As you all know, I'm one of those W2W knuckleheads... I've done the HPDE thing, the TT thing, and now the race thing. Along the way, I've raced in most of the classes that you can stick a Mustang into...
TT: As has been mentioned,
relatively cheap, you can use a street car, but not if you want to be seriously competitive. Triple-adjustable dampers that need rebuilds every 1K miles or so do not make a car DD friendly... These days, though, that's the level of prep you need to be really competitive.
CMC: Raced an SN95 for a while, GREAT SERIES. Yes, $10K will get you started, and there is a serious premium on driving skills over how you built the car.
PTB: Essentially the W2W version of TT, uses the same point system, so the two cross-class perfectly. Full safety package is, of course, required, but there's a lot you can do, and a lot of different ways you can spend the points on an 05-10 S197 to keep it in PTB, which is now the highest "letter class" out there. Note that a "perfect PT build" will not necessarily be competitive in TTB, as there can be some subtle design concepts that you'd want to focus on for each discipline.
ST3/ST2: This class can be a surprising money pit. It's a nearly pure power-weight class (modifiers for factory aero in ST3 only, tire and other modifiers in all classes), but with an open rule set comes with a need for an open checkbook. Also, there is a native disadvantage to the S197 running here. Aero drag. We're up against the C5Z06 Mafia in ST3, and C6Z06 in ST2. Open aero rules means that you're looking at big wings, splitters, cunards, dive planes, vented fenders, etc. We start with the Cd of a garage door, they start with the Cd of a bullet. At short, power tracks, there is parity, but at anywhere with LONG straights, we're toast.
SI: Spec Iron is a new class, aimed squarely at the FR500S market and concept. It's a
spec series, so a (theoretically) level playing field that makes it a pure driver's battle. The cars are fast, have righteous bits on them, and it's growing.
AI: This is where I am now. Limited aero rules, hard HP and TQ ratios, spec tires, and almost unlimited engine and suspension mods allowed within the power caps. Unlike Mike's assertion, $25K is NOT an entry level car. Plan on something more like $80-90K. Lots of carbon fiber, good aero parts, etc. The Boss 302S is so nearly a perfect AI car that people have joked about this being "Spec Mustang," and not AI.
AIX: This is nearly a "sky's the limit" class. Take a car, cage it, keep the greenhouse structure, the firewall, and the front frame stubs, and the rest is fair game. NO power caps, NO tire specs, etc. VERY EXPENSIVE! I haven't read the rules in a while, but I remember some scuttlebutt about going to a pure N/A motor requirement, since the turbo motors were just starting to get silly. 1,XXX horsepower out of a 347 stroker? Sure, THAT'LL last a full season...
Now, as to why racing and not TT? Adrenaline. With TT your entire focus is on executing that one, perfect lap. The car is built to do exactly that, and only that. Run more than 2-3 laps, and the tires go away, the brakes go away, the motor gets hot... It requires laser-focus, and is extremely rewarding when you are able to execute at that level of precision. To give you an example, I lost the 2011 regional championship by a total of
one thousandth of a second. If I had just taken a crap before I went out, that would have been the margin of victory.
Now, look at W2W. Picture yourself surrounded by 8-10 other ground-pounding V8 track cars, all in the same power-weight neighborhood rolling along the track at 35mph with less than a car-length between you and the guy ahead, AND the guy behind. There's also another car to the left of each of you, mere inches off your door. As you roll through the final corner, your attention narrows to the guy in the starter stand, waiting to see the twitch of his shoulder which would be the start of his throwing the green flag to start the race. You see the twitch. You MASH the gas pedal down, and get a slight jump on the guys around you. Bouncing off the limiter, you smack the shifter up into 3rd gear, still foot to the floor, but starting to pull away from the car next to you and the ones behind. Spotting a 7' wide gap between the two cars ahead of you, you start to slip your nose in between them, pulling hard through 3rd gear and going up into fourth, until you hit the braking zone. Knowing that you're not completely up to speed, you elect to go just a tick deeper before getting onto the binders and that slots you neatly in between the two cars that were ahead of you, and are now flanking you on either side, all three of you hard on the brakes, tails up and wagging, with literally inches between your mirrors. As you turn in for the fast T1, you KNOW that your tires aren't up to temp yet, so you're a bit off on grip, but so is everybody else. No trail-braking this time, just maintenance throttle to keep the car tight, and as the inside car bounces two tires on the berm to the right, you start to squeeze into the throttle, trusting that he's not going to slide up into you. As you add the gas, your rear end starts to slip out, and you're doing minute counter-steering, trying to hold your line, not hit the guy to your left who's crowding you trying to stay out of the marbles, and not GET hit by the guy on your right. Heart pumping? Oh yeah, and that's just the first corner! It gets even MORE interesting when you're battling for position and either catch slower traffic, or get run over by the insane AIX machines, or the ST1 Vipers, who are ALSO battling. That, my friends, is why I race. TT is NOT boring, but the level of sustained adrenaline and "need to execute" that exists in the W2W is in a completely different category compared to TT. And Autocross? Do what you enjoy, of course, but I haven't heard of very many people that have done HPDE that say "yeah, that was cool and all, but I'd really rather be hunting cones in a parking lot." TT is HPDE on steroids. And what was that quote? "Racing makes heroin addiction feel like a vague craving for something salty." Whoever said that had the right of it.
No, it's not for everybody, it's taxing mentally, draining physically, and ruinous financially, but in all honestly it's so much fun that it really should be illegal!
