[wobbler]

Originally Posted by DonMoore10 A team friend of mine is buying the Esslinger ST. Seems to me that the cost wit ha few extras thrown in is around $23-24,000. Still way too much money. I don't think that engine is going to be competitive, say, at Granite City.

Are you exaggerating a little there Don?? I bought an ST 12 months ago had it airfreighted here to Australia paid all the taxes, government duties etc and it cost me not much more thane the figures you are quoting and all that I had to supply to complete the motor was a muffler!!!! So either the price of the ST has gone up heaps (not likely) or your friend is getting just quite a few extras thrown in!!!! :headbang

One thing that always gets me is people exaggerating the prices of engines!!!! Sure there are a couple of builders that charge around the $50k mark for a new motor but I can assure you there are a lot more that a priced well under that cost and have more results on the board too!!!:angry-smiley-007:

[DonMoore10]

That's no exaggeration. He quoted me the invoice with several extras that he ordered with it. You can buy a new Sesco Mopar for that, maybe a bit cheaper.

Hope you make it to Toledo, Jason. I may have some items to help you out there. Email me.

[48modracer]

Originally Posted by jdull99 Don, you beat me to the "#56" post on this topic! Anyway, I believe that just to get that ST completed and shipped out here would be every bit of that amount you mentioned. Esslinger & Fontana are really the only ones branding an engine for that purpose and offering it for that "affordable" price (and I hate to say anything against it), but the reality is that is still a LOT of money. As hard as I have tried, it is way beyond anything that I can come up with. Of coarse, then you have the real "low-budget" $12,500+ Ford Focus. Wonder how that could rank with some of these diluted car counts? 48modracer, can you tell me when that ST finished 2nd at SP this year? As I had seriously considered this option, that information intrigues me. Thank-you. Jason Dull 815 494 6002 jdull99@hotmail.com jasondull.com (For all the Racing News)

I apologize, the second was at Belle-Claire, it was actually a third last season at the Prairie. http://www.bmara.com/2007/results/7_22/7_22.htm We did not fare so well at the Prairie this year with mechanical issues the first time and then getting upside down pretty hard on the second visit. Also ran decent there in 2006 with the old style esslinger. #86 Spike w/Justin Allgaier.

[48modracer]

Don, I might be nuts, but I actually think that Hoosier would sell more tires. The elite guys are still going to buy tires as often as they can. The difference would be the guys that have cars that currently do not race them. If you can lower their tire bill they could run more. More cars often brings better racing and more fans, which could mean better purses.

As far as the tire price difference on the focus tires, I suspect that there are a couple of factors. The fee that the sanction takes is probably a big part of that. In modifieds for example, IMCA modified tires are cheaper than UMP modified tires due in part to the fee collected by the sanction per tire. I am sure that Kevin Miller would tell you what their take is per tire from Hoosier. I honestly would not be surprised if the margins on tires were higher for the sanctioning bodies than what the Hoosier tire dealer makes.

Originally Posted by DonMoore10 Good post, but when Hoosier has a monopoly, are you going to knock yourself out making a better tire with the result of fewer sales? Why are the Hoosier Focus tires sold at around $100 while the full midget tires sell for $140-180? And obviously, Hoosier is contributing a good sum of money to the orgs in exchange for the monopoly. How much is that???? Who gets some of it at the end of the season.. this is, point fund? Isn't it only the top ten in points? Seems to me that if you can afford to run the entire org schedule, you are going to wind up in the top 10. So it appears to me that the elite teams get the benefit of the tire point fund money. Everybody else is paying to the nose for tires and not getting a benefit.

[DonMoore10]

This thread has been going on now for several days and not a word from Mr. Miller or POWRi. It's business as usual.:thumbsdown:

[DAD]

I'm kind of new at this but i've been running mini sprints for several years. You guys are talking about throwing away tires that we would consider new. The tire we ran on last week ran the chili bowl 2 yeara ago and we probably have 4 or 5 races on them since then. Find a way to pool your resources and collect these old junk tires and sell them to your lesser brethren. A heat tire would be great for our featuer tire maybe 2 or 3 features. I bet there is a market there and it would help every one.

[RACER99W]

Low dollar midget guys quit crying, there is an alternative.
Buy a sprint car.
Me and Chad have and now we are competitive.
Speeking for myself we are about as low budget as they get and since we have went non wing sprint car racing we have won two track championships,and we are second in points at two tracks this year and won two features at Danville with 30 or more cars with a $7500.00 steel block 360. Just goes to show sprint cars non wing are more driver and set up than $$$$. Low dollar guys quit racing midgets with USAC and let those ten teams run by there selves for a year or two and sooner or later the price of them have to start coming down.There are plenty of non wing racing and you only have to have 1 right rear tire, i have ran the same two right rears all year, and we also get 30 to 35 nights on a 2500.00 overhaul!
My two cents. Scott Weyant