Re: The "Build me a $5,000 $500 Lemons car" Thread

Spank wrote:

The Le Baron was 150% more per lap than the Z.

Add in the purchase, build, and transport costs...

And add the 1500 mile drive to the track into the lap equation... If MSR is ~3 miles long, that adds an equivalent of 500 more laps for a sense of accomplishment.

That puts the Le baron at $1.65 per lap equivalent...

That guy

Re: The "Build me a $5,000 $500 Lemons car" Thread

Spank wrote:

As for $ per seat timelaps... Why bother having the $500 rule at all? Let's just all go buy crate engines like team XXX does every year for $3K and then sell them at the end of the year for $1K. Yes, I know a team who does that.

For those who KNOW they've spent more than $500 on non-safety items, are they happy to accept BS laps? 1 lap for every $10 over I think it is.

Actually demanded it on the 1947 Plymouth.   We were $30 over....we deserve the 3 laps.

Re: The "Build me a $5,000 $500 Lemons car" Thread

Seriously, penalty laps are part of the fun! It's not like we're winning or anything.

Mistake By The Lake Racing (MBTL)
88 Thunderbird "THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!", Ex Astris, Rubigo / Semper Fracti
A&D: 2014 Sebrings at Sebring (NSF), 2014 NJMP2 Jurassic Park (SpeedyCop), 2012 Summit Point J30 (PiNuts)
2018 Route Sucky-Suck Rally Miata, 2019 World Tour Of Texas 64 Newport

Re: The "Build me a $5,000 $500 Lemons car" Thread

Spank,

You did an excellent job building the Le Baron from scratch and racing it for very little money. You and Speedy Cop are two of the most ambitious Lemons builders. You have my respect for that.

The two of you have probably built and fielded the most cars in Lemons too.

This all started out with this:

Spank wrote:

Alternative title: Raw nerve ointment, please.
Alternative, alternative title: Show me how you built your $500 crapcan with your checkbook.


Please give me a spreadsheet of a $5000 build of a Lemons-legal $500 car that cannot be done more cheaply and with still a reasonably equivalent level of safety.

Many people posted $500 LeMons-legal cars with approximately $5000 build costs.

The time and money spent to build these cars plus the $1300 minimum entry fee makes an expensive toy.

I've raced the Z about 25 times in Lemons over 10 years. You've probably built and raced twice as many cars in that time. We represent opposite sides of the racing spectrum. The Le Baron was a once and done short-term approach. If I were doing that it I'd go about it like you. I represent a long-term approach: build it right/well once, run it a long time and it will cost less.

We built the Z with the intention of multiple races like many other people do and it's where you get a $5000-$500 car. We could have saved money in the short term but sometimes those savings cost you more in the long run. That happened with the second Z. Both the Z's are still racing today!

Aside from wanting a long life span out of the car. We built the car to race it. We'd like to win but the point here is we can wrench in the garage for free! We spend tons of time preparing for races but not much on parts. When race weekend comes we want to get as many laps out of our entry fee dollars as we can.

Spank wrote:

    The Le Baron was 150% more per lap than the Z.

Add in the purchase, build, and transport costs...

We have raced the Z 25 times or so in Lemons over the past 10 years. That averages the $5000 build-cost down to $200 per/race.

Transportation costs do not seem relevant to the build cost to me. It would cost about the same to transport any car. It's part of our overall budget which is an expense we chose to take when we decide to go to a race. It's cheaper for us to tow 700+miles to Barber or Road Atlanta than pay the high entry fees to race at Circuit of the Americas 130 miles away.

While MSR 2017 was WAY more expensive than normal, Barber 2018 was cheaper than normal since the repairs were pretty cheap and we raced on old tires:

Here was our Barber Pre-Race Budget:

Entry Fee:                                   $1300
Transportation:                            $500
Duct Tape and Bailing Wire:     $200     (car repairs and maintenance)
Total:                                           $2000

If you take out the Entry Fee and Transportation cost, we were on track for $200.

After entry fees, our biggest expense is tires. Today's 200 treadwear tires don't have the life span of the tires 8 years ago. We could race on cheaper tires but we do like to go fast too.

Over the long haul the car is pretty economical to race, even in A-Class.

Troy

#35 LRE
1973 Datsun 240Z

Re: The "Build me a $5,000 $500 Lemons car" Thread

You get a pass since you use SU carbs...

wink


You're right: I over-responded. And seriously, thanks for answering the original topic.



See ya at the 24 in Nov! (apologies in advance)

Re: The "Build me a $5,000 $500 Lemons car" Thread

Thank you.

Look forward to seeing you in November.

Troy

#35 LRE
1973 Datsun 240Z

82 (edited by Spank 2018-07-29 08:05 AM)

Re: The "Build me a $5,000 $500 Lemons car" Thread

[nevermind]

Re: The "Build me a $5,000 $500 Lemons car" Thread

Just an update on cage tubing prices. I just got a quote for 40' of 1.5x.120 DOM and it's $4.30 per foot. 1.75x.095 if $4.50 per foot. Cash on pickup in person.

I didn't ask about 1.75x.120 dom.

Re: The "Build me a $5,000 $500 Lemons car" Thread

Well here in Cleveland 1.75x.120 is $8.14/foot. sooooo....

