As a child yes... but as an ADULT post 16 (the age range V1 are looking at) NO... pay my own way. V1 ARE NOT looking for sub 16 year olds are they!? so your point IS irrelevant.
I have WITNESSED myself 16+ year olds paying for their own racing... through hard work and determination. yes it is FREAKIN' hard... really really hard... but it you have the love for the sport you will go and do it... and not think of excuses why you can't.
If you WANT to do it... YOU CAN! And if your not it's because you don;t have enough determination... and thuis are not the person V1 are looking for whcih almost renders their experiment useless.. though I writing it off completely
So you drive, setup and do all the mechanical work on your kart?
Getting into ANY motorsport nowadays takes much more than money, it needs a dedicated team of people and not all of us are fortunate enough to have these people at our disposal.
Come on use a bit of common sense. As you are well aware the only realistic way someone without family connections can get into top level motorsport is by karting from a very early age, typically before you're old enough to even do the paper round and there's no way such a child could raise the funds to go kart racing. A lot of families really couldn't afford it, you've got to be reasonably well off before you start making huge sacrifices and take up ten jobs to pay for your childs karting and most parents couldn't provide even the basic skills needed to prepare a kart. I doubt there are very many, if any current F1 drivers who weren't just shoved in a kart by their parents and turned out to be quite good.
A PC on the other hand is relatively more accessible, and after buying a bit of hardware for it it's still within the budget of most of the population. Obviously V1 is trying to aim at somewhat older people who know they've got an interest in motor racing. Whilst not everybody can afford a computer it's still far more accessible than karting.
If someone has a DEDICATED interest, and PASSION for competing in motorsport they WOULD be at the race track.... NOT ON A SIM.... For me a SIM is a supplement NOT a replacement!
You CAN GO AND RACE, and dedicated person WILL GO and race!
as in asking for someone at the grid to give me a push... but I don't actually have to know them... you walk p to them and say "can u give me a push" and thats about it. And can take you to the circuit and SHOW u if you waNT!
LOL... see your making excuses as to why you don't! I am not going to do it on my own if I don't have to... but if I DID... I WOULD! That';s the point. I am not going to say no to help o prove a point that I can do it on my own. But I can if I wish! And if you DID you would soon make friends anyway
Why don't you race... what's STOPPING you???
We have covered the fact that YOU can afford it if you WANTED TO, and you have enough time... no one gets fast on LFS like you with dedicating a lot of time...???
So why are you not passionate enough to do it for real???
It means you are willing to make sacrifices! It means you are willing to get that second job. It means that you are willing to WORK YOUR A$S off! It means you are willing to RUN, LIFT WEIGHTS, and GET IN PERFECT SHAPE! Make EVERYTHING you can out of EVERYTHING you have got!
You can come up with excuses all you want, but I HAVE witnessed it myself! If your life is racing you will find a way and not make silly excuses as to why you CAN'T!
Are you just afraid of work? Are you afraid of failure!
I KNOW YOU CAN GO DO IT IF YOU WANTED TO... so what's your excuse?
Well then you are OBVIOUSLY spending your money on the wrong things!
I have spoken to a lad who has moved all the way from Mexico to race in the UK, and is stuck in some sh!tty little flat, and doesn't really have much money! That's IS DEDICATION and PASSION!
Dump your girlfriend, sell your gear, downsize if you have too.... if it means that much to race.. you would. And bringing back to the original point... the people V1 are looking for don't actually exist int he non racing world.!
There are people that do... and then there are people who just have excuses!
I wasn't talking about me, but even if I quit my education, sold everything etc i'd still only have about £3k which isn't that much to start a racing career tbh.
EDIT - Oh god I remember now - i if I really wanted to race i'd save my "sex wee" rings a bell.
£3k would get u started in karting without too much trouble... £1k on a kart... £1k on licence/apparel/bits and bobs. and the rest would pay for your racing!
You could get started on that EASILY.. I know people who do it on less!
Well what do they mean by drive? Someone that sits on a sim hoping that one day a race team might decide on gambling an investment.
People with the drive RACE... whether they are poor or not.. if they have the drive they WON'T be making excuses as to why they can't race! Doesn't matter what level but they would be there at the track!
This is the flaw in V1.
Who has more drive
1. The kid that works HIS A$S off to race. Even at a low level. dedicates everything into it. Runs every day, trains every day.... and doesn't sit at a computer looking at webistes
2. Some guy on a sim who is pretty quick and likes racing but won't do it because he/she thinks they can't afford it
unless you say anything extraordinary I think I have made my point clear... after the millionth post! V1 IS interesting, and exciting, just has some contradictory flaws.
