[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?

[CMC #37]

Y know I went over the the 4th gen camp from the 3rd gen camp in CMC last year. When the car was running right I beat my best lap time in the third gen at my favorite track at my first CMC race weekend there and just missed a podium finish once I got in the groove with it. It was a better built car because Alan Blaine built it totally from the ground up, especially with the great roll cage that he built me - saved my butt and saved the car from going to the boneyard after getting hit by two cars at approx 60mph.

However, after the crash it cost some major bucks to get it fixed - a 3rd gen would probably have not cost that much to fix due to the body parts being so much cheaper and easier to find to boot. Should the cost of crash repairs be a factor in the decision as to what gen to choose? I think so.

Further food for thought, some new guy showed up to race for the first time with CMC in Buttonwillow ran up front all weekend, including getting a win, in *gasp* a third gen carb car!!!!! A good driver in a well-prepared 3rd or 4th gen is competitive..., the carb motors will hopefully be getting a much deserved assist this year in the rules to even up the hp/tq discrepancy with the TPI 305s and the restricted LT1s.