Yea, your mileage may vary.

Mistake By The Lake Racing (MBTL)
88 Thunderbird "THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!", Ex Astris, Rubigo / Semper Fracti
A&D: 2014 Sebrings at Sebring (NSF), 2014 NJMP2 Jurassic Park (SpeedyCop), 2012 Summit Point J30 (PiNuts)
2018 Route Sucky-Suck Rally Miata, 2019 World Tour Of Texas 64 Newport

Re: The "Build me a $5,000 $500 Lemons car" Thread

Guildenstern wrote:

Well here in Cleveland 1.75x.120 is $8.14/foot. sooooo....

Yea, your mileage may vary.

https://youtu.be/I45-zWJtvfM?t=3

Re: The "Build me a $5,000 $500 Lemons car" Thread

If you want a legit spreadsheet that I put a lot of time into that breaks down cost for all of Lemons racing you should message me and I'll email it to you. Plus its a good pre-race packing checklist.

Re: The "Build me a $5,000 $500 Lemons car" Thread

You now can get the CTSV 4 piston Brembo front calipers in Amazon now for $118 ea.

88 (edited by Omegas 2019-04-10 11:48 PM)

Re: The "Build me a $5,000 $500 Lemons car" Thread

I cheated and just bought the LeBron from Spanks

The car now has 3 races and 4 trophies to it's name; including a Class C win and IOE award.  I'm sure at this point it truly is a complete one-off, lightning struck twice, kinda car.


Oh and assuming the new crew doesn't go too bat shit crazy with it, LeBron will be traveling to Atlanta in Dec.

89 (edited by Spank 2019-11-19 11:26 AM)

Re: The "Build me a $5,000 $500 Lemons car" Thread

Bump for the newbie

Spank wrote:

Took me a while to dig through receipts plus got life stuff in the way.

But for the 1993 Chrysler LeBaron we brought to Houston

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_RJ6OzEBGk


$250 car @ public tow yard auction

$340 44' 1.75x120 DOM tubing

$20 for~40lbs of spreader plate/misc steel @ $.50lb from used metal supplier

Sub. $610


??Gas & welding wire??

Parts:

MOTORADT16Radiator Cap Wholesaler Closeout -- 30 Day Warranty$ 1.82$ 0.001$ 1.82
ULTRA-POWER5S1029Temperature Sender / Sensor$ 7.53$ 0.001$ 7.53
CARDONE SELECT132412 (132412:P)Master CylinderWholesaler Closeout - Private Label Pkg. - 30 Day Warranty$ 17.60$ 0.001$ 17.60
ATPTF102 (TF-102)Filter$ 3.95$ 0.001$ 3.95
PA CARGO 77710E Filter $ 3.43$ 0.001$ 3.43
CHAMPION LABSG6361 (G6361:P)Fuel Filter Wholesaler Closeout - Private Label Pkg. - 30 Day Warranty$ 2.87$ 0.001$ 2.87
ITGOC4670Oil Filter Wholesaler Closeout -- 30 Day Warranty$ 1.40$ 0.001$ 1.40
MOTORAD 240192 {#19114481, 24092} Standard 192F Info OE Temp Wholesaler Closeout - Private Label Pkg. - 30 Day Warranty] ($2.20)

5% discount code

$12.98 shipping

SUB $51.74


$12.14 x2 Wal Mart ATF

$14.64  Rotella Oil

$4.94 Permatex RTV

$20.75  LKQ Seat Track Each

SUB $52.47


<$100 race Seat Used Cobra FIA label Craigslist. It was more like a $50 as-purchased seat but I'll stick with an easier to find $100 for calcs here.

$89 for G force belts but I coulda got them cheaper here $29.99 + $11 shipping Gforce 2" belts closeout https://www.ebay.com/itm/G-FORCE-Racing … 1144633860

$29.95 Cutoff Switch w/ alternator protection https://www.racerpartswholesale.com/pro … isconnects

$10 Battery cable extension (old jumper cables Craigslist [actually Veteran Thrift Store])

$3.98 Copper Battery Cable Lugs https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/produ … ugs-1-pair (I grab a blister pack at the tractor supply outside the gate at Buttonwillow when I'm there)

+$100 Misc Tax and /or other Shipping

SUB $332.93
(+$610 +$51.74 +$52.47)

$1,047.14 to get on the track from scratch. And that's fudging it some in the high direction. 

Yes I bought spares (Complete rock auto total of both used and unused spares/seals/belts was $127.91 or $76.17 more than listed here. I also bought but did not install a shift kit for the transmission which was like $20 off ebay) and yes we needed to put on some front brake pads to finish the weekend (FRICTION MASTER    MX559 (MX559:P)    Brake Pad Wholesaler Closeout - Private Label Pkg. - 30 Day Warranty    $ 4.81    $ 0.00    1    $ 4.81)

I'd say my average out of pocket cash expense for building a car is about $1500, though.



I guess add to the above the $500 for the fire suppression system that is now required.

Re: The "Build me a $5,000 $500 Lemons car" Thread

I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

#98 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight - Class A car in the hands of a Class D team - MSR Houston IOE!