FE

[jimh3063]

I had purchased an FE late last year. I own a few other race cars and only bought it because I thought it was a lot of car for 25K. I raced it this weekend at PBIR. What a cool little car.
For the money, I think it's tough to beat. I am curious what the number of cars on the track is so few?

Jimmy

[BURKY]

Jims new ride.

[mikey]

definitely a great car for the money, easy to drive and maintain and a ton of fun. relatively low cost as well. however they only made about 120 of them and it seems like about half are "in hiding".. whether that means they only show up at local track days, are stored in garages, or disassembled is hard to say. Spread the rest out over the regions I think they can be accounted for. SE has some of the best gatherings still it seems, but also a good group in the midwest.
USF2000 doesn't run that car anymore so there's no longer a pro series for them. But only seems 1-3 available for sale at any given time. I speculate the low resale value causes many of those who invested new to just hang onto them.
Noting FM as a comparable speed car, albeit much older chassis, but similar running costs, they built 300+ of those and subsequently you see about 2.5x the number of entries, sometimes more.
one can't forget the plethora of open wheel classes and options, so with exception of the "ultra cheap" (that's relative) classes, you just don't see "big fields" of mid cost spec cars.

you'll enjoy the heck out of it in FL though, really good group of FE guys down there. Look for Wally O. especially at the next event, his car is red with yellow flames and his grandson Brandon Kennedy often runs the car instead of himself. Wally graciously let me hang out in the paddock with him and learn about FE. Chet was also another great guy to meet.

cheers,
Mike

[BURKY]

+1 for Wally and Brandon. Mikey, next time you see Brandon, ask him about the boat.

[steve everard]

My son and I have owned an FE for 2 years and are having an blast. The main points are that it allows the drivers to compete on a level playing field with a spec car instead of a competition between crews and $$$$$$$. I have learned how to look after the car without years of experience and we have been able to run very competitively. I would love to see more car counts but actually we have a great group of people and that really matters to us. It's a lot of car for your money.......

[mikey]

+1 for Wally and Brandon. Mikey, next time you see Brandon, ask him about the boat.

Yeah I knew he races that too.. nice shots of it, did you get to see him run it? his interview after the runoffs last year for his podium 3rd place (albeit there was some attrition that race) cracked me up.. he's a podium runoffs finisher in his rookie year and he says "I'm really a boat racer, I just do cars for sort of a hobby"