Well funded amateurs, your steed has arrived: Mustang Challenge
Fortunately or unfortunately, racing is not a cheap endeavor. No matter the series, it's all too easy to drop your life savings, your kid's college fund and any hope of making it to fiscal freedom if you've got the bug. For those willing to risk it all, the Mustang Challenge gives aspiring racers the opportunity to test their abilities in the wail of V8-powered, wheel-to-wheel combat.
The Miller Park Racing Association (MPRA) has setup the Mustang Challenge to allow amateurs to compete in a 14-race series that will be held at the Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele Valley, Utah.
For a grand total of $55,000, aspiring racers can purchase a modified Mustang GT, lightened by 330 pounds and sporting a revised intake, exhaust, braking, steering and suspension systems, along with a functional aero kit, prerequisite safety equipment and a data acquisitioning system. For those on the lower end of the economic spectrum, these modded 'Stangs will also be available for rent for practice sessions or on a per-race basis.
The Challenge will make its debut during the Magic of Miller Celebrity race over the Utah Grand Prix weekend. If someone needs a pit crew on their inaugural run, hit us up. A few of us have the chops and would love to live vicariously through a well-to-do reader.
[Source: Motorsport.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Liquid 11:05AM (5/22/2007)
OK Mustang haters, bring it on. Is this really diluting the Mustang brand image? *crickets*
Reply
ssgtakeo 11:16AM (5/22/2007)
Liquid, I think is the opposite of diluting the image. An affordable track car is what a lot of people have been looking for, for a long time. Why do you think the Miata is so popular for club racing?
Reply
Jackson 11:15AM (5/22/2007)
This isn't really another SE Mustang, it's just something you can buy for this particular event, it's not it's being sold at dealerships nation wide, nor will most people ever even hear about it. Neat concept though.
Reply
Mark 11:43AM (5/22/2007)
ferrari do something similar with the 360 modena, albeit for a hefty price increase (about £300,000 if memory serves, so about $600,000), you got a modded 360, entry to a year long race series, and even a pit crew to go with it (i think, that last bit may be wrong), at the end of the series you got to keep the 360, which was road legal, so it was actually a bit of a bargain in the grand scheme of things
Reply
Robz4 12:47PM (5/22/2007)
That seems like a pretty good deal considering the car is both street legal and race prepared.Looks nice too.
Reply
ViktorVaughan 2:54PM (5/22/2007)
This is great program and a great price!
Also, special edition Mustangs aren't bad, but special edition Shelby Mustangs are since they're just limited-edition markups for rich old guys.
Reply
johdaxx 3:15PM (5/22/2007)
Looks like a nice car, but I'd rather have a Spec Miata or Spec e30 for 'real' inexpensive racing.
Reply
Dave 3:37PM (5/22/2007)
"Shelby Mustangs are since they're just limited-edition markups for rich old guys."
The person who said this obviously has no clue what the hell he is talking about.
Oh yeah...and for the record..I am 26 yrs old not some rich old guy.
Reply
naggs 12:24PM (5/24/2007)
i agree, shelby mustangs are rediculously overpriced option packages. of the 4 or 5 or 6 only the shelby 500 is actually worthy of its name and price.
Reply
naggs 5:45PM (5/22/2007)
i agree. with the exception of the 500gt, the shelby mustangs are rediculously overpriced option packages that do not deserve the shelby badge let alone their premium price.
Reply
David S. 7:19PM (5/22/2007)
I remember reading some hints about this in the Grassroots Motorsports issue where they did a comparo between the GrandAm-only FR500C and the original Shelby GT350R. They showed an earlier version of this Miller Mustang as a less-expensive stopgap to the "Boy Racer" FR500C.
NASA (the auto-sport assn., not the space agency) runs a neat Spec Focus series too. Price of entry runs from $12k on up, depending on how cheap your donor car is.
So theoretically you could start in Spec Focus and end up running GT3 races in Europe with the "Man Racer" FR500R.
"Total Performance," anyone?
Reply
Melissa Smith 12:02AM (5/23/2007)
Nice Try!
Reply