99StockGT

Built carb to pan? That's not a bad price at all if it's ready to go with just a $100 starter.

Something they mentioned but didn't spend a lot of time on was the Spa situation where the rules were quite literally changed right before arrival. Also felt fishy to me. *tips tin foil cap*

Rebuild it with slightly better fun parts and toss it back in. In our experience a lot of the time "Drop in" or "Ran when pulled" engines we still end up taking apart checking everything and reassembling. Unless it's a crate motor in which case go for it. The LS route, I promise there will be more than a few hidden costs and headaches getting that done. Though it is by far the most common swap, there's ALWAYS something that gets you hung up.

Ohhh that would be a ton of fun! Not a chance in hell I would throw that kind of money at it, but soo fun! And yes Miata are not nearly as cheap as they used to be, the secret of what they can become has been out for a WHILE.

Ahhh! We are actually working on a 75 MGB right now, nifty little cars as long as you aren't much bigger than me. Would be interesting at high speeds for sure.

You see Mr Draco we have the same disease of once we have it and it's great we'll tear it apart, spend more money, and want to make it greater. And while I doubt I'll be able to avoid that going down the race car path I WOULD like to start this process with something sub $5k. Lord only knows where that final price tag will end up

We put a decent eBay system on a 2014 370 a few months ago and it sounds great. Looks pretty decent too all "Stainless" and sexy hanging under there. Really depends a lot on how loud you want to go, those cars have a very distinct sound that gets considerably more noticeable as you up the decibels.

$5k initial buy in and setup, there are plenty of options out there just need to weed through the junk to find something that works. Upkeep will be a different budget we are just trying to keep ourselves under control on the initial buy in. Dual purpose here is something that may help with brand building, IE the Mini if we are going after the mini support business or one of the Nissans for the G/Z/GTR club And no, no running the Merkur!!

Hmmmm you know.. we DO have a couple Minis we do work on, that could be a viable option. We would be looking at 1st Gen ones at that price which are a bit of a basket case.. but... https://columbus.craigslist.org/cto/5725955372.html

Sure. Great little cars. In the 5k price range? Doubt I could even buy a stolen one for that cheap

Ha! Well that's not a suggestion I was expecting! The one in the photo though IS a pretty bad ass looking ride!

Exactly, you also will NEVER see me running anything that's LS swapped, just not my style personally.

The problem with the Merkur isn't the engine, it's everything else. The brakes and suspension are specific to the car, same with axles. I could do a spindle swap and move over to 5 lug Ford setup but then I'm going to have quite a bit more money just to get the conversion done. Once that's all done you still have a very angry 2.3 under a lot of boost which will heat soak just about any intercooler when doing road racing. AutoX or drag racing short busts of throttle then you cool off for a while, with road racing you are looking at heavy throttle out of every corner and down every straight for extended periods of time.

You didn't happen to know I already have a Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V that literally just got on the road Monday did you? That's scary Yes I definitely agree, one of the reasons I gave up on the Merkur racecar is the parts support just aren't there. When you cook or snap something and have to pay 4x price and wait a week the replacement to arrive, that's not good low budget racecar planning!

Does not need to be street legal, this will get trailered to and from the track along with tools and such to support it. Ideally this would also be a car we could use for some promotional example of what we can do and the car clubs we support. The Nissan G/Z/GTR club and Subarus come to mind. We DO have a semi gutted Forester here which is going through the process to become an AutoX car for next year. That will still be streetable with full A/C and such so not exactly the purpose built racer. On the Miata front, it's certainly hard to beat. That platform has been proven 1000 times before and it's certainly appealing to have the pedigree, unfortunately it would also be lost in the herd of miata... and I can already see me eyeballing mods on other cars...and spending more and more money to get higher and higher in the Miata ranks

With much of racing season already gone, and quite a lot of the projects being completed or nearly complete time to look ahead at next year. There's an HPDE event at Mid Ohio coming up that I did last year but the more I think about it tossing the Stealth around there again at crazy speeds just doesn't seem the smartest plan. Between all the expensive maintenance pieces and the cost of fixing things if I impact something, I just can't stomach it. So in my mind that means purpose built race car. Mid-Ohio, Pitt, Ginger, those sorts of road courses are really what I'm looking to enjoy next year so what would you build? Would like to keep this budget conscious, say under 5k all told. Solid aftermarket parts availability and decent reliability. Brand loyalty doesn't matter, we work on damn near anything under the sun so I haven't got an issue there. Something I noticed with the Stealth around Mid-Ohio is that sometimes a lot of power makes the experience less enjoyable. While it's awesome to blast down the back stretch at 30+ mph faster than everyone else I think those who did it a bit slower actually had more fun and less worry. So, power to weight ratio should also be considered. What would CR do?!

Yep you're on the right track, check to make sure its actuating correctly then work your way backwards to the hose and on we go.

Could always get worse You could be living in Paris where... http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-autos-ban-idUSKCN0ZH4V8

Replacing upper and lower control arms, front shocks, and all the bits on a customer's newish CTS currently. He's a road warrior so miles wrack up fast. The cost of parts and the amount of work involved is absolutely STAGGERING. Completely agree!

If the EPA ever really decided to take the gloves off and hunt down the "defeat devices" and "tuners" hundreds of shops across this country install and use there's going to be a big firey hole in the ground where many many shops once stood. Exactly why we and others don't do "test pipes" and DEF deletes, not worth the potential firestorm.

Yeah for these prices I don't even need the set I bought but it's not worth passing up. Even at wholesale pricing buying direct I can't touch that price on anything other than junk tires. Yay for Discontinued items!

Lol never underestimate a bored redneck with some fabrication skills and imagination. I could totally get behind a road racing series full of these things!

You've got lots of jeeping knowledge out here in Plain City so ask away. Between Trail Quest, Bulletliner, and ourselves there's almost always some sort of wrangler being torn apart, rebuilt, modified, lifted, or whatever. Welcome to a whole new world of what do I modify NEXT!? What sorts of suspension are under that thing? Plans for it?

Ok so quick back story. Customer purchased a 1975 MGB as his summer fun top down ride, it's been sitting a long time and wasn't all that fantastically maintained to begin with so it's time to get this thing some TLC. Previously someone has been involved in wiring issues which we are hunting down, some other drive-ability are also being handled with the engine and trans BUT we have to get a wheel situation resolved or none of this matter. Both of his rear wheels have extensive play in the spokes, which is not good. Fortunately he was able to pick up an old set that has been sand blasted and primered, now he's looking at refinishing options. Likely looking to stay in the grey type color, nothing flashy. Paint? Dip? Powder Coat? That nifty water/film thing? Being these are wireswith splines this is a tad trickier resolution, you've got few flat surfaces and all sorts of angles you are going to need to cover. CR chime in on your preferences/experiences! http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/b452/LucoreRacing/Mobile%20Uploads/20160819_092535_zpsdfb7dy8y.jpg http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/b452/LucoreRacing/Mobile%20Uploads/20160819_092523_zpsp14nmnno.jpg

It's a terrible thing when you dream becomes true and becomes an all consuming thing isn't it? Seems like you are riding quite a wave these days so congrats and keep it up!