Lets say you wanted to you wanted to be competitive in your local Autox chapter but you don't have a bunch of money to sink into it. how would you go about making a car for that? Which car would be best? which Class? how much would it cost?
I am not looking for answers like "pick a class with no one in it".
Damn. Your last line killed my answer. Pretty sure i won the season championship in F prepared in 2016 by breaking at the first event.
my first serious question is how much is not a bunch of money? It’s different to everyone, and critical to give a proper answer
In reply to Daeldalus :
I decided an STS Miata made the most sense to me. Of course, to me a big part of it is tire cost too. At ~$500/set for a Miata, that’s basically 1/3 if what it would have cost for the Vette.
I’m still sorting out details for my build, but my general plan is something like:
Then I can go race & worry about adding things like a Racing Beat header, better/lighter exhaust, CAI, lighter seats, etc. later on if I feel the need for it.
Of course I’m looking for used/bargains too, which may change some of the above.
Become a co-driver.
Patrick said:my first serious question is how much is not a bunch of money? It’s different to everyone, and critical to give a proper answer
I am trying to see exactly how cheap you could make a competitive car. So as cheap as possible.
Just to toss a number out there. 3K. do you think that it is possible to go from absolutely nothing car wise to having a competitive car in under 3000$?
If not then how much is the bottom of what you think? what car would get you there?
Buy a car already set up for what you want to do.
NB Miatas, if shopped carefully, can produce a local winner in ES for about $4K. Now that HS has the FiST and GS has the FoST, that's the cheapest route I can think of. STS would be my second choice. The way classing and and technology are changing, I think the days of buying 10 year over dog for a couple grand are over.
Edit: Locally at least, a lot of fun can be had cheap in STF by rehabbing someone's failed Honda project. That might be local phenomena, though.
Kind of an example.
One thought I have thought of in the past is a 1st gen neon ACR in street class.
can be had for under 2000 dollars usually. A set of nice used tires and some TLC from being competitive. Maybe. I think.
In reply to kazoospec :
still would need a decent set of tires and suspension maintenence.
So, total investment 5-6k?
Someone just sold a competitive sts Civic for 3k in my state. Another is selling a nationally competitive sts Civic for less than 5k. If I was you I would go used unless of course you enjoy the build.
ebonyandivory said:Buy a car already set up for what you want to do.
This is the answer. Buy a car that is already a winner or close to it. Building a car is never the cheap option.
In reply to Daeldalus :
Two other thoughts, not knowing your local group - would you consider yourself competitive if you’re the only car in the class? Are you looking to be competitive on PAX times? Are there top-level drivers you’ll be competing against?
To truly know what it would take to be locally competitive, we’d need more details on who/what you’re up against. Depending on those answers, $2-$5k is probably the range.
In reply to Pete Gossett :
there are way way better drivers than me in the local chapter. I am just getting back into the chapter after a couple years off so I am not as familiar as i used to be. SCR chapter. I know there are people that have been to nationals in the group though.
I think PAX is probably a decent across the board standard for 'competitive'.
I don't believe I can just buy a nice car and instantly be competitive. It would be nice to know that my car is good enough to be competitive so that I could put all the focus on becoming a competitive driver.
Daeldalus said:In reply to kazoospec :
still would need a decent set of tires and suspension maintenence.
So, total investment 5-6k?
This is going to sound stupid, but around here, it depends on the time of year. In the fall, when no one has storage, it's not unusual to see well sorted NB Miatas in the $4k range. If you are lucky, they may already have Bilsteins or Konis on them. Usually, yes, you would still need tires to be competitive. Realistically, to be competitive, you've got to run a lot, so you have to consider tires as a wear item, not really part of your "buy in" price. You can't really do much more than ad a front sway ($200) and a cat-back, neither of which is going to make or break you at a local level.
Unfortunately, right now, with spring coming, everyone thinks their Miata is worth about $1,200 more than it was last month.
Example of what I'm talking about: https://fortwayne.craigslist.org/cto/d/2001-mazda-miata-ls/6547277203.html
E-street NB miata. Careful searching can produce an NB for ~2k. Buy the GoodWin stock class package for $1k, and a set of RE71Rs for roughly $500 and you’ll have a competitive ride for under $5k.
That silver NB looks appropriate, since it doesn't need to be pretty. Five speed is a plus, it'll be faster in 2nd gear than the 6-speed.
Don't know if it's got the sport package, which gets you a stiffer chassis and bigger brakes.
I just bought a 2001 with some of the modifications that I wanted, though mainly because it came with a hardtop.
I'm going to end up paying full price for some of mods that I want, but I think it will balance out since I got a decent price.
I read the title and thought "duh, #drivermod" and then my brain started bitching about how H and G stock now require semi expensive cars to be competitive in. It's sort of funny that a car that everyone that knows anything about racing knows about (miata) can somehow be the cheapest path, but i think it's true. I feel like i aggravate a lot of people around here, but this zinger may be my most reviled contribution to the forum yet: I once bought a running miata for $400 and drove it home. 
Mechanically, it was a set of tires away from being raceable. Look for deals!
Car choice will dictate class (or a selection of classes, with budget probably dictating less-heavily-modified)... If you want to be competitive in a class where there's actually competition, then that changes the question because you're selecting something cost effective for one of the classes where the fast folks are, or at least folks fast enough that you're getting some real competition out of the deal.
Folks have already pointed out that you can be competitive in an underpopulated class, but the related question is do we need to limit to specific, well-fought classes?
I’ll point out a trophy, made especially for you, is insanely cheaper than any car. If you want to be the best driver, improve yourself with as much seat time as possible. If you want a car that wins, buy it. But only BOTH will bring you Glory and Accomplishment.
In reply to Daeldalus :
Ok, that helps quite a bit. So I’d say these are your best options, in this order:
1) find a popular class with cheap cars. Miatas in street class, ST Civics, etc.
2) buy and already prepared car for that class with a winning record.
You can buy cars with many national trophies for $5k.
Seems to me the Least expensive cars for dogging on track are the C4 vette and Fiero's,. vettes for a grand ,fiero's for 500. Though I have NO Clue where they fall In Classes.
I would actually say (88’-91’) civic. Just because the performance parts you need are so ridiculously cheap it’s not even funny. You can get a set of eBay coilovers for $20! It definitely won’t be top level materials, but you could probably have completely adjustable suspension for under 300 bucks. As long as you can find someone’s cast off adjustable Konis. Or worse.... some “MaxPeedingRods”.
I had a 97 Miata that I bought stock, prepped for STS. Realized it was hopeless locally compared with the (at the time) brutal competition in the class (10 grand preps). Switched to STR and got beaten up by S2000s and NCs. Slapped on Hoosiers and got serious about prep and ended up with a CSPlite car for around $7,000 that could go top 5 locally in raw time but PAXed down around top 1/3rd of the field.
Last year at the end of the season I co-drove with a buddy in his underprepped ES MR-S and having never driven one before I got 3rd in PAX in three straight events (he got first all three).
An MR-S is gonna have a slightly higher buy in than a comparable Miata but it is a bit quicker and for around 5-6 grand you should be able to win your local PAX.
Raw time is a different story. Either 10 grand and a miserable car for everything but autocross, or a shifter kart (if allowed locally).
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