Topic: First time team needing help

Howdy!
My name is Beto and I started a club here at Texas A&M (University in College Station, TX) in order to compete in motorsports races such as the 24 Hours of Lemons. We hope to compete in the upcoming race in November but we have had 0 luck finding a car within the budget. We have found a couple of cars that are manual and are under $2k but being a student, they get sold before we even have a chance to take a look at it. And even when we do find one and agree to meet up, the seller ends up ghosting me or saying the car got sold the day I was scheduled to see it. Maybe this is more of a rant post but does anyone have any advice?? I'm getting more worried that we won't be able to compete as the days start to count down.

Re: First time team needing help

Buy an already built car.  Will be cheaper overall since you will get a discount on the safety items and usually comes with spares.  Check the For Sale section here and on Racing Junk.

Re: First time team needing help

rlchv70 wrote:

Buy an already built car.  Will be cheaper overall since you will get a discount on the safety items and usually comes with spares.  Check the For Sale section here and on Racing Junk.

I would like to, but the point of the club is to teach students about engineering topics and general car stuff. I might have to consider buying a car if we don't find one soon enough. Thanks for the advice!

Re: First time team needing help

I've seen started projects for sale as well.. Lemons cars that never got completed... "my loss can also be your loss" sorta situations. If you want a project for cheap and lots of headaches, finishing someone else's project would fit the bill. My word of advice is to be patient... we just finished gathering cars for the Gambler 500 and it wasn't too hard, but it took us a few months for the right deals and timing to pop up. Since it'll be a "racecar" and I'm guessing you have access to a trailer, you shouldn't be hard pressed on finding something with bad paperwork, or consider getting an auction car (checkout Copart) .. we found dozens of sub-$500 cars when shopping for gambler, but 90% of them all had bad paperwork so we couldn't use them for this particular event. I'll have a honda odyssey that'll likely be for sale soon, but I'm all the way in SoCal.

Full Ass Racing
#455 Piñata Miata - 1990 Miata
#735 BMDollhÜr 7Turdy5i - 1990 735i

Re: First time team needing help

You might look into public auctions.  There may be some complications in doing this as bidders often have to have a business license.  That said, you may be able to find someone in your local amateur motorsports community (SCCA, NASA, local Lemons teams, etc) who will bid for you.  Google "car auctions" and check out copart.com.  The sheer volume of auctioned cars is amazing. 

Another thought is to buy an auto and do a manual swap.  Not always feasible but you might be surprised if you look into it for car models you're interested in. 

You honestly have enough time that you could probably buy a non-running car and bring it back to life with a motor swap.  This option may seem daunting but doesn't have to be too difficult or expensive. 

As long as you make a plan and stick to it you have plenty of time to build a car to race in November. 

Do you have any specific cars you're looking for?

Re: First time team needing help

Towing yards also have auctions. A friend frequents one in SoCal and buys cars all the time with no dealer or business license.

It seems like a lot of low dollar cars for sale moved from Craigslist to OfferUp and Facebook Marketplace.

Team whatever_racecar #745 Volvo wagon

7 (edited by DelinquentRacer 2022-04-11 12:10 PM)

Re: First time team needing help

If your goal is to teach, and then get on track,
stop worrying about finding a manual transmission car.
There's a helluva lot more engineering and learning needed to keep an
automatic trans happy than there is keeping a manual happy on track.

Found these:
2002-mercedes  https://austin.craigslist.org/cto/d/aus … 73853.html
2002-honda-civic  https://houston.craigslist.org/cto/d/ho … 61762.html
2004-honda-accord https://houston.craigslist.org/cto/d/ho … 84666.html
2001-oldsmobile-intrigue https://houston.craigslist.org/cto/d/co … 37853.html
1993-dodge-dynasty https://houston.craigslist.org/cto/d/mo … 65469.html

Any of these cars would be welcomed with open arms at a 24HoL race. You'll learn a whole lot of stuff
working on them to get them running, and prepping them for the track. Some are easier and cheaper to fix
than others, but with the Dodge and the Olds you're easily in contentions for the IOE.

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: First time team needing help

Salvage auctions are a good source, plenty of 'run and drive' options with a manual transmission that will go for under $2k:

https://www.copart.com/vehicleFinderSea … 2:false%7D

EPA Racing - #40 Supercharged Dodge Caliber

Re: First time team needing help

Another option is to find a car that isn't "for sale". Once somebody has decided to put in the effort to get their car ready for sale, take pictures, post on CL or Marketplace, they already have a number in mind and it's likely higher than you want to pay.
On the other hand, is there a car that's been parked next to someone's garage in an alley for 2 years that they might not think is worth putting the effort into "selling"? That guy might let it go for a "tow it away and it's your problem" kind of price. Try knocking on a few doors, or putting feelers out to some friends. We got our shitbox that way for, no joke, $100.

Re: First time team needing help

Check out https://www.govdeals.com/
You probably won't find a manual there, but it's worth poking around.

Re: First time team needing help

Jimmydoorlocks wrote:

Another option is to find a car that isn't "for sale". Once somebody has decided to put in the effort to get their car ready for sale, take pictures, post on CL or Marketplace, they already have a number in mind and it's likely higher than you want to pay.
On the other hand, is there a car that's been parked next to someone's garage in an alley for 2 years that they might not think is worth putting the effort into "selling"? That guy might let it go for a "tow it away and it's your problem" kind of price. Try knocking on a few doors, or putting feelers out to some friends. We got our shitbox that way for, no joke, $100.

This is a totally underrated strategy. Drive around and just look for cars that obviously haven't moved. If you've got a pretty broad set of cars in mind, you can find one in someone's yard whose owner is finally ready to admit it's not getting any better. A friend in Ft. Worth just sent a 12-year-old Kia Soul to scrap after it sat for two years in their driveway. Not that you probably want a Kia Soul, but that stuff is out there and most people don't even know that some weirdo will drop in and pay scrap prices to resuscitate the cars.

Almost without fail, if I'm driving a long stretch of two-lane roads, I see multiple properties with multiple British sports cars that haven't moved in multiple years. Those are almost categorically manual-transmission cars and a "project" MGB or TR6 is still worth virtually nothing. Back roads are also chock full of Pony car projects. Ford built something like 2 million Fox Body Mustangs. If you're not picky about the engine, you can usually find something to slap a T5 onto.

Eric Rood
Everything Bagel, 24 Hours of Lemons
eric@24hoursoflemons.com

Re: First time team needing help

AggieLemons wrote:
rlchv70 wrote:

Buy an already built car.  Will be cheaper overall since you will get a discount on the safety items and usually comes with spares.  Check the For Sale section here and on Racing Junk.

I would like to, but the point of the club is to teach students about engineering topics and general car stuff. I might have to consider buying a car if we don't find one soon enough. Thanks for the advice!

There is almost always something that needs to be repaired or improved on an already built car.

Also, getting a "ready to race" car can help keep people interested.  You can give them a taste of the racing action to motivate them to build another car.

13 (edited by DelinquentRacer 2022-04-18 09:01 PM)

Re: First time team needing help

I think another positive of buying a already prepped car is the financing.
If you have a "team" already, it's a lot easier on everyone if you have a clear idea of costs,
both buy in, consumables and maintenance.
A car that has already been raced has budget numbers attached to it, weak areas may have
already been addressed, but will be known by the previous owner.

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: First time team needing help

Are y’all still looking for a car?!

I just posted an 88 mustang for sale. I’m located in Montgomery about 1.5 hours from BCS.