Why you have a conceivable point in there, it's largely lost in your fanaticism and poor grammar.
As for the last part, it's similar to your loose perhaps misconstrued translation of Senna's quote. You're definition of "Drive" is someone out there who races. This is fine, but it is completely devoid of the requirement of skill, which is part of the "drive" the V1 folks are looking for, by employing LFS as a tool.
lol my grammer is pretty poor when I speed type... need more 'dedication' in that area.
But to your point. When V1 are requesting you ditch your job, move somewhere else, dump your girlfriend, and then are getting you up at 5am in the morning for your training session where is your skill going to get you?
Sim driving is a supplement, not a replacement to the real thing. Skill on a sim does not prepare for the forces you encounter, intensity and danger of a real race, or the pressure on you to do well! At the end of the day if the V1 winner doesn't do well V1 won't be too happy.
They also talk about taking the V1 selection 'karting' as well. Well I would imagine this would be in some hire karts... HIRE go-karts aren't really a measure either. They just wouldn't be qualified, and experienced enough to drive the real things for enough time to gauge who is more 'talented', hence they would go to some hire karts and it would be just gimmicky.
For me, V1 will find themselves caught out come race day, and maybe this silence we have had from them is a representation of that fear
So when you were 16 you bought your own kart using money you made yourself, did all the maintenance yourself, somehow got your kart to races by yourself (on the bus?), is that what you're saying?
I'm hearing it but not really believing it. I think if you WERE TRULY dedicated! YOU! would HAVE told everybody! ELSE TO leave you TO do it ON YOUR own TO demonstrate! your dediCATION.
lol what? I'm living in a shitty flat, I have 2,7€ as it is right now, I can barely cover next months rent, and no I'm not spending money to nonsense, I'm not actually spending any money for that matter. And yet I'm not racing in real life!
I don't have a girlfriend, I've got -89 sierra that I only use to get to school/work and home.
That's my god damn excuse you were asking for.
And to another point raised by you, how should an invidual under 18 year old (some countries less) being able to haul that kart (or what ever the choise of vehicle is) to the track and to back home without having a drivers lisence and not being fortunate enough to have parent or such to help him/her out?
No matter how much passion one has, things don't always work out the way one wants.
When I was 17 I bought my own kart, and had to pay for van to hire to get it too the circuit to race. I drove all the way from Wales when i bought it with it in the back of my Polo 1.0 with it sticking in the back of my head! I worked like A COMPLETE NUTTER in a theatre to get the cash to race... even working shifted from 9am-10 pm and the next night fomr 10pm-4am..... I was SHATERED... but still found the time to go to the gym as well.... I begged and borrowed as well... but I WANTED to race! When I was 16 i worked shifts at a supermarket to save up the cash for the kart. I just wish I didn't have a girlfriend back thencoz that costs MONEYS!
So I have been there, and I HAVE done it. I will admit without the help of others it would have been impossible... but u have to EARN peoples help by showing your dedication.
I just didn't feel the need to make everyone know.. but as you asked
Well as an adult you may need to re-evaluate your current financial situation. Get a second job and stop wasting SO MUCH time on simulators. Again if it meant that much to you.
and a 89 Sierra... i wish I had something that big when I was getting my gear together to race.. two words... roof rack. Actualy when I was that young I wish I wasn't at bleedin' college wasting so much time... when I could have been working and getting the readies
I think your being a bit idealistic here Intrepid.
What if your like me & my parents never bought me a go-kart when I was young. The first time I raced a kart was arrive n drive on holiday.
I didn't realise I could compete in motorsport before my 17th birthday (not that I could afford to anyway) but as soon as I was earning after my A-levels I started sprinting & hillclimbing in my road car I did a few seasons then job issues flared up which stopped me doing anymore. Then I did some rallycross for a season & some club 100 & lots of random karting events since then.
I tried & tried but in the end it just fizzled out . I still race in RL occasionally but you know what I just cant afford it. Life is not as straight forward as you make it sound. The only way in for me is one of these scholarship schemes & i'm not getting any younger. I have grown to accept the fact that I cannot & probably will not ever be able afford to race cars in RL & thats the way the cookie crumbles.
There is nothing re-evaluate about my financial status. It sucks plain and simple. I'm working 8 hours a day plus spending 4-8 hours a day at school. I do not spend THAT MUCH time on my pc, let alone in LFS.
And by mentioning my sierra, I wasn't saying I don't have a way to haul a kart to tracks if I had one, I was saying that under 18 years old has no way of doing so on his/her own.
