Challenge cars after the Challenge?

Fielding a car in the Challenge requires strict limitations on spending, so  the cars are bought cheap, and built cheap.  How many of you, like me, got in a car right, raced it, and then started building it into the daily driver, weekend warrior, or full on racecar you are proud to show off to any crowd, not just budget racers like us?

Here's mine, on $2018 race day:

Mostly stock, lots of Rustoleum, both from me and PO Dusterbd13, Hoosiers.

And today:

Mods to date include Fidanza 9lb flywheel, Exeedy stage 1 clutch, all stainless lines with DOT 4, Ebay header with Roadster Sport 3 the rest of the way back, 12lb 15x8s with Dunlop Direzzas, and a few other things here and there like adding lightness by swapping stock electric sideviews and antenna for much lighter manual versions.  Anybody else care to post before and afters?

It's still all 100% rattle cans done by yours truly.

Yes, needs a new hood, working on it

I would, but i haven't been able to het to an "after the challenge " state with my stuff.....

I'm honestly very curious to see how many cars get "real money" spent on them or if most stay Challenge budget friendly

In reply to Justjim75 :

My first Challenge car was sold after I swapped out the good parts for stock.  The Q45 has run 3 years now and I think the Challenge budget has gone down each year.  It'll never be street legal so when she's done she'll either move on to a new home or go to the great junkyard in the sky.

I have sold every single one of them, with the exception of the s10. 

Autocrossed it a couple weeks back with the PCA.

Scratch that the ghettocet is rotting behind my buddies car lot but it is donating its roll bar to the CAM camaro and its engine and transmission to the s10.

This photos is from $2015 where the Infiniti Q45 took 10th overall and 1st in Aristocrats.

Here it is last weekend where it finished 51st out of 90 overall and 38/90 PAX with a rusty driver.  This time, now wearing BBS instead of the OZ wheels.  Actually, still on RE-71s from $2015.  No other changes.  

My $2013/$2014 Challenge car looks the same now as it did. Still sees autocross use and Saturday night cruisin'.

Gearheadotaku said:

My $2013/$2014 Challenge car looks the same now as it did. Still sees autocross use and Saturday night cruisin'.

I heard you won regional cam class with that too, right? If so that is awesome.

Trying to keep my car under budget while doing more, to keep it as backup plan.  

I have aborted a couple challenge only builds when I realized they would have zero use after the event.  I don’t have it in me to spend all the time building something to use for one weekend anymore.  

I've sold every one of them (total 14) for challenge money, hoping someone else would bring them back.

No one ever has. 

In reply to Justjim75 :

You car looks great!

Actually, I am working on one now that will have very serious money spent on it after the Challenge.

"after challenge" is one of the first things I plan when considering a build. Can't "throw away" that investment of time and money. The Firebird was meant to be a keeper and my $2017 truck felt like it could be sold for enough to cover the time and build effort. (It was).

Robbie said:

Gearheadotaku said:

My $2013/$2014 Challenge car looks the same now as it did. Still sees autocross use and Saturday night cruisin'.

I heard you won regional cam class with that too, right? If so that is awesome.

Yes I did in 2016. Needs new wheels and tires to have any prayer of being competitive again. Lots of "big" builds in the class now, think I won on luck and a fluke.

My Roadmaster wagon was traded for a donor car within 48 hours of the $2015 Challenge. Then it popped up on craigslist every few months with more things wrong with it until it finally ended up with an owner who is rebuilding the engine (again). 

Back in the college Wreck Racing days, we just parted them out because the school administration got weird about liability and selling them. Understandably so.

Thanks for the pics and stories yall, keep em coming

Dug out and scanned a picture of my first challenge car from 2005:

Shortly after that, it began its illustrious career as a rallycross car:

I brought the Neon to the $2006 Challenge:

It was a pretty sad experience overall.  Fouled the track with oil on its first drag pass and then fouled it with coolant on its second.  Put it on the trailer and locked it in the garage after that.

It had a second life as a rallycross car and it remained somewhat disappointing with a ton of random failures.  Traced it back to an intermittent fuel pump.

After getting that figured out, I bought it back for the $2012 Challenge where it finsihed right smack in the middle:

Once it got home, it went back to Rallycross duty.  I've put another motor in it after sending a rod through the block, it's had some dyno time, better tires, better suspension, newer version of Megasquirt, better gauges, better cooling, etc.  In $2006, I had just under $1k in it, in $2012 I was at $2000, and if I had to do a budget sheet now, I'd probably have about $6k in it.  Which seems like a lot all of a sudden...

In reply to wae :

Lol, I know what you mean 

Had a blast yesterday lapping Midpond in central Alabama.  Its a former go kart track that we used for Trackcross.  Same as Autox but on a track.....ish.