Cost to set up and run a Champ car Atlantic team????

[AndyUK]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone can give me a good idea on the setup and running costs for the new CC Atlantic series for 2006. I’m looking far in to the future at the moment as we are currently trying to set up a Renault 1600 team for the Belgium series 2006, but it doesn't harm to plan ahead as we need to have an idea what cost we are likely to incur in the next five years. America like Belgium have good racing with reasonable costs, and yes i know the question is a bit of a no brainer as five years is a long time and for all we know the series may have well gone to the motorsport heaven by then. Is there a web site where im likely to find any clues????

[Snrub]

Next year they're predicting costs of around $800k to run an Atlantics car. Champ Car costs have been said to be somewhere around the $5M mark, but I suspect that they're lower today.

Send an email to Champ Car and ask them. I'm sure they'd be more than happy to give you some info.

[AndyUK]

Thanks, is that the price for a drive or the price to run a car?? because we in england are being told that the cost of a drive is $600-$750k

[Snrub]

I've read that's the cost to run. I could easily be off by a bit. PM jjspierx he'd probably have an even better idea because he runs in the circle of people who actually participate in such things.

[AndyUK]

thanks very much

[okeefe]

Thanks for this - it's interesting to read. What, just for the heck of it, what would you ballpark F1 at?

[Snrub]

F1? A big problem is that you would need to put up the ~$60M bond for two years, or whatever it is.

With the elimination of the 10% qualifying rule, if one wanted to be ridiculous you could probably buy an old Arrows chasis for a few hundred thousand, get and older V10 Cosworth (or buy a year's worth from Cosworth for say $5M+) and run it with an off the shelf ECU. You could probably find a used transmission out there too. You could then have someone design regulation conforming front and rear wing if the 2005 Minardi parts weren't available. You could buy the tires from Avon. Then you have transportation and maintanance costs. If you did it ridiculously as I've suggested you could probably do it for <$10M/year for two cars. You would run around 20 seconds off the pace though.

In a realistic scenerio an F1 team needs at least $150M/year. To have a chance at being competitive they need more like $300M/year.

[okeefe]

wowy. As I'm sure you know - I was just curious. Thanks for the info - it's interesting to know some of the business angles of the sport too!

[AndyUK]

I know Minardi had a budget at around £21 mill pounds last year about $37 mill
Ferrari was i think around $400 mill, Ever wondered why Minardi never won anything!!!!
Champ car I'm told is about $8 mill for the team Australia ex walker racing , and they run mid field. Newman Haas have a budget around $14-15 mil, so in my opinion Champ Car is excellent value racing with out a doubt. I know Champ car isn't in the same league as F1 and as a Brit. i should be firmly behind F1, but i still find Champ Car just as exciting and two of the three times they came to England i must say i enjoyed it better than F1 and for one third of the price too, plus it included pit passes and we were able to meet the drivers and get up close to the cars. F1 you would be lucky to see a driver!!! Brands Hatch Champ Car race was pretty crap as it was more like a a precession of mothers taking their kids to school, to many cars and not enough track as they used the very short Indi track.

O.K. while we are on the subject of Money what sort of Budget do Indi Car cost per season, not that I'm thinking of buying one of course, I'm just inquisitive as to the varying costs between the two US series and I'm wondering if Champ Car’s lower budgets are what is making the pendulum swing back towards them, or could it be the fact that Indi Car have moved toward more street and conventional tracks rather than just oval tracks. Personally that’s what i like most about Indi Car is the oval circuits. Your Views please?????

[AndyUK]

[QUOTE=Snrub]F1? if one wanted to be ridiculous you could probably buy an old Arrows chasis for a few hundred thousand, get and older V10 Cosworth (or buy a year's worth from Cosworth for say $5M+) and run it with an off the shelf ECU.

Only problem is, the regulation's specify that you have to be a car constructor and you have to design the car and build it yourself, engines can be bought from Cosworth or anyone else for that matter, but Cosworth is a very good reliable engine and costs are minimal compared to constructing you own engine, Sadly the Cosworth isn't as competitive as the manufactures team engines as we have seen in the Minardi and Red Bull Racing this year. The new Squadra Toro Rosso (Red Bull Junior team ex Minardi) is using an old updated Arrows Chassis next year so im told, as it will exempt them from any design and construction costs next year. Paul Stoddart owned the intellectual right’s to the stillborn 2002 Arrows chassis that was developed but never used.

[macdaddy]

This story states that a new Atlantic car will cost $79,500, ($28,500 less than last year).

[AndyUK]

Thanks very much, that seems like a very realistic cost for a pritty advanced racing car??

[Boro]

Andy:

seeing as how you're on the other side of the pond, why not venture in the Euro Frenault or British / Eurseries F3?

with the popularity of GP2 on the rise, that could be another option over CC?