WHo knows about Formula First?

Wow, somebody in the Northwest finally noticed!

Yes, FST is a VERY VERY interesting class and is taking off in the midwest and now, the southeast. Simply put, it's a FV with uprated suspension, disc brakes, wider tires and a new engine that costs $3,600 carb to clutch versus $6,000 for an all out National class FV engine! They are capable of lap times that puts them in about the low part of the upper 1/4 of FF's with the operating cost associated with FV's ! I cannot imagine why some NW racers aren't jumping all over this. To top it off, they are darn COOL looking with the wider tires.

APEXSPEED has an entire Forum section divoted to FST:
http://www.apexspeed.com/forums/
 
Last edited:
It is interesting and I think the only reason they haven't picked up is tradition.. Simply put, most people who drive FVs have been driving FV for 20, 30, 40 years and won't bother converting cars or changing classes. The ones who would consider converting, have no interest in lapping by themselves or splitting the already low number of entries in half!

I'm not clever enough to convert my car and move into a new class without lots of support from the other racers - I guarantee that if every other vee driver in BC switched to FST, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Never having to adjust the damned brake shoes again is enough to win me over haha. But I'll stick to whatever has the biggest fields and the best support, and right now, in BC, that's FV.

I'm not sure the engine costs are a good argument though - FST is a regional SCCA class, and will most likely always stay a regional class if the people who started have anything to say about it. A regional FV engine isn't more expensive than a regional FST engine, but make it a national class, with the runoffs at stake, and watch them figure out ways of spending ridiculous amounts on FST engines too!
 
Kyle,

I do not know anything about FST cars. If you are looking to get into formula cars I would recommend Formula Continental (F2000). The cars are relatively inexpensive, maintenance costs aren't to bad and you get wings. I however like Formula Super Vees. We have five running in the Northwest and always could use another one.

Tim Bland
84 Anson SA4
 
By The way, The biggest saving is, in my opinion, the decision to run spec tires. The FST tires are a pretty hard compound that apparently easily lasts a whole season without dropping off much. Then again, we also have a spec tire in conference FV :)

Also I don't think the costs of FC and FV/FST are even in the same league! Not to mention ease of maintenance and setup..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top