Hello all, I've been doing some thinking after being in contact with an FB guy who's selling his car to buy an FE. He is understandably not happy with the course FB is going especially in regards to the engine rules/costs and reliability issues. After reading through other class threads I see most involve significant discussions with the problems the participants are having and in particular cost and of course the usually problems with getting in class competition to show up at the tracks. When looking at the FE discussions it has a much different tone than than most others especially with the regular decent sized group of FE's at regional/national events here in the midwest.
Since getting into FE I've been curious as to why it hasn't become a larger class in the last 11 or so years since it's inception. I know the FE had it's share of teething problems but they have been worked out years ago. I biggest hit I hear against FE is that it is a spec series but I don't understand how that is a negative at all? I don't know of any pro open wheel racecars that aren't spec. Indy Car, Indy Lights, and all of the Mazda Road To Indy programs. I'm not going to dog any other class as there are some very cool and interesting cars and awesome people that I've met that run in them. But if the the masses agree that the biggest hit to club racing in the US is cost, then why not run FE? Somebody just had a sweet FE with spares, new gears, fully updated and sold it for a mere $20k! If you can't afford to buy that car and run it for a full year then I don't know what class you could afford to run period. Even though this year I suffered from some technical difficulties my first year running the FE it was due to my ignorance to the CDS data system which had an incorrectly set water temp channel (CDS is awesome BTW) I still had a blast running the car and the fields were tight with good racing all around.
I know many people have the deep pockets to pay for constant development but it's usually only the top three people in any development class that can afford to run at the front. I am not sure why others even bother TBH. In FE, any car with a proper setup should be capable to win in any event and the reliability of the thing is ridiculous. What's not to like? Why do you guys think more people haven't turned to FE? In the mean time, I'm looking forward to next year and can't wait to get back on the track!