Racecar...Need insight GRM

So say you have $6000 to spend, you want to go tracking - SCCA, NASA, or maybe ChumpCar or Lemons. The last two are budget restricted; but, loopholes and safety equipment...

What car do you buy and what would you prep it for?

I was simply going to modify my DD for track days but I remember how uncomfortable my Trans Am was when I did that and how nice it would be to just have a dedicated race car...

I have friends willing to throw in on a chump car too. I also want my own car to race. Do I do chumpcar first? Then decide if I want to go the route of having my own SCCA and/or NASA racer?

I would buy a 510 and prep it for autocross. No special theory behind that choice; I've always wanted a 510 and I miss autocrossing.

Buy an already prepared race car for what ever you choose to do.

Car: MINI Cooper S

Prep: STX autocross plus cage for track and TT/hillclimbs.

Why: personal familiarity; easy (for me) to work on. I have too little time to 'learn-me' another car.

I have next to zero interest in building/owning a Chump or Lemons car.

Edit: +1 for buying an already prepped car, although it would likely go against my 'learn-me' arguement above.

125cc shifter kart

What's the goal, to be competitive or have fun? Also do you mean only wheel-to-wheel stuff or are autocross, hillclimb etc. options too?

Best Improved Touring car I could find for $3500-$4000 and the rest on a trailer and consumables, assuming I have the tow vehicle.

uhhh.....isnt the answer always....Miata??

emodspitfire wrote: uhhh.....isnt the answer always....Miata??

Not with that budget for SCCA racing unless he wants to be lapped.

I suggest an IT7 car. Dead simple and you can find them ready to roll for $3k.

Like mentioned above I would purchase a race proven car. For Chumpcar/lemons I would get a Miata or E30. For Nasa/SCCA I would try and find a Civic/CRX. If you wanted to go karting any newer straight chassis with a Briggs 206

If you ever plan to go w2w racing (in a non-crapcan venue) I will 2nd or 3rd the advise to buy a well sorted, competitive race car with a log book and recent tech sticker/entry. Even if you don't race it right away - you will know that it is ready to go and that you can sell it as a real race car if you decide to get out.

Ian F wrote: Car: MINI Cooper S Prep: STX autocross plus cage for track and TT/hillclimbs. Why: personal familiarity; easy (for me) to work on. I have too little time to 'learn-me' another car. I have next to zero interest in building/owning a Chump or Lemons car. Edit: +1 for buying an already prepped car, although it would likely go against my 'learn-me' arguement above.

IS this possible with an S then prepping? What do they run these days?

me personally, id BUILD a replica 30's indycar styled locost.

oh wait. im already looking for drawings and plans....

but dollars wise, it makes sense to buy someone elses car. when we sold the 88 vette TT car, we had a bit over 20k in it (caged, dry sumped stroker, took TT champioship for a few years running with my 65 yo father driving). sold it for right at 9k.

which would you do: spend the money and time to build it yourself, or fix whats broke and keep it on track?

Decide what you want to do, go to a few events and decide what class you "ultimately" might want to run. Building a car and then finding out it is uncompetitive once you finally make the leap is very costly either having to change entire platforms or falling into a crappy class.

If you are interested, contact me about a possible RX7 chump car we may have for sale. I am being pulled in too many directions to continue racing it. It's even below your budget ;)

Thanks for all the suggestions. Trailer and tow vehicle are in a different budget. I'm looking for wheel to wheel action. I can use my DD to autox if I want and I live in Florida so hillclimbs? lol.

Civics are always dead nuts reliable. Our Challenge civic was a blast for track days even at 15psi on a stock D15. Plus cheap and plentiful and I know them very well. A well sorted already built racecar is appealing - where would I even begin to look for one? I tried craig and hist list but very rarely do I find a race car that isn't a drag car or boy racer WRX.

D_Eclipse where is this said car located?

The FIRST thing I would do if I was planning on road racing is go attend a couple of events and see what classes have enough competitors to be interesting. Running in a class of 2 or 3 doesn't seem particularly interesting.

e30....e30....e30. Cheap, plentiful, cheap spares, cheap parts, reasonably competitive in many kinds of racing. Always people there with spares if you break something. Fun to drive in any model, really. Engines are solid/reliable with basic maintenance.

WHATEVER YOU DO BUY, DONT BUILD! (possibly unless le-chump)

Spec RX7 already built. (MAN, those are cheap!)

F500, going to have to really shop, but it can probably be done.

Spec E30 is probably out of budget.

Whatever (used) IT car you can find a deal on.

Aforementioned Shifter Kart.

