ukemike wrote:I've seen comments in here that you can't go over the $500 just because it already had a rollcage and race seat.
I'm a little late to the party, but I'll chime in anyway.
I also saw statements to this effect back when I was starting out, one of them even from Judge Phil if I remember right. This didn't make any sense to me at the time since the safety equipment itself is supposed to be exempt, but it seems like it's never really an issue in practice as long as you get the seller to list a separate price for the safety equipment. That's the letter of the law, anyway. I think the judges are far more concerned with cheaters trying to find loopholes than they are with people bringing honestly crappy cars, no matter what they actually paid. The actual enforcement of the law is more like this:
1. Judge Phil looks at your car and gets an immediate sense of how competitive the car might be.
2. If the car model is a well-known heap of shit, skip to step 4. If it's potentially a ringer, or if it possibly bridges a gap between classes, he bounces all four corners and looks closely at the engine and suspension to see if you have any cheaty aftermarket parts.
3. If evidence of cheatiness is found, he asks to see written documentation. He probably won't believe a word of it, but he will appreciate a good effort toward faking it.
4. He then looks at your team and immediately forms an opinion of how full of shit you are. If you look like a bunch of confident guys who think they can pull a fast one, or if one of your team members looks like Smokey Yunick, or if, God forbid, anyone mentions owning a speed shop or being a higher-up in a car club for the same model of car that you race, then the questions will get more pointed and your chance of penalty laps dramatically increases.
5. If you have bribes, present them now. Realistically, they will only make a very small difference. If he's on the fence about what class to put you in, a good bribe might tip the scales toward the lower class. It might also shave off low single-digits worth of penalty laps. Cheap beer will hurt rather than help. A good, well-executed theme also comes into play here, actually more so than a straight-up bribe.
6. All information thus gained is entered into a super-secret mental algorithm formed by years of owning, working on, writing about, and rendering judgement upon cars of all shapes and sizes. The result is written at the top of your inspection sheet. If you complain, or if you look too obviously relieved, it gets revised for the worse.
When I was new to this, I asked a lot of questions about the budget. Many people told me the same thing they're telling you now: don't worry about the budget. I found this hard to do, but after my first race, I realized how right they were. The dollars you spent don't matter as much as the car you brought. Even if you cheated and got penalty laps, you still get to race. You weren't going to win your first time (or 4 or 5 or 6 times) anyway, so don't even worry about it. If you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong, etc. etc. It sounds like you're all over this, but once I started typing I just couldn't stop myself.
Anyway, welcome to the party. I guess I should ask, what car is it?