Topic: How would you spend $500

Because I love debating hypotheticals,
Suppose you bought a bone stock crapcan and sold off the useless bits to where your budget was at zero.  How would you spend the $500 to make the car better?

Better in this case could be faster, or more reliable, or just prettier.  What would YOU do?

For arguments sake, lets assume your base crapcan doesn't have any obvious weak points like a tendency to overheat, or roll over in corners or anything like that, but also doesn't have any inherent advantage like being super light or anything.  You know... your average crapcan.

Myself I think I would start with belts and hoses and filters and other cheap, likely-to-fail type items.  Depending on how much was left after that I'd probably be looking at new shocks.

2 (edited by Guildenstern 2019-11-08 09:13 PM)

Re: How would you spend $500

Fresh suspension bits. OR depending on the car a Limited Slip Diff.

Belts and hoses? "Oh I guess those were replaced just before I bought the car."

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: How would you spend $500

Brake pads meant for the track.

A lot of the other maintenance items can be
had on the cheap by spending time at Pick-n-Pull.

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

4 (edited by King 1 2019-11-09 11:02 AM)

Re: How would you spend $500

Interesting.  If we ignore belts and hoses, I'd almost consider a camshaft upgrade, supposing my average crapcan had an engine for which those were available.
Suppose you bought a second car and sold off its bits and got it to zero, and that second car provided you with limited slip, better springs, sway bar, and radiator.  Now what would you spend your money on?
Isn't this fun?

Re: How would you spend $500

Brakes or beer.  Depends on how epic my brakes are.

Re: How would you spend $500

Brakes or beer.  Depends on how epic my brakes are.

Well, since brakes don't count towards the $500, looks like beer for you....lol

1991 VW Jetta #38 - cuz Whoopie Pie!

Re: How would you spend $500

Improved suspension is best bang for the buck.  Adding HP before suspension doesnt make you faster through the corners and most of the tracks we run reward increased corner speed over straightaways.  The best non budgetary spending would be actual pro-level driving instruction.   We all leave a lot of time on the track that could be reduced by driving better even if the car is shit in the corners and low HP.

1990 RX7 "Mazdarita"  1964 Sunbeam Imp (IOE 2013 Sears Pointless) 2002 Jaguar x-type (Winner C-Class 2021 Sears Pointless)
Gone bye-bye
1994 Jaguar XJ12 (Winner C-Class 2013 Sears Pointless)  1980 Rover SD1 (I Got Screwed 2014 Return of Lemonites)

Re: How would you spend $500

King 1 wrote:

Interesting.  If we ignore belts and hoses, I'd almost consider a camshaft upgrade, supposing my average crapcan had an engine for which those were available.

Hmmm....probably not a camshaft. Most cams get you more power by moving the engine peak torque higher in the rev range, at the expense of low rpm torque. Spinning a Lemons-grade engine faster seems like a good way to spend more time in the pits.

Shocks and springs.  Better suspension pays dividends in many ways, including more control under braking, higher cornering speed, better acceleration out of the corners, better evasive action response, lower tire wear,  less driver fatigue, anything else I haven't thought of.

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

Re: How would you spend $500

Oil cooler and Accusump.

10 (edited by fleming95 2019-11-10 01:39 PM)

Re: How would you spend $500

A&D with a team with a car like your hooptie.  You get to know the weak spots that they've had experience with, _and_ know where a spare car is when theirs goes down on Saturday night and you need a donor to get running Sunday...

11

Re: How would you spend $500

My first thought was sway bars and springs.

But thinking back I think the best thing we did was take our car to many open lapping days and learn what the heck we were doing behind the wheel.  Plus we figured out quickly that our suspension was wearing our tires in a bad way which led us to replacing it outright.  Cheaty but at least one set of tires will survive an entire race and not chord on the outside after a few hours. 

If I had $500 to spend on a car with no obvious issues I think I'd put it towards open lapping days.  Either a season pass (if available) or several open lapping days.  Perhaps I'd attend a HPDE or something similar (though I don't know that they are really a great value).  Besides being a ton of fun and a great way to boost one's driving confidence issues can be discovered and addressed well ahead of race weekend.

Re: How would you spend $500

spares. An entire spare car, if possible.

Re: How would you spend $500

Spank wrote:

spares. An entire spare car, if possible.

I could have used more spare Porsches of the right vintage around this past weekend...

That guy

Re: How would you spend $500

OP hypo'd $500 _purchase_budget_ in the text of the OP;
however, the 'heading' is very broad.

Many interesting suggestions in the thread drift, though.

Re: How would you spend $500

The answer is always boost, Ebay Turbo or junkyard supercharger!

Apocalyptic Racing - Occupy Pit Lane racing
Racing the "Toylet" Toyota Celica powered by Chevrolet Ecotec.
24x Loser with the Celica. 16x loser in other fine machines
Overall winner Gingerman 2019

Re: How would you spend $500

You're asking what to do with $500 of budget. Things like brakes, safety gear, fuel system, driver education, etc do not fall into that category. They are all wonderful and smart things to do, but they don't need to be weighed against that $500.

I've never seen a team get sweated over replacing belts and hoses. They would much rather you not split a radiator hose and then require a tow. Same with belts. You aren't making the car faster with those parts. Where that changes is when you get into non-stock parts. OEM radiator with new hoses? not gonna get asked about it. Afermarket huge expensive all aluminum radiator with fancy silicone hoses and an accusump? They might start looking closer at things.

In my own opinion, if you're building a new car, priorities are as follows
1. Overall reliability. Replace old hoses, crusty water pumps, clogged radiators, cracking old wires, etc. Stuff that will take you out of the race when you start stressing it in a race environment. A bunch of these I wouldn't even count in the budget for reasons listed above.
2. Things that help engine longevity. Big oil cooler, bigger radiator, oiling system upgrades, stuff like that.
3. Suspension. going around a corner helps more than going fast in a straight line. Replace worn out shocks, get performance stuff if it exists in budget.
4. Go fast parts. Last priority, it will only make you less reliable.

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

17 (edited by VKZ24 2019-11-12 02:39 PM)

Re: How would you spend $500

My golden rule of endurance racing is simple...make sure it stays COOL.  Think of your car like your body.  Once it starts to overheat, everything else systematically begins to shut down.  If you push it too far, it will shut down, maybe for good.   

With the above in mind, I'd replace the water pump, radiator, hoses, and add an oil cooler.  I'd stay away from any high performance parts like a camshaft.  More power equals more heat, and more heat causes problems with the golden rule.

Finally, to keep the golden rule in check, get some good 270 degree sweep gauges.  The OE temp gauge is damn near useless in a race car.

Captain
Team Super Westerfield Bros.
'93 Acura Integra - No VTEC Yo!