Le-chump is an option, but will take some work.

Looks like some possibilities in slower production classes with SCCA.

Check Racingjunk and see what you can afford/what appeals.

http://www.racingjunk.com/Production/182110209/HP-Honda-CRXsi.html

http://www.racingjunk.com/Production/2385412/1976-F-P-MGB-Price-Reduced.html

http://www.racingjunk.com/Other/182126346/1985-Mazda-RX-7-Setup-for-Spec7-Racing-.html

as examples... The cheaper the class, the better car you can afford and more money you have to maintain it and pay for entry fees.

Apexcarver wrote: F500, going to have to really shop, but it can probably be done.

Provided there are at least a few people in your region running them on a regular bais, this is definitely be my first choice for a dedicated racecar...Well technically F600 would be, but to get into that price range I could easily live with an F500. It can be used for autox and/or w2w, although not so much for 'open track' lapping type events if you wanted to still do those too.

DirtyBird222 wrote: D_Eclipse where is this said car located?

Northern Virginia, specifically Manassas/Dumfries area. One of our guys just moved to Florida, and I already stated my situation. The last guy just bought a house and so we are deciding what to do. Its pretty sorted, just put a new engine in it, huge radiator, of course safety is done.

Contact me at Fitzpadj at gmail if you are seriously interested. Car is great and logbooked for chump and great for lemons.

I echo though, find who you want to run with first though and then look at what class you want to be in. NASA/SCCA/Chump have incredibly different classing ideas.

D_Eclipse9916 wrote:

DirtyBird222 wrote: D_Eclipse where is this said car located?

Northern Virginia, specifically Manassas/Dumfries area. One of our guys just moved to Florida, and I already stated my situation. The last guy just bought a house and so we are deciding what to do. Its pretty sorted, just put a new engine in it, huge radiator, of course safety is done. Contact me at Fitzpadj at gmail if you are seriously interested. Car is great and logbooked for chump and great for lemons. I echo though, find who you want to run with first though and then look at what class you want to be in. NASA/SCCA/Chump have incredibly different classing ideas.

well shart! I just moved from Fairfax! I may be back there soon you never know with budget issues. I'll e-mail you. I'm sure my brother would love if I bought that and had it towed to his house for temp storage. Apexcarver thanks for those links!

Adrian_Thompson wrote: IS this possible with an S then prepping? What do they run these days?

I've started seeing early MCS's with miles under $4K. While I'd rather have a later (and much pricier) JCW to be a marginally more competitive in STX, I'd be less worried about balling up a cheaper car in riskier events. If I decided I need more action, some more safety bits could be added for w2w racing while still being street legal. A tow vehicle (and especially a trailer) isn't in the plans for awhile (no room).

The thing about these threads is you'll get a 1000 different answers. Personally, I wouldn't want an E30 if it was free because there was pretty much nothing I liked about driving that car. I live in PA where we have a solid hill-climb community, so my interests lie more there. While I'd love a F500, being open wheel cars they may not always be welcome at open track days. And for hill climbs, I asked a friend who runs an F500 about them and his comment was something like, "hill climbs are on open roads... often with guard rails... (and Duryea event venue is sporadically lined with cables)... which are about head-height in an open cockpit F500..." For me, an F500 would be my "next" car if/when I decided to get more into w2w.

Decent amount of options in that price range. Check out:
nasaforums.com
sccaforums.com
racingjunk
ebay motors under race cars

Also, highly recommend contacting people and race shops in your local NASA and SCCA. There are plenty of cars out there that are not advertised but the locals know about. No idea why they aren't advertised but...

Miata is a great platform for both NASA and SCCA. You can race on your budget and there are usually enough people at varying skill levels and prep levels to have someone to race with. Race in SCCA ITA, SM, NASA PTD/E/F.

The 1st and 2nd gen RX7s area also good race cars in that budget.

So are Hondas if you are OK with FWD.

E30 and E36 are options too but might be out of the budget especially if you are building vs buying.

I've seen plenty of oddball cars in the IT class - old Fieros, F-bodys, vintage MGs, VWs, Nissan of varying years. There all out there but not as frequent as the cars listed above in that price range.

Class sizes will vary by region so get out to the local racers and talk to the local guys around you to find a class where both the cars and the people interest you that fits your budget.

Another good resource and formerly a book is: Go Ahead Take the Wheel http://blog.goaheadtakethewheel.com/

I'll leave this here for you since I decided not to pick it up for myself.

http://www.miataturbo.net/cars-sale-trade-6/1994-mazda-1994-spec-miata-%246895-77221/