Re: We're meeting this weekend to discuss next years racing budget..
When our XJ6 was on the track and cool enough to put the pedal down, it was pretty competitive. Your two big issues are brakes and reliability. At 4000lbs we could out-brake most of the cars on the track, we were mid-pack on cornering, and we were able to outrun a lot of cars in the straights. Our problem was that we dorked our engine when we plugged the PCV to get through tech and didn't fix it for the track. I think our total budget ended up being under $3200.
$600 in brake parts - rebuild your rear calipers for sure
$10 worth of doubled-up hose clamps
$10 worth of hardware to make a lift-off hood
$280 front-end rebuild kit (it's safely when your balljoints allow 1/4" of play in the front wheels)
$300 rollcage if you're building it yourself
$500 misc safety gearThat's just my take, YMMV.
We're talking apples and oranges here..
You didn't list the cost of drivers safety gear, or entry fees.. orr license or hotel/RV rental, nor did you