Need a little help.

[JJerry]

Hey guys well i'm new to the forums and racing. For the last couple of days well months rather. I've been trying to decide on #1 what series to run in and #2 what car to use and build. I know it's kinda up to me to decide but a few opinions wont hurt. Well anyways here are the car's i've been looking at.

• 
  1999 - 2004 Ford Mustang
  1995 - 1999 Mitsubishi eclipse gsx, or gst
  Mitsubishi 3000 gt vr4
  1999 - 2006 Toyota celica
  FC RX-7
  FD RX-7
  

The hardest car for me to obtain is the FD. Like i was saying i'm just looking for some opinions.

[kbrew8991]

I would visit an event in your region and just check out what people are running, what classes look fun to run, and talk to some drivers about their cars to get a real sense of costs, ease of operation, fun factor, etc. You'd also get a good feel for what is popular in your region so you don't end up being the only one in your class with no one to race against.

 

If those are the cars you're passonate about, it sounds like the Performance Touring or Super Touring series of classes might be down your alley - and the Mustang would also fit Camaro-Mustang Challenge and American Iorn fwiw.

 

Hope that helps!

[krystar]

how new are you to racing? are you comfortable driving on track with other cars?

 

as u probably know, dsm's have a horrible reputation for crankwalking. so keep that in mind if u choose to go that route.

[JJerry]

Well as far as car racing I'm fairly new. I've raced karts previously I'm living in Virginia right now so I guess that puts me in the mid atlantic region. Yea I remember the crankwalking thing but I was actually more concerned with the whole fwd, rwd, or awd debate. Which is also personal preferance.

[robbodleimages]

jj,

 

i highly recommend that you consider an S197 mustang. the direction of mustang racing is heading strongly in the direction of the newer platform. you can run cmc2, american iron and st2 with costs reasonable as you go.

 

just my 2cents

[D_Eclipse9916]

as u probably know, dsm's have a horrible reputation for crankwalking. so keep that in mind if u choose to go that route.

 

^^ Christ I love mis-information. It happened on 3-5% of 95-97 DSMs. Most people blame their blown motors on crankwalk because they are too ashamed to admit they put a big ass turbo on their otherwise stock car and turned up the boost to 30.

 

89.5-92s had 6-bolts (crankwalk like any other car)

93-94 had 7 bolts (crankwalk like any other car)

95-97 had 7-bolts that were more prone to crankwalk but still not as overblown as it is.

98-99 had 7-bolts with revised split thrust bearings (basically same bottom end as an evo, extremely rare crankwalk)

 

That said, a DSM is a HORRIBLE car to learn how to drive and race in. If you were going for all out crazy (TTU), its actually a better platform then lets say an evo, (2g dsms had extremely good Coefficent of drag, frontal area, double wishbone independent all the way around, low weight comparively, and a cage fixes the wet noodle chassis.

However, for anything less than an all-out TTU effort, they are old, typically beat up on, usually modded horribly, dont have pretty much any good off-the-shelf suspension options, I constantly blew power steering racks, and have increased maintenance due to AWD (trans oil change, transfer case oil change, diff oil change), 4 axles, 2 lower control arms.

 

I did love mine, and it was flipping fast on 245/40/17 hoo hoos with ~300-350AWHP..... but it was a chore keeping on track. I ended up selling mine and buying an E36 m3 to race.

[krystar]

i can't say for percentage numbers, but i know of 4 friends that have had it and have thrown tons of machine shop money at the problem. it def is for ppl that have overboard extreme pressure plates. but it's still an issue that's model specific. reputation is there cause it happens. 944's have a reputation of throwing timing belts and blowing #2 rod bearing and exploding pinion gear....the reputation is there cause ppl break it there. it's not misinformation.