Should I??

Right $2000.00 is very optimistic. That's what I'm figuring for the initial cost. I'm new to this and don't want to lay out $1500 for a car and safety equipment to find out that my Chef's Salty Balls theme isn't cool enough. Guess the wording on the app page is worrying me a bit. Should I be?

Don't let these guys scare you. It can be done "on the cheap". We built our own cage, chose a car that's cheap to prep, one of our drivers found a simpson firesuit on e-bay for $50.
I would suggest getting your safety gear first. Expect to spend bare minimum $500, I spent 'round $750 and got good, solid gear. Teams are always looking for drivers. You can drive for another team for minimal $$$, gain vital insight to how this wacky race works and what is expected, and start putting together you own team as the money comes availble.

I did a lot of homework, examining the dos and don'ts on the roll cage thread. I bought DOM tubing, hired a pro to plan the cage and bend the tubing, and paid my welding instructor to come out and help me weld it in. I paid right at $1000 - and that's with DOM at $5/ft in Oklahoma. If you have someone who can weld for free you can knock off a few hundred dollars. Our cage passed tech with no comments.

Wow, thanks for all the input guys. The concept is awesome.

I'm totally tracking on the costs and I'm not being delusional about it. I fully expect to spend more than $2K. Still working on getting the "Team" together and was worried that I would spend $1500 - $2000 personally only to not get accepted.

I'm also getting the idea that I'm the only asshat in my group of friends that is excited enough to dump cash into a "race car" that might only see 3 laps.  Might just take stupid's advice and look for a team that needs a driver and someone to make beer runs.

We've done 6 Lemons events to date going back to 07 with our 7th race being at CMP at the end of the month. During that time we've built and prepped 4 cars (early 90's BMW, late 90's P71 Crown Vic, 99 Buick LeSabre, and our current 97 Pontiac GTP), and the most expensive one to date has been the GTP. We spent more on upgrading the front brakes than we spent on the car itself,  while that might seem insane it was worth its weight in gold on the track. We also paid to have a top quality cage put in since the one in our last car was substandard at best.

As for finding a group of crazies to join you in this venture, this will probably be the hardest part by FAR. Any team can tell you horror stories about trying to fill a driver slot, when you put the word out you'll get a lot of people interested until they find out they're expected to actually put their money where their mouth is. If you can afford it, I'd buy everything for the car yourself that way it's your car and yours alone, then you simply charge the other drivers a rental fee which will cover brakes, gas, tires, ect ect. It's what we started doing this year and it's worked out very well for us.

If you want advice on a reliable car that will run all weekend without problems, then I'd strongly suggest looking for a late 90's GM FWD car with a 3.8 under the hood. They're not the most powerful or highest revving engines out there, but they will take a pounding and ask for more. Take it from a team who's run both NA and SC versions of the engine.

If you're willing to haul a couple cars back from Denver, I know a guy with two Triumph Heralds at a LeMons-grade price.

I lost out on a ragged out BMW 2800CS on eBay last week - went for $320 or so.  I was going to rob stuff off one of the many 535i cars that seem to be in every graveyard around here.

Our first and only car so far cost $2200 in total, Idid 95% of the work myself, Spent a lot of time in Pull-A-Part, and sold anything I could.  I had the advantage of access to take-off parts from PCA and NASA cars (seat, belts, nets) that were removed for newer equipment.  The suits were the most painful expense, but if you commit to 3 or 4 uses a year the sting will wear off.  Driver gear is the one thing that will stop a potential first time paying teammate from coming. 

Summit Point cost $2600 to run, including ALL costs.  That is fuel to and from the track, ice, food, and entry, it also included brakes and tires which still have another event left in them.  We all stayed with friends.

For CMP, I went on VRBO.com and rented a cabin on Wateree Lake, 30 minutes away, that sleeps 10, for $375 - four nights.