Put a fork in Level 5

lolz, couldn't resist this photo op!

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Great picture!

 

No skin in this game, and so forth and so on.

However, be careful in jumping to conclusions when dealing with the feds. Remember our current Attorney General said, "The Constitution does not guarantee judicial due process."

Is the Payday bidness dirty? You betcha. Does that make it illegal? Nope. After all, cigarettes are still legal, no?

Just remember, all the prosecutors who went after Enron are now federal judges or partners in Big Law firms, even though the Supreme Court later threw out most of what they did.

I'm jus saying, Dale

 

LOL were they there on official business?

 

turns out Phase Dance had a warrant. who knew?

 

Where's Jack been?

 

I never cared what he did with payday loans but I was not a fan of a pro racer coming back to scca and beat up amateurs with a built ferrari430 that should never been in T1. Another year goes by and at the runoffs, It was sad to see his half million dollar 911 built to the hilt for STO get hazed by a $60,000 viper piloted by a real amateur with a day job.

 

He's pissing off the auto manufacturers and their press lackeys writing the truth about cars.

 

there's no place in the auto business for truth.

 

And he's successful at it, too!

 

What's the WildArsedGuess budget range of other teams? For perspective.

 

I've heard 3-5mm for a P2 team in ALMS.

also, Level 5 does more than just P2...PC, IMSA GT3, IMSA lites, etc etc.

 

Ah, thanks, GI.

Still, rather like bringing an aircraft carrier to a canoe race.

Now if everyone will pardon me, I must prep an Enzo for a Pinewood Derby race.

 

You can not say your building an Enzo for your sons pine wood derby race without pictures. At least start a thread somewhere. That is awesome.

 

No way, that's way too low.

 

that # was to campaign the car for the season, didn't include buying the car/spares/transporters/etc etc.

have you heard otherwise? my numbers are from people who do the deals and write the checks....

 

For just operating cost, sounds about right.

 

As they say in racing "the initial car purchase is the least expensive part of the expenditure".
I should know as I started a Grand Am GT team end of 2007 and purchased a Porsche Cup Car thinking the 200k was going to be my largest expense. "HA" !!

 

Your figures are fine. In fact, there are/were LMP teams who do a full ALMS season for A LOT less than $3 mil.

It all depends on what kind of operation you want to run. Are you starting from ground zero and need to outfit your shop with tools, transporter, pit equipment, etc? If so, bend over because this is going to hurt. Are you there to win or are you there for sh_its & giggles? Are you buying a new or used chassis? Will you be buying the upgrades for the next season? Will the car be driven by gentleman drivers or will you hire a pro? How much will you pay your hired guns? How many tests will you run during the year? Where is your HQ? What's the rent on your shop? How many full time crew do you employ? What kind of benefits (if any) do you give them. How many fly-in guys do you bring to each event? You can cut corners everywhere to save big $$$, but you get what you pay for. The engine program is what hurts even guys trying to race on the cheap. $400K-$500K for that & there's no getting away from it.

An all-out privateer LMP assault will cost ~$5 million if you already have the shop, rig, employees, etc. I worked with a current ALMS GT owner to launch an LMP effort in 2008 (bad timing). I still have the all-in cost matrix we worked up & $5 mil with the then new closed cockpit Lola would have done it.

Don't forget that the chassis has a residual value. It may only cost $200K to run a $1 million chassis for the first year.

 

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20120523/ALMS/120529927#ixzz1visr2v00

Tucker's first interview since the noose was slipped around his neck - talk about a cream puff journalist.

Tomorrow is his day in court. It will be interesting to see what happens. His next race is Le Mans & if I were the judge I'd be more than a little leery of letting him take all of those assets overseas.

 

AutoWeek, what a truly pathetic article and interview. Loved the anonymous quote that Tucker "has done a lot more for racing than racing has done for him."

 

Looks like it's business as usual with Level 5. They are competing at Le Mans this weekend and have been posting videos to Youtube featuring their own reporter.


Surely that must be a weird environment to work in with all the scrutiny that their boss has on him.

 

Allen Stanford just got 110 years...

But guys like this have such ego they will go to the grave insisting they are "legitimate businessmen"....