2016 has been the most exciting year ever in my car life. I finally got around to do some actual motor racing and I drove up and down the Alps and criss-crossed the spectacular island of Sicily. But it has also been ridiculously expensive. This craziness has to stop!
As you might know, I like honesty. I just show it as it is, and in my videos I don't mind showing how difficult I find it, to get things right. So, here's to honesty: Let me show some numbers. I write down all expenses in a spreadsheet during the year, and I have done so since I purchased the Giulietta in february 2013. Back then the value of the car consisted of the 15.800€ I paid for it. I have bought components for 17.100€ over the the 4 seasons an now, I have 53.400€ invested in the car. During 2016 I spent 9.200€ on improvements on the car, and luckily the prices for Giulietta Sprints out there are going up. But the car is getting awfully valuable; I don't owe any money - but it sure would be a shame to see it burn behind the armco of some boring danish race track.
Running the Ultimostile Experience has cost me a total of 11.500€ this year, and that is just crazy! I spent more or less the same amount on racing as last year, 2.400€, but this time I actually went to three races, whereas in 2015 it was all spent on license and race gear. I had a wonderful outing at Padborg Park for the long-distance night race with the Sixtyfivers, and I raced at the Munkebjerg Hillclimb and in the season-closer at Ring Knutstorp in the south of Sweden. In the two latter events I even got on the podium (for what it is worth).
Part of the Ultimostile Experience is my internet activity. I am a sucker for the attention, and I actually love when people get what I am doing. It all cost me 265€, but I got a 190€ refund from advertisements on my Youtube videos. So 75€ for all that? That's okay, I think.
I am paying 490€ for Tax and Insurance and Club Memberships cost me 100€. This leaves 8.400€ spent on the three journeys I went on in the Giulietta during 2016. Okay they were epic! I will never forget the early spring drives in the Alpine Dolomites and the fantastic places we stayed - and the wonderful company. And obviously I enjoyed the Sicilian trip in late autumn - with my wife, even! And in summer I went to a full-day track event at Spa Francorchamps, where I sadly had to leave the car behind at the Nürburgring. But that was also an epic experience. In early spring I went to the Bremen Auto Klassik and in late summer I visited the Auto e Moto d'Epoca in Padova, Italy. Tremendous fun with charming people and good friends; gentlemen trips.
Anyway: This has gotten out of hand. Right now the car is sitting, gutted, in Steffen Madsen's workshop. He is refurbishing the worn (abused?) three-shoe drum brakes and he is building a race engine. This will probably add another 8.000€ to my expenses. Terrible!
But the car will be so delicious and I can hardly wait to take part in the final tuning. It is so much fun to be part of the restauration/rebuild, where Steffen and I spent several minutes on the phone every day. I love that.
The question is: "Do I even dare take this precious little car on the track in 2017?" I am not exactly poor, but I don't have the kind of money it takes to run such a circus. Maybe the Ultimostile Experience has eclipsed, and the rest will only be legends and anecdotes?!
Well, see you out there ...