Moving to Chicago
 

Hi guys,

I'm relocating to Chicago with work, I'm sure going to miss these California roads! Looks like most of the immediate area doesn't have to many good 'drivers roads'.

How many months of the year do you all get to use your rotaries? Any other advice or valuable insight is appreciated.

Hope to connect with you all this fall.

Regards
Ben

Welcome to Chicago, I have gone as much as 8 months driving my FD. But to be safe I would say late April until early October you'll avoid any snowfall. If you push it you can probably make it through mid November. Biggest thing for me is right after winter there tends to be big potholes still that you need to watch out for, even on some of the highways. Good luck on the move!

Great to know, I've bought from your store a few times but didn't register that you did other work too.

Thanks!

For anything rotary , id stay clear of elite. The guy is a joke and will shit talk you up and down. I wouldn't trust someone who just starting playing with rotaries to build a engine. The guy doesn't even know how to tune. If you want a RX7 T shirt that he can do.

Banzai can build and do in house tuning. And has been in the game for some time. Not as close but worth the time and drive.

Not getting into the politics of it, but... Sal from Elite has been around for a while, and has been linked to multiple accounts here with a turbulent history. I'll leave it at this, do your research.


Banzai has an excellent reputation and is worth the drive.


That shop in Rockford was Shook Motorsports, but I haven't heard anything about them in years, not sure if they're still around.

Thanks for all the information. May be seeing you guys soon.

Ben

The city itself sucks to drive in. But if you make your way down south, you can hit some country-esque type roads and find lots of twisties. Me an a lot of different car buddies also make an annual trip to the tail of the dragon which is awesome to drive on. its like a never ending twisty road.

Yeah, I noticed that the roads out there are not like here in CA with all the mountain passes. I did some internet searching and read the closest 'good roads' are over toward Galena along the Mississippi and then up over the Wisconsin river around the state parks there. Still a good 3-4 hour drive, but considerably less than the trip down to NC for the Tail of the Dragon. That said, i'd be up for that trip if you let me know in advance. I remember seeing some Instagram posts about the rotary meet at Tail of the Dragon, was that you guys?

I know there's a few tracks a not too far from Chicago too, so I may consider getting back into track days.

There's really not much of anything for driving roads in or near the Chicagoland area. Western WI up by the WI River has a lot of decent roads starting west of Mt. Horeb, we usually do a drive every month out there. However, half the roads are in pretty rough shape. They won't be nothing compared to what you're use to ;)


That's the answer! Blackhawk Farms, Road America, Autobahn Country Club, and Gingerman are all a reasonable drive from the area. Autobahn is in Joliet, and Blackhawk is a bit over an hour drive from the NW suburbs. What part of Chicagoland are you moving to?

I've been doing trackdays for a few years now with my Elise, and have never seen an FD or FC out at any event. Would love to see that change!

A lot of the mountain roads here are not in the best shape either, my local 'course' is pretty bumpy. It's rare to find a nice smooth driving road that's not patrolled by cops.

Yeah, I was reading about the tracks around. Seems the medium price for a day is about $300, I'm sure it's possible to get for less if you become a member or something. I've not done track days since living back home in the UK over 7 years ago now, I'd love to get back into it. The FC would need a bit of work to become track ready though for sure! An Elise is a nice car for track days, I always fancied one but the FC was about 25k cheaper to buy! All the Lotus cars are so expensive here compared to back home but they're as good as you can get for the money still.

I'll be living in the West part of the city, probably Humbolt, Ukrainian, Wicker park area. They seem like pretty cool 'hoods that have plenty going on for me and Mrs and I have a warehouse near Mozart park that I'll be working out of. We're moving out without knowing anyone in the Chicagoland area, so decided those fit best after a brief recon.