cubic inches of unmuffled V8 right over your shoulder. A simply awe-inspiring device, those Can-Am cars.
The sportsracers of today are not quite as visceral, but their performance owes no-one an apology. Where their historical counterparts were best where they could unleash their awesome acceleration, the new cars just refuse to slow down in the corners. They grip to the road from a combination of extremely light weight, under 1000 pounds, great tires and almost unrestricted aerodynamic aids. These cars have tunnels under them that create downforce, shoving them to the ground and making the mid-corner speeds hard to describe. It's amazing to think of the performance levels these cars reach while using engines around 1000cc in size.
These cars are most seriously raced in the SCCA, Sports Car Club of America's club racing series. They are classed by engine size and weight, with DSR being the lighter and CSR being the heavier. The C sportsracers have been the historically faster class with their larger engines, but recently the D sportsracers have begun to surpass their big brothers in performance. A lot of this is due to their powerplants that come from today's sportbikes, one litre 200+ horsepower, 12,000 rpm wild animals. Until lfairly recently, the cars in the classes have been mostly built by their drivers but that has changed some as fpurpose built cars have begun to take over at the top of the fields.
The car that started the revolution was the Radical from England, it's a well built but heavy car that proved the concept of selling these types of race cars. They have been commercially succesful but on track they suffer from higher weights and limited aerodynamic development. The most competitively successful cars have been the ones from Lee Stohr in Portland, Oregon, his cars have set the pace for the last half a decade. His car utilizes the rules package to develop substantial aerodynamic downforce and are nearly able to meet the low, 900 pound with driver, minimum weights allowed in DSR.
The Stohr cars are definately the cars to catch. Some competitors have been the Speads from South Africa, the Maloy, Merloy and now Phoenix cars from Arizona and cars from Pat Prince's shop. There are others but so far no-one has been able to unseat the cars from Portland. Then along came the Mallen Alley car from Atlanta, Georgia. These cars have shown the pace to run with or faster than the competition and are in only their first year of development. This car is poised to take down the standing champ this year at the SCCA's national championship Runoffs.
If going faster than you have ever imagined around a race track is on your list of things to do, you should take the time to research the available packages available. I can promise you, you will find more performance than should be attainable from cars in this price range.
About the Author
In the much lamented Can-Am series from the 60's and 70's the cars were sportsracers. Big, hairy chested sportsracers, but sportsracers none the less. These monsters had big horsepower and light weight, very few rules and drivers who feared no evil. If you ever wanted to experience what strapping a big block V8 to your backside might feel like, then an original Can-Am car was for you. You should leave your fear of death or injury behind as these cars were fearsome and deadly. The reward for driving them was just as big as the potential downside. It's the conundrum of racing, if the lows weren't so low, the highs would not be so high.
Nothing prepares you for the intensity of one of these animals, you strap in and look out over the nose of the car, feeling like you are sitting on the ground looking between your feet. You flip the switch and prod the starter button as the hounds from hell are unleashed behind you. There is little to compare to 500 cubic inches of unmuffled V8 right over your shoulder. A simply awe-inspiring device, those Can-Am cars.
The sportsracers of today are not quite as visceral, but their performance owes no-one an apology. Where their historical counterparts were best where they could unleash their awesome acceleration, the new cars just refuse to slow down in the corners. They grip to the road from a combination of extremely light weight, under 1000 pounds, great tires and almost unrestricted aerodynamic aids. These cars have tunnels under them that create downforce, shoving them to the ground and making the mid-corner speeds hard to describe. It's amazing to think of the performance levels these cars reach while using engines around 1000cc in size.
These cars are most seriously raced in the SCCA, Sports Car Club of America's club racing series. They are classed by engine size and weight, with DSR being the lighter and CSR being the heavier. The C sportsracers have been the historically faster class with their larger engines, but recently the D sportsracers have begun to surpass their big brothers in performance. A lot of this is due to their powerplants that come from today's sportbikes, one litre 200+ horsepower, 12,000 rpm wild animals. Until lfairly recently, the cars in the classes have been mostly built by their drivers but that has changed some as fpurpose built cars have begun to take over at the top of the fields.
The car that started the revolution was the Radical from England, it's a well built but heavy car that proved the concept of selling these types of race cars. They have been commercially succesful but on track they suffer from higher weights and limited aerodynamic development. The most competitively successful cars have been the ones from Lee Stohr in Portland, Oregon, his cars have set the pace for the last half a decade. His car utilizes the rules package to develop substantial aerodynamic downforce and are nearly able to meet the low, 900 pound with driver, minimum weights allowed in DSR.
The Stohr cars are definately the cars to catch. Some competitors have been the Speads from South Africa, the Maloy, Merloy and now Phoenix cars from Arizona and cars from Pat Prince's shop. There are others but so far no-one has been able to unseat the cars from Portland. Then along came the Mallen Alley car from Atlanta, Georgia. These cars have shown the pace to run with or faster than the competition and are in only their first year of development. This car is poised to take down the standing champ this year at the SCCA's national championship Runoffs.
If going faster than you have ever imagined around a race track is on your list of things to do, you should take the time to research the available packages available. I can promise you, you will find more performance than should be attainable from cars in this price range.
About the Author
James Davis writes regularly about autos related topics. I hope you enjoy this article.
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