[trackbird]

I was at a friends house yesterday (440 miles from home) to look at a 3rd gen shell that I can get for a great price. It's not a real desirable car for anything other than a track car. Let me try to explain (since it was dark and we were using a flashlight, I didn't think to try taking pics).

It's a '84-ish Berlinetta. It has the 85 mph speedo with the kmh scale on the other side (the double needle setup). It has idiot lights for temp, oil presure and voltage. The seats are blue vinyl and ripped. The car was purchased for the 6,000 mile goodwrench 350 that was in it, the engine and the automatic are gone (not that I care about the auto, there aren't many things that are worse than an early 700R-4). The body is straight and seem solid, there is slight damage to the fender lip on the front drivers side 1/4 panel. The rubber nose is chipped up (looks like it hit something and popped the paint off), but it's otherwise solid and not torn up. It has a rear and all the suspension is there. Some of the wiring under the hood is stripped and wrapped in electrical tape (I was told that was the distributor wiring), the Y-pipe is still in the car, manifolds are in the hatch, etc.

The bottom line is that this is a fairly straight body in an unloveable car (there is no saving that interior) and it's a hardtop. I'd be starting from scratch, gutting the interior, wiring the car, installing a manual (I've done 5 and 6 speed swaps already), getting it caged, building a motor, etc. The problem is, it's hard to decide to put a 305 back in it since I'll be building from scratch, same for a 5 speed. It's not much more to put a 6 speed in there while I'm already doing it. That would rule out CMC, but maybe I just need a track car anyway, I'll find a class for it later and just do HPDE stuff for a while.

So, do I drag this heap home and likely put $12,000 in it or go buy something that runs?

[Shortcutsleeping]

Kevin,

It is really simple. There are two pairs of questions.

Do you want to build?
Do you want to race?

Can you spend a little money each month?
Can you spend a bunch of money right now?


Project cars (especially from scratch) take piles of money and months/years of time. Some folks really LIKE that kinda fabrication/build stuff and, for them, building it is half the fun. If you are in that group then building is an option.

If you want to be on the track soon, buy a completed, running car. It *WILL* cost you less than building even knowing you will have to un-f#ck some stuff that you don't like the way the previous owner/builder did.

The money part is obvious, I think decent cmc cars go for 8-10k.

Now, not that you asked, but since I'm on my soapbox anyway I'll speak for a moment about car classifications. If you build something to follow NO rules, then it's appeal will be limited should you ever want to get rid of it. Additionally, if you go roadracing with it, you won't really have anyone to play with because you will be in a stupidfast class with an un-optimized car. Give a long thought to where you want to be in five years and work towards that. CMC looks like a helluva fun class and altho your cmc car will be slow in hpde situations, it will help you be a better driver to learn in a momentum car and then when your hpde buddies are still talking about the ferrari they passed this one time at band camp, you can be actually running wheeltowheel in a competitive car in a great series. Ditto for IT classes in SCCA. The cars are slow in hpde format, but running wheel2wheel is the cake, icing, and total hottie bikini girl that jumps out of the cake.

For reference = http://www.nsxfiles.com/Pyramid_of_speed.htm

Hope to see you at the track sometime, somewhere!!

Costas
cars and such...

[rmackintosh]

Kevin,

It is really simple. There are two pairs of questions.

Do you want to build?
Do you want to race?

Can you spend a little money each month?
Can you spend a bunch of money right now?


Project cars (especially from scratch) take piles of money and months/years of time. Some folks really LIKE that kinda fabrication/build stuff and, for them, building it is half the fun. If you are in that group then building is an option.

If you want to be on the track soon, buy a completed, running car. It *WILL* cost you less than building even knowing you will have to un-f#ck some stuff that you don't like the way the previous owner/builder did.

The money part is obvious, I think decent cmc cars go for 8-10k.

Now, not that you asked, but since I'm on my soapbox anyway I'll speak for a moment about car classifications. If you build something to follow NO rules, then it's appeal will be limited should you ever want to get rid of it. Additionally, if you go roadracing with it, you won't really have anyone to play with because you will be in a stupidfast class with an un-optimized car. Give a long thought to where you want to be in five years and work towards that. CMC looks like a helluva fun class and altho your cmc car will be slow in hpde situations, it will help you be a better driver to learn in a momentum car and then when your hpde buddies are still talking about the ferrari they passed this one time at band camp, you can be actually running wheeltowheel in a competitive car in a great series. Ditto for IT classes in SCCA. The cars are slow in hpde format, but running wheel2wheel is the cake, icing, and total hottie bikini girl that jumps out of the cake.

For reference = http://www.nsxfiles.com/Pyramid_of_speed.htm

Hope to see you at the track sometime, somewhere!!

Costas
cars and such...

Ditto to EVERYTHING this man says.....

I think THIS project is a lose/lose situation.

Pros:
1. It is cheap

Cons:
1. Building a car from scratch is EXPENSIVE, so your ONLY "pro" is taken out
2. It is an older less desirable car making it hard to unload when you want out
3. Building a car to YOUR specs, and not a class of cars is making the selling of the car almost impossible
4. You can get a BETTER car.....CHEAPER and ready to run from day 1

I think you are boxing yourself in FAR TOO MUCH and hanging it all on the "I can get this car for cheap" hat. I think that is a mistake. As one who UNDERSTANDS the desire to build your own vs. buy someone elses car, I think you can make MUCH better choices in car and prep in order to save yourself a TON of grief when it comes to running it and eventually selling it......JMHO

Winter is the time of deals....get out there and look for a SMOKIN deal on a race car.....I see 'em EVERY day.....