Topic: Car selections for a new team....

So my buddies and I are car hunting to build a great non cheaty Lemons
Car. So far we have a few late 80-early 90s hondas, a early 90s escort,a z34 lumina (I am leaning towards this one), a turbo Saab and a 77 Datsun b210...
That may or may not run...and has no hood...or bumper...

What have y'all seen as far as the most successful noob car?

Can we have power adders like N2O, turbos, or large sails?
Can we have on demand flame shooting exhaust? (May go with our theme, car dependent)
Are aftermarket strut tower braces cheaty?
If we buy a 1000$ car and sale 500$ of crap off it, do we then have a 500$ car?
Do we get penalized for legit racing brakes/big brake kits?

Hope to meet some of you at the Houston race.

Team Safety 3rd Racing.
1985 Dodge Daytona Turbo-currently being lemonized.
https://www.facebook.com/TeamSafety3rdRacing/

2 (edited by OnkelUdo 2017-10-26 03:19 AM)

Re: Car selections for a new team....

Welcome.

A) Hit the rules page...it is like 6 pages of rules and not hard to digest.  There you will find "no compressed gasses" so not NOX.

B) First race(s) are not about max performance, they are about survival.  All that stuff you want to add, does not increase reliability or safety except potentially the brake upgrade.  Ignore the BS laps because you will suck as a team that first race anyway...safe (pass tech), reliable, then add reliability.

C) Creating and keeping a team together all the way until they get some track time and are hooked is harder than anything involved with prepping a car.

Best newbie car has bee covered many time right here in the this topic.  You have a few choices but they fall into three categories:

1) What do you already know well or a team member DD's
2) What is proven reliable IN Lemons, has high PnP availability and is still not terrible to race
3) Buy an already prep'ed and race prove car that another team is bored with

The first one can literally anything.  The second is somewhat regional but kind of goes: Escort (mazda BP motor only)/Mazda Protege, Focus, Neon, Volvo 240, GM W-body (pretty terrible to race but fun in its own way), small pickups (if your cage builder understands the requirements) and a litany of small Honda and Toyota commuter cars.

Buying a prep'ed car has many advantages if your primary interest is not the actual build.  You will save money.  It likely will pass tech.  Most of them come with spares.  The build time for race one is measured in tens of hours instead of hundreds.  All of these also conspire to keep your "We are so in" group of buddy still in it to green flag for a couple of reasons.  First is a big chunk of the prep cost are upfront...those without the finances to do this fall out right there.  Your pre-race prep is more relaxed and fun with a focus on all the little things and none of the big ones.  You should have time to have fun with the theme.

Keep in mind a running average for getting to the first race (less personal safety gear, tow vehicle, trailer) ranges from $3500-6000 for most teams and if you build from scratch is a minimum of a couple of hundred manhours.

Re: Car selections for a new team....

Welcome.

A lot of your questions can be answered by reading the rules. But some quick answers.
- No NO2, you can't have compressed gasses at all.
- add turbos and other forced induction as you wish, they'll just make you blow up faster.
- Flame throwing exhaust is probably not allowed. We all kinda don't like being on fire, and "on demand" has me picturing a fuel injector in the exhaust
- Strut tower braces depend on source. If  you spend $500 on a name brand brace, you might get hassled. If you make your own, no one will think twice (you're not going to get hassled over it really at all, it's not going to give you that big of a performance bump)
- You can buy for $1000 and sell parts within reason. The rules lay out what counts towards recouping money and what doesn't.
- Brakes are budget exempt because they are part of your safety. We want you to spend money there so that you can stop when something goes wrong.

As for the car.
You need stock hoods, bumpers, crash structure, etc. (again, in the rules)
The standard advice is to pick a car you know. You're very likely going to be doing a lot of wrenching on it, so if you know it already that will help.
Hondas take a little care in Lemons. You MUST keep them cool or you'll spend a lot of time changing head gaskets. The Lumina might be a decent pick. We run a modern saab, they can be hit or miss. They're enormous fun to race, but they're annoying to work on. They can be quick however. The datsun sounds cool, but also like it will require the most work. Caging that car might be interesting because it's on the smaller side.

20+ Time Loser FutilityMotorsport
Abandoned E36 Build
2008 Saab 9-5Aero Wagon
Retired - 1989 Dodge Daytona Shelby 2011-2015 "Lifetime Award for Lack of Achievement" IOE, 3X I got screwed, Organizer's Choice

Re: Car selections for a new team....

Cool. I have been looking thru the rules and getting
An understanding of what is required. No n2o, that means no propane
powered cars either...scratch that idea.  We like wrenching on cars
so we are scratch building one. Already have 1k set aside for the cage.
look forward to meeting some of y'all in Houston.
I already meet Rick and his #94 pineapple dodge shadow.
Car was at my shop last week and that kinda got me started.
Y'all are having way to much fun and I wanna play to.

Team Safety 3rd Racing.
1985 Dodge Daytona Turbo-currently being lemonized.
https://www.facebook.com/TeamSafety3rdRacing/

Re: Car selections for a new team....

You might want to set aside a little more depending on how you're doing the cage. If you're hiring someone to do the whole cage teh cost can be up to 2k+. If you're planning on installing yourself you can get pre-bent kits shipped for less than 1k.

20+ Time Loser FutilityMotorsport
Abandoned E36 Build
2008 Saab 9-5Aero Wagon
Retired - 1989 Dodge Daytona Shelby 2011-2015 "Lifetime Award for Lack of Achievement" IOE, 3X I got screwed, Organizer's Choice

Re: Car selections for a new team....

TheEngineer wrote:

...If you're hiring someone to do the whole cage teh cost can be up to 2k+. If you're planning on installing yourself you can get pre-bent kits shipped for less than 1k.

Or buy a used mandrel bender, the correct tubing, bending layout software,
a set of dies for $1k - $1.2k and build your next cage for the cost of the tubing.
This works especially well if you have an oddball car to cage.

Capt. Delinquent Racing
RUST-TITE XR4Ti - '21 ARSE-FREEZE-APALOOZA  I Got Screwed
The One & Only Taurus V8 SHO #31(now moved on to another OG Delinquent)
'17 Vodden the Hell - (No) Hope for the Future Award, '08 AMP Survivor, '08 ARSE-FREEZE-APALOOZA Mega-Cheater