I would love to race, but I am scared... (Page 1 of 2)

1. Find someone local who has prepped a car for road racing (SCCA, NASA, BMWCCA, PCA).  Offer beer and pizza for an hour of their time.  Have them read the Lemons rules before they crawl all over the car.  Ask them to point out areas they think need improvement to pass Lemons rules as well as stuff they think needs improvement to meet SCCA/NASA/etc rules.

2. Take photos and post them here as you build.  You will receive LOTS of advice (criticism?), almost always in the form of unofficial recommendations from fellow racers.  Do not count on receiving official decrees from Lemons officials.

3. Show up at the race as early as possible with food, tools, and as many helping hands as you can round up.  You will find your fellow Lemons racers to be extremely helpful and resourceful.  Make friends quickly in the paddock and ask if anyone from an experienced team to eyeball your car before you head off to tech. Send your lackeys off with food/drinks/tire pressure gauges/torque wrenches in hand to the paddock spaces of any team that helps.

If you are rejected, no reason you can't reapply for the next one.

Or you can get a car with little-to-no chance of being rejected.  They seem to like Non-Alfa Italians, British, and French cars.

Sounds good, thanks guys. If we plan to be able to afford this at all, we are going to use a rolling prelude. Guess I need to find out what type of powerstroke we can wedge into it now. I like the idea, makes me warm inside.

The New Orleans race doesn't fill up, so you have a 99% chance of getting in. Just don't bring a Miata........

A 7.3 turbo powerstroke in a honda would rock.  The engine and trans would weigh as much as the entire rest of the car but it would do some great burnouts.

http://www.hotrod.com/featuredvehicles/ … to_02.html

Buy this car. Start prepping it for the race. Virtually guaranteed acceptance and you'd probably be in contention on Index right from the jump:

http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/cto/1677815924.html

Thanks everybody for the replies, if Louisiana has a little lower attendence then it sounds like a good one for our first. You guys have no idea how much my guys are digging the idea of throwing an old powerstroke into the roller.

We like stupid engine swaps. But don't feel like you're chained to a Prelude. Consider these fine Lemons race cars in your area:

1990 Mazda 929, $500

1978 Olds Delta 88, $400

1971 VW Squareback, $300

1988 Chrysler New Yorker, $400

1973 Olds Cutlass Supreme, $500

1985 Chrysler Le Baron convertible, $450

1968 Volkswagen "Bahai," $400

1964 Corvair Monza, $500

1976 MG Midget, $500

1985 Jaguar XJ6, $500

1965 Imperial, $400 (will need weight waiver from Jay)

1979 Olds Toronado, $500

1957 Buick Special, $500

1985 Cadillac Fleetwood, $500

1993 Acura Legend, $350

1995 Mazda MPV, $250

almost the right year too, but the real lebron is an '84 if only by a few days

Unfortunately, I live in Alabama, the land of nothing but crap for sale, and also nice things that people couldn't afford and had to sell. The furthest I could go for a car is west MS or East GA. I have combed craigslist and cant find much on interest in my area's.

You have already found the best resource on the internet to help you with Lemons!!  If you choose a good car (basically anything other than an E30 or miata) and have a good theme...you chances of getting in are pretty good....

the other big obstacle is making sure your car passes tech inspection...  Lots of advice around here to help with that or find a race shop that can help you....

A realistic budget for the entire weekends expenses will be around $3k....  that includes the car, gas, everything but food-lodging.... $3-4k is a typical figure for most teams for a weekend...

I'd race that Celica or Vega in a heartbeat.