[ESPCamaro]

If you sold your car and had to buy a NON F-body what would it be. Think of working within your current budget.


I would like a late 80's BMW M3. With a 3.0 or 3.2 M3 engine. A Street Modified car.

With flares and 245/17's.


Or an E36 M3 for BSP. That one would depend on purchase price though.

[Pat Newton]

I've watched several races with spec Miata and Legends ...
Those classes appear to redline the fun-o-meter

What I don't like about the F-Body (or most street type cars I guess) is the expense of keeping the car on the track, reliable and semi competitive.

From what I can tell, a $10K investment and $3-5K car budget can put a Miata on the track for 4 or 5 races a year.

It might not be the front runner, but again, it would be fun!

I've figured my per-weekend expenses, including "everything" (hotel, food, consumables, entry fees, gas for race car and tow vehicle, etc.) to be $800 for Portland races (tow and hotel involved) and $600 for Seattle races (stay at home). That is running both SM and ITE classes. For 2004, I will probably only run SM to keep the costs down, and that will cut about $200 per weekend off.

Pretty darn cheap racing when you can go an entire 10-weekend season on 1.5 sets of tires, two sets of rotors and two sets of pads. Plus, because of the lower horsepower and general reliability of Miatas, we spend the vast majority of time between sessions sitting under the EZ-Ups eating sandwiches, rather than wrenching on the cars like most of my f-body racing buddies do (unfortunately).

A good mid-pack SM can be built for around $11K inclusive, given ~$3500 for a donor car (with hardtop) and providing most of the work is done by the owner. It's difficult to do it much cheaper than that.

In areas where it is available, I think CMC gives SM a run for its money, both in car costs and per-weekend costs. The key is the Toyo tires. They aren't the stickiest out there, but who cares when everybody runs the same tires and they last several weekends?