You, RaceEngineering, say you're looking for a market: this starts with understanding price sensibility.
Well, first, hello, nice to "meet" you. Great thread, thanks.
Second, as mentioned, if your target is commodity prices (or, in English, "dirt cheap") you have to be a dominant player in the market.
Starting small trying to sell, I don't know, oranges, which are a commodity, is a waste of money and time. You must know that, of course.
Third, an example of a marketing research well done is the partnership of Elán, Toyo Tires and NASA. The cost of the car is 55.000 dollars, not because it's cheap but because it maximizes income, which is the starting point of entrepreneurship. Read a little, please:
https://www.nasaproracing.com/news/2014 ... t_pri_show
They are trying to hit a sweet spot with teams, NOT individuals. There is money in that.
This thread seems to have started 50 years late. A very low price for INDIVIDUAL racing might work, but not without capital and a strong ad campaign. Hence, you are looking for a small car, with a small engine, with a bare bones chassis, one that can take damage because you have crazy and unpredictable adolescents racing.
Some people (Flyn?) point to the fact of karts already invented.
A very clear alternative is to follow the path of people smarter than you (well, as a minimum, smarter than me, something not that hard but also not that easy: people can tell you I know racing culture).
Formula Ford or Lotus Seven are very intelligent (and affordable and available racing cars) with a market already developed, promoted and findable in the Interwebs, a market that includes old timers and young guns.
Their idea? Simple: race in a replica (or a rebuilt version) of an OLD car.
Lotus 51, 1967 competition devised to keep costs low. Back then.
That's a car that can make people in this forum dream. DREAM: with a capital D, a capital R, etc.
Classic cigar shaped car, tyres that can run for two or three seasons at the four or five races per season that a regular aficionado can realistically race, a stock Ford Engine with five bearings, single Weber carburetor.
Heck, it's so simple that people would LOVE to learn how to tune this thing. You can earn more money by convincing people to buy a replica and tune it themselves in your (really?) own circuit than by racing.
Why people love baseball? Because it reminds them of a forgotten, already gone era, pastoral, with a slow time, where things were in control of people with two hands and a brain.
Same goes for old school racing: most people in this forum POSITIVELY hates their cars because they cannot touch them (unless they want to spend 10.000 dollars in parts, not in leisure time).
Even a Golf is untouchable for a regular person that could fix an old engine with a set of screwdrivers, a synchronizing gun and some gauges. These days are gone for the regular commuter that sees his car not as an investment or a thing to take care of, but a thing that is just an expenditure.
There is your market: in the people that hates modern racing (and judging by this forum, they are a majority!).
Do you remember when garages had pinups on the walls? Well, they do too, I bet.
Following that train of thought, of the aficionados to old school racing, well, you want to distribute investment and expenses among many people, but not so many that they have total disregard for equipment, if I've understood the thread.
There you have a great idea, free of charge:
You can LEASE them old school cars to groups of people, the same way time sharing hotels work.
If, I don't know, five or six people join efforts, they can have you selling and maintaining the car and also learning from you how to race and tune the car.
These are not entry level racers: they are middle aged guys that dream of racing and want to "racepool" (I demand a copyright on that name for the series, if you use it), instead of carpooling.
That's a good idea, if I have to say it.
I can imagine a queue of hipsters from Leed to London...
Darn hipster queues
That's what an entrepreneur lives of: people's dreams, if I'm also the one who has to say it.
So, what is our dream? You don't argue with the forum, you ask them provocative things.
For example: would you spend, I don't know, 2.000 dollars per year for a car that belongs to you and your set of five friends?
What are the things that would make you spend more (or less)? More races? Really? Can you race 20 times per year? I didn't think so.
A vintage car that is leased to you... how much would you spend?
What is your dream racing car?
Nobody in this forum wants to race a Golf. Do I have to say that?
So, stop arguing about brake pads prices and develop a questionnaire, for the love of Pete.
A smart one, please: it's for people like Miguel, Flynnfrog, Tim.Wright and the other guys that have participated in this thread. They all have cars that can outperform a Golf any day of the week, but none is an open wheeler with the coolest of looks (and affordable tyres!) like a Lotus 51.
Anyone of them would pay money just to don a helmet in the style of Jim Clark and take a selfie, preferably with a girl in a miniskirt at their side.
Btw, have I already said I would spend half the money in pit babes instead of stupid things like roll cages, safety belts, fireproof apparel, marshalls and instructors?
Some of them could work for minimum wage. That would assure AT LEAST half the capital, if they go with you to the presentation of the idea, btw.
Heck, if you're looking for partners, look for decent ones...
