Test-Driving A US Legend Race Car As An Affordable Entry To Motorsport
For those who dream of a life in motorsport, talent and willpower can only go so far. Opportunity, coaching and finances also play a major part in finding an entry to racing. To learn more about what might be the single most approachable forms of motorsport other than small-displacement motorcycles, I recently visited Kevin Harvick's Kern Raceway to drive a US Legend race car on the circuit's quarter-mile infield oval track.
US Legend Cars International set me up for a morning with Ricky Schlick, owner of Ricky Schlick Racing , who runs a year-round calendar of arrive-and-drive style events and professional track coaching. He brought the tiny little retro-styled race car that I drove all morning, which I learned employs a three-cylinder Yamaha FZ-09 motorcycle engine capable of putting out around 135 horsepower.
Schlick fully rebuilt my car about two years prior, but has been running the same chassis and powertrain for nearer to 12 years. The waist-high roof suggests a sense of scale, and at six-foot-one with long limbs and wearing a helmet and HANS device, I fit inside after some mild contortionism—but just barely. The whole car weighs about 1,100 pounds, with Wildwood disc brakes up front and drum brakes at the rear. The Yamaha motor sends power through its original sequential transmission, with which it shares oil, then to a driveshaft housed in a tunnel to the right of the driver's seat, then to 1979 Toyota Celica rear end with spool gears.
Simplicity is the name of the game here, I learned later while speaking with the grandson of US Legend International (as well as Charlotte Motor Speedway) founder Ollen Bruton Smith. Graham Smith explained that the original vision included using easy-to-find parts to build a race car that cost about as much as a bass fishing boat. Hence the Celica rear differential, not to mention Celica shock dampers and a cable throttle.
"It started out as a humble man's race car," Smith told me. "And it still is a humble man's race car... to keep it more of an old-school driving experience, at a very raw and connected level."
Of course, over the years, the US Legend recipe has evolved. But as soon as I pulled out of the pits at Kern Raceway, popping the sequential gearbox's clutch with my left foot, that history came to the forefront of my mind. The thin-rimmed steering wheel, throttle pedal and unassisted brakes all required serious attention as I adjusted to the touchy acceleration and turn-in at any hint of weight on the brake pedal.
Running a counterclockwise oval, with a bank on the west side, I started pushing the little car high up toward the wall. When I braked with more pressure, the brake bias that Schlick had set up for the day then pulled the steering wheel in toward apex, where the Hoosier tires started to scrub a bit as I feathered in gas.
My confidence built steadily over the course of my first session, as I grew accustomed to the feel of minimal suspension travel front-to-rear or side-to-side. I picked up pace, hitting full throttle on each straight, until a little dip coming out of the southeast bend caught me and I felt the rear slide out toward my right. Hoping to save the skid, I consciously tried not to lift off throttle, but the tires still hooked up and began to throw me toward the infield. Better than the wall, I thought, as I stomped on the brakes with both feet until the car and I both faced the wrong way on the track.
My next few sessions required leaving that spin in the past and focusing further on the US Legend car. The primitive, almost rudimentary controls brought me straight back to an era before big power and traction control, refined suspension setups or even assisted steering made sports cars so impressive. Here, the echoic sound of a screaming Yamaha triple, the uninterrupted communication from tire to road to my hand, even the feedback through the minimally padded racing seat dictated that I find a flow—and fast.
Sure enough, I began to sense when the outside tires picked up weight and therefore grip, which translates to more speed through the wide arcs at each end of the oval. Going uphill toward the wall, I knew the rears took on more grip earlier and could handle a bit more power. Coming downhill, I stayed out a wider for a late apex to make my exit more of a straight line, hoping to avoid that little dip that caught me out earlier. The feeling that I might be racing started to build up.
Then, Schlick himself went out for a few demo laps and I immediately witnessed the lessons that years of experience can teach. He started steering with his right foot as much as his hands, sliding the little car around with a level of precision I never even approached. But that's kind of the point of a US Legend car, that anyone can jump in and drive but years behind the wheel still help to refine driver skill.
And best of all, the low weight and simplicity mean that running a US Legend car—for Schlick or a customer—translates to minimal consumables over the course of a season. Schlick told me a set of tires can realitistically last a full year and Smith explained that one of the earliest customers still races in his original chassis. Some customers even race on dirt, which led me to ask Smith about safety for something so petite.
"We have a team in Harrisburg, North Carolina," he explained, "They've been building the Legend chassis since 1992, when the company began. There are still two or three guys there from day one and they take the utmost pride in making this chassis safe as well as consistent."
"When we have a bad accident," Smith went on, "Whenever I see a flip, whenever I see somebody hit the wall really hard and the kid or the adult gets out, they're totally fine. Then one of us that's at the event takes a video and sends it back to the team."
The team is also working on further improvements, including stepping up to a newer Yamaha MT-09 engine that puts out a bit more low-end grunt. The company also now offers three shock damper options and a Hinson clutch for a bit more feel. The cars can use race gas, but pump gas works fine.
A US Legend car might be equally capable at an oval or in dirt, but my personal preference would be the road course. Schlick told me he spends December through February in Nevada for the Silver State Road Course Series , then March through October at Irwindale Speedway in Southern California running ovals. For a calendar like that, a spec Mazda Miata or Porsche Boxster can easily cost $60,000 for the car, plus plenty more for consumables including fuel, tires, brakes and fixing any potential damage.
By contrast, a US Legend car starts at $17,500 and if a driver avoids crashes, the only additional cost over the course of a season would be travel, entry fees and fuel. The retro looks and rudimentary performance might turn off some would-be racers, and novice adults need to run in a series of classes to prove they're up to the task of racing against a field that's mostly children and teenagers. But for the money, not many better options exist for living out Nascar, Indycar, or Formula 1 dreams.
