The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Newcomers → Bought two cars in one transaction. What is each worth?
We just bought an 88 running, but salvage titled, 88 prelude and no motor, but clean, 91 prelude. We paid $800 for both.
Our short term goal is to swap cradles and run the 91, but we're trying to figure out what our starting price on the 91 should be for our build.
Well, right now you are at $800 for the pair.
Sell or scrap one and now you know where you are starting from.
Honestly, it doesn't matter.
Build what you want to build in the Spirit of a $500 car. Keep tabs of what you spent. Present it at BS Inspection.
Enjoy your first race. Take your lumps / laps with a does of good-humor. come back for your second race and whatever penalty laps you had from your first race will be washed away when you tell them you were broken and in the paddock most of your first event, anyway.
If you REALLY cared, you'd come up with a fake receipt for $150 for whatever car you are building and then you'd come up with a bunch of fake receipts for the "cheap ebay coilovers" and "chinese-knockoff turbocharger" that you attached.
What Spank said.
This may be sacrilege to the teams that follow the very letter of the rule- and I commend those that accept the challenge at that literal level- but I have neither presented nor even worried about presenting receipts since our second race. The car that we race has a great deal to do with my lack of concern- It's a VW Super! Beetle. It will never run a top 10 lap time and there is a great chance that something will break or implode every race. But our team is ok with that because, it's actually an incredibly fun car to try and race in, our fellow racers seem to get a kick out of seeing it on track, and we have a lot of fun between races re-engineering various aspects of it's 70-year old design trying to coax a few more HP, mph and/or laps than we did last race. Is our VW cheaty? Technically, sure. Is it still an aircooled VW with all the inherent unsuitability to tolerate endurance racing? Hell yes.
Since this will be your first race, do your best to document and keep to that $500 budget- it is part of the experience. After that, unless you plan on racing an E30, or a miata or something similar, it's more important that you follow the spirit of the budget than the letter.
Good luck!
If you plan to upgrade anything on the car, drive train or suspension, then you might want to keep track of expenses. In that case, what LowFlyin said is the letter of the law. You're currently in for $800, and you can deduct the price of parts from either car that you sell off (unless those parts are budget-exempt to upgrade, like wheels/tires/brake parts). You can also deduct the receipt from the scrap yard if you scrap the extra chassis. That being said, if any of that is impractical, just pretend you sold or scrapped stuff and fake up some believable receipts. Unless you're obviously cheating, the judges will appreciate the effort even if they know it's BS.
If you show up with a stock Prelude with a non-cheatified Prelude drivetrain and squishy stock suspension, they won't even ask how much you paid for it. They'll just bounce the fenders and throw you in Class A with no laps (probably). If you have adjustable shocks, new springs, and/or a suspiciously clean-looking engine, expect many pointed questions to be asked and penalty laps to be deducted no matter how believable your story sounds.
But even if they do hit you with penalty laps, you still get to race. You're not going to win your first time out there, so don't worry about it and try to have fun. Spend your time and money beforehand improving reliability rather than speed. That way the car stays on track more and you don't have to spend your whole weekend wrenching. And your friends will actually want to keep coming back instead of abandoning the project.
Thanks to everyone for the replies. I've been a long time lurker (going on 5+ years) of the Lemons scene, so I understand what you're all saying. We fully intend on running an honest $500 car. If that means starting with an $800 price tag, but two cars we can sell stuff off of then that's fine with us. We will have documentation for the BS inspection and will bring some local brews as an offering just to be safe.
We're under no illusion that we'll be fast. The current plan is to focus on reliability (increase oil capacity, improve cooling for the water and oil, add warning lights, add a rev-limiter for the first race or two, etc), do some minor suspension work (box the wishbones, cut the springs and/or get stiffer junkyard springs, etc) and come up with a decent theme (we have two in mind currently). We're not touching the motor and are not going to buy any fancy suspension bits.
Since this thread is worthless without pics:
91 in my driveway:
The 88 made the 20 mile drive home without any problems, but it's kinda ugly and a ton of the creature comforts don't work. This is its better end:
As they sat when we picked them up. The 91 is in the foreground and is on the toe dolly:
Tires on the 91:
Obligatory extra and removed parts inside of cars:
Easier solution - race the '88 as-is and keep the '91 for parts. Divide the $800 by two and call it a $400 car. Nobody will care. Done.
Easier solution - race the '88 as-is and keep the '91 for parts. Divide the $800 by two and call it a $400 car. Nobody will care. Done.
But the 91 is just so much better looking.... And straight. Can't forget that the 91 is the one with the straight unibody.
Granted, that will only last so long on a Lemons track.
Paint it red with a Hell Kitty/Car and Driver theme...go on I dare you to!
But the 91 is just so much better looking.... And straight. Can't forget that the 91 is the one with the straight unibody.
I agree with Erik, run the basket case, it has no value. The 91 could be sold to finance cage and parts. When you are out on the track getting passed by a minivan or Corvair, how straight your car is will not even come to mind.
How about this: we want to get into the spirit and do extra work to run the nicer looking car only to damage it on the track instead of taking the "easy path" 
You guys really need a crazy simile.
Crazy like a fox.
Now that you have two similar cars, the way forward is obvious.
This is also the easiest way to transport your parts car to the track.
Now that you have two similar cars, the way forward is obvious.
This is also the easiest way to transport your parts car to the track.
Crazy like a Mike.
Now that you have two similar cars, the way forward is obvious.
This is also the easiest way to transport your parts car to the track.
This would be amazing. Do both those cars run? We only have one engine between two cars, so if it were to go boom at the track we would have to figure out a way to get both cars back.
Do both those cars run? We only have one engine between two cars....
They both ran before that race. The tow vehicle still ran after that race. Success!
(Seattle - Thunderhill - Seattle)
Turn the non-running chassis into a four-wheel trailer with storage bins under the hood.
If you want to consider running in WRL, that's the only reason I'd stick with the nicer car. As said, you'll not care one bit on the track once you're under green. Also, if it gets dinged up...it's OK or you're mad and no longer driving with the same attitude as with the beater car.
The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Newcomers → Bought two cars in one transaction. What is each worth?