re: tow rigs

[Scott Fisher <sfisher71@domain.elided>]

--- Dana Loomis <dloomis@domain.elided> wrote:
> 
> For towing a race car and trailer on paved roads, a
> standard full-size
> pickup with a gasoline V-8 is perfectly adequate.  

Many people find autocrossing VWs or driving horribly
clapped-out old British sports cars in Production
category road racing to be a perfectly adequate form
of motorsport, too. :-)  

Where you draw YOUR line in the sand is really all
that matters to YOU.  However, having been forcibly
dragged through the dirt to see where somebody else
drew HIS line and spend some 22-24 hours in the
experience, I have to say it was pretty damn nice over
there.

Towing with a marginal setup was one of (many) major
pains in the transaxle about racing, back when I was
struggling to get my MGB to the track.  Showing up at
tech a nervous wreck just from trying to get there
without the trailer whipping me off a bridge into a
ravine just sucked a huge amount of the joy out of
racing for me.  So I can't say for a fact that having
a decent tow rig would have made all the difference
for me -- but having a marginal rig WAS a nightmare.

And that's really the advice -- don't put together a
marginal rig if you can afford to put together an
adequate one.  And if you can afford overkill... it's
really, really nice if you can justify it to yourself.

> Something is off kilter, in my
> opinion, if your tow vehicle cost more than your
> race car.  

I believe I have said exactly the same thing in the
past, if not in the same words then certainly the same
sentiment, which is why I ended my observation with
the comment, "would you grumble and grimace thinking
how you wish you could have spent that money on sticky
tires and new springs for the race car?"  That would
be me.  I begrudged every penny spent on the tow
vehicle as bread taken from the mouths, if I may mix
my metaphors, of the race car.  Even my $600 Pontiac
wagon had me thinking "well, there goes a set of new
slicks."

Having lived with a seriously over-the-top tow setup
for the round trip between Portland and San Francisco,
I'm no longer quite so sure.  It turned what was once
a hateful chore into a complete non-issue.

So there are lots of things to consider when putting
together a tow package, but I think it would have to
be a competitive advantage to consider the improvement
in emotional and physical well-being for the driver to
arrive at the track in a vehicle that just does what
you want without threatening to overturn or jackknife
or overheat at every slightest hint of provocation. 
Whether that's a full-zoot top-of-the-line Ford or
Dodge or Freightliner is up to you and your credit
union, but I for one am no longer convinced it's a
total waste of money to buy a better tow rig than
required to simply do an adequate job.  

Or maybe I'm getting soft in my old age...

--Scott Fisher
  Tualatin, Oregon
.
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