EJ20 Posted December 13, 2004 Share Posted December 13, 2004 Just getting started getting the racing fever Yea so my cousin and I started talking last night and decided to join nasa and buy a car and fix it up over the winter break. We decided to work together and buy 1 dedicated race car He would buy the car and I would work on it at my garage... My question is : What would be a good platform to start out with? I've been looking around and its hard to find a sub 1000$ car... theres a few under 2 large like some EF's and crx's. My other cousin has a 91 EF hatch lying around with 200k miles...should I use this? Or is the milage on the car too high? please throw in your .02 cents ....I need it to buy a car!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
civicrr Posted December 13, 2004 Share Posted December 13, 2004 Use the EF. Using the chassis swap rule, you can make it into a 'Civic Si'. That way, you can run the D16 engine. It is run with the same min. weight as the CRX Si in H4. The reason that I am saying that is for the cars you are considering, they should be completely gone thru anyway (eg brakes, bushings, engine, tranny, etc) to make sure it is safe & reliable. Honestly, any car that sees the track should be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeski38 Posted December 13, 2004 Share Posted December 13, 2004 If you are interested, my brother is selling his fully prepared and ready to race, 87 crx si racecar. It was the '03 H5 season champion and also won the '03 12 hour at thunderhill. The car is fun and reliable, but most of all it is very cheap. He is selling it for $2500, it will run a whole season on one set of fully treaded RA-1's, one set front brakes, and burns very little fuel. This is a great car to get started with. Check it out http://www.nasaforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=2212 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJ20 Posted December 13, 2004 Author Share Posted December 13, 2004 thanks for the offer but you're all the way on the opposite coast from where I am 2500 sounds great but I'm looking more towards 1000 somethin (and how much would it cost just to get in here in maryland ) So should I get my cousins EF and swap out the monster 92 HP 1.5 liter motor with a d16 and be happy? What would it take to convert it to SI status (just a motor swap?) any idea on the cost to covert it to a d16 (heard some issues with dual point injection and it was tough to swap an enigne into an EF because of the rear mounting bracket. man im so excited Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPiFF Posted December 13, 2004 Share Posted December 13, 2004 There are tons of competitive fully built cars for sale on the east cost right now for insane prices. Look here. http://www.improvedtouring.com/Classifieds/#IT%20Race%20Cars http://www.grassrootsmotorsports.com/classifieds.php BTW, if you can't fork over $2500 to buy a car you will be in for a hard ride in racing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeski38 Posted December 13, 2004 Share Posted December 13, 2004 good luck man! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJ20 Posted December 13, 2004 Author Share Posted December 13, 2004 I need some guidance on which to get. kinda overwhelmed cause theres so many deals on there ...i dont know which to get ... like i have no experince with rotaries, or bmws, or porsches, toyotas, and they'res a couple of em for really cheap... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeski38 Posted December 13, 2004 Share Posted December 13, 2004 GET A HONDA! They are reliable, fast and cheap. Rotary bad, toyota good but fewer places to compete, mazda recipercating are great but SM is lame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJ20 Posted December 14, 2004 Author Share Posted December 14, 2004 yea...i wanted honda too...but now i gotta go find one.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJ20 Posted December 14, 2004 Author Share Posted December 14, 2004 wohoo called up my cousin and he said i can have his EF in january! yes so in about a month ill be driving 600 miles to michigan tow it here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0x1 Posted December 15, 2004 Share Posted December 15, 2004 I have to 2nd the opinion of the racers who told you to buy and already prepped car. You may think you're getting a deal w/ a < $1k car, but you're not. If you consider that it should cost around $1k just to get a decent cage, plus another $500 in safety setup and $600 for tires. Then you start thinking about things like motor swap, suspension, brakes, i/h/e, steering wheel, spares, bushings, etc, etc, etc, and the deal becomes a lot less sweet. I would go w/ an already prepped car. IMO, the Locks' CRX is a smoking deal for the price even if you had to pay $800 or so to get it shipped. I'm not trying to bag on you at all or say it can't be done, but until you feel like you'd be cool with dropping anywhere from $700 - $1000 on a weekend of racing, you may want to stick to HPDE's (which will still run you around $500 in track fees + consumables). I'm just giving you the same advice that was given to me by people with a lot more experience. I took the advice and I haven't regretted it at all. Good luck in whatever you decide to do. - Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJ20 Posted December 15, 2004 Author Share Posted December 15, 2004 what an expensive hobby ... i dont have 2500 to drop...but i am getting a free civic hatch.... thanks for the advice guys...if i did have the money i would drop it on the prepped car most definately....but can u argue with free? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0x1 Posted December 16, 2004 Share Posted December 16, 2004 but can u argue with free? Haha .. yes ... let me show you the argument: Free + $1k cage + $1k rims and tires + $1k motor + $500 seat and harness + $1k suspension + ~$1k bolt ons > $3000 - 5000 for a nicely prepped car. The thing is that you'll never get your money back that you put into the racecar. There are definite advantages to building your own car, but if you are on a tight budget, buying an already prepped car puts you way ahead. If you are thinking that getting a free car will allow you to build it paycheck to paycheck, then I'd tell you that you'd be better off just saving that money until you had enough to buy a prepped car. Again, I know how strong the desire is and I'm not trying to bring you down, but you have to consider the costs involved just in getting started. I'm just about to start racing and to this point I've spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $10,000 (car, motor, trailer, track fees, etc, etc, etc) to run a mostly-already prepped H4 CRX. Then, like I mentioned before, expect to spend upwards of $500 on a weekend of racing. If your budget is tight, you may just want to keep the car street legal and run HPDE. This will save you the cost of a trailer, cage, racing seat, harness, firesuit, master kill, tires, etc and it's still a ton of fun. - Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
civicrr Posted December 16, 2004 Share Posted December 16, 2004 Everything that Scott is saying is true. Having build a couple of cars already, I realize the truth thru my own experience. One thing that you do get when building your own car is an intimate knowledge of how it works. This makes it a lot easier when you need to do repairs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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