Challenge Supreme Court (Questions Answered Here!)

In 2003 I built a Spec Miata and ordered all the go-fast goodies from Mazdaspeed. The shipment went AWOL and Mazdaspeed shipped a second order. When the courier arrived there were two orders on board and Mazdaspeed never could get the 2nd order picked up, so they told me to keep it and enjoy myself. I still have the 2nd set of springs, spring seats,coilover sleeves and brake lines from that order in my garage. For my Challenge Miata would they be
a) free
b) half price ,or
c) half price discounted for the 14 years they've been hanging around?

IMO they would be valued at today's FMV for similar new parts.

In reply to GTXVette:

FMV is designed for parts you have sitting around.

If you can't find other sources, just ask on this forum. Everyone is quick to respond. Generally, a consensus from the forum establishes an FMV. Print it out, you're good to go.

Few questions: For the farthest entrant award, does the challenge car itself need to be driven to the event? Or is trailer ok? Also if coming from Canada, when is the exchange rate calculated?

In reply to Catatafish:

Trailer is not OK. You have to drive the car.

The exchange rate question is above my pay grade.

FMV on the Miata parts.

Exchange rate is calculated on a per-item basis when you do the deal. It's "how much real money (our money ) did you hand over for the part."

The car has to be driven to the event for the longest drive award.

Junk yard error in my favor, maybe.

Today is 25% off day at U-Pull and Save, so I bought 2 small block Chevy heads and 2 exhaust manifolds. Head are $25 ea and exh manifolds are $16ea. After the discount it should be $59 plus tax. Right?

Here where it gets odd. To get the discount the part has to fit in a 5 gallon bucket. My parts fit, but one at a time. Cashier worked with me and rang up the the heads one at a time and the manifolds as a pair. Excellent.

I get home and look closely at the receipts only to find they rang up two exhaust manifolds at $11.99ea, that's correct with the discount, and two INTAKE manifolds at $12.74ea!

So I've saved about $10. That's nice, but I don't have a receipt for my heads to show in my budget. Now what?

They goofed, you get $10 free budget room for a mossy oak steering wheel cover on clearance from autozone.

Tom Suddard wrote: In reply to bigben: Yes, you can simplify there and use last year's sheet as the starting point for this year.........

We are not going to complete the new car to the level we want it to be when we bring it to the Challenge in time for this year. As such, we are now planning to run that car in $2018. We have shifted focus to preparing a previously used $2K Challenge car for battle. I have the budget spread sheet for the Challenge car used in the past. I am using that spread sheet instead of retyping everything into the new one. Will the use of the original spread sheet for a previously used Challenge car be accepted?

Hypothetical question for the Court: If parts being used on a build are manufacturer samples or purchased at volume supply pricing, what is FMV for them? If, for example, Chinese turbochargers were purchased for $150 unit price by an employer, is this the value of them to the competition?

Ok budet question:

If I buy two cars can i sell parts off of both cars to recoup costs up to half the GRM amount?

In other words. Car one: $300 + Car two: $600 = $900. Does this mean I can I sell $900 worth in parts to recoup costs?

In reply to B13Birk:

Yes, but you would also have to include both of the purchase prices.

In reply to wheels777:

Yes, your budget sheets are easy to read and I'm familiar with them.

In reply to B13Birk:

Yes, SVreX has it right.

In reply to whiskey_business:

The value is still FMV regardless of where they came from, the fact that they were originally purchased at volume supply pricing doesn't make them any more or less expensive at FMV than a comparable turbo from eBay.

I am building a challenge car from 2 donor cars...I plan to include both sale prices in the budget (1 for $400 and the other for $500). So far I am making more in sales from the $400 car...do I have to cap it at $400 or can I combine the sales total? For example I am already $640 on the 400 car but only $50 on the 500 car....am I at $450 recovered or $690. Do I have a combined cap of $900 or a $400 and $500 cap respectively?

Question about documentation for past challenge car. When I turned in the documentation for our $2016 challenge car some of the receipts were originals or I can't find any copies. Do you guys keep records of past submissions? Could I provide a delta of only the new for 2017 items or would I need to search harder for missing copies?

In reply to davbro: Just read all the way through...think I saw my answer on the last page...sorry

Hello everyone, long time listener first time caller. I have two gray area questions

Decibel limitations or noise restrictions? - when I purchased my challenge car from an estate sale, it had a hole in one of the mufflers. Instead of replacing the bad muffler I called on the trusty sawzall and eliminated them. Is there a decible level that the cars have to be under.

Recouping costs via part recycling? - I replaced the radiator and I want to know if I recycle the radiator at a recycling yard can I recoup that amount into my budget?

In reply to davbro: You can't combine cap for the two if you bought them separately. You're at $450 recovered.

And yes, we have all the records, but we'd like to know ahead of time if you're planning on referencing them in your budget. That way, we can make sure they're at the event for audit.

No noise limits, and recycling is a valid (though under-performing) recoup method.

Tom Suddard wrote: No noise limits, and recycling is a valid (though under-performing) recoup method.

Yea, I'm not expecting a whole lot from it, just hopefully enough to offset a used tire really... Thank you though.

As I was speaking with patgizz yesterday, he made mention about the exhaust I want to run possibly isn't legal, so what is legal? NHRA says it vaguely as directed away from driver's compartment. That's what I'm planning on running but it's ahead of the driver's door/cab.

And #2, what is the value on the trans I picked up from him? Others have stopped and didn't take. So it isn't really an inside deal, but it was free.

I have had open headers a few years.

I'm going to admit I haven't read every post in this thread and I stopped following the rule changes ten years ago when I was told that as someone who had never competed my opinion meant much less than that of a repeat competitor.

That all said, I think I have a plan for 2017/8 that hinges on a question I haven't seen expressly answered: Can my parts car cost significantly more than the actual competition vehicle, and can I recoup the bulk of my recoup from it?

In my specific case I have an Opel Kadett with both receipts and FMV of @$25. In order to make my plan work I would need to part out a car I would be unlikely to find for much under $2k. Can I spend $1900 on a parts car for my $25 challenge build, and, if so, is my recoup limit half of the parts car price or that full $1008-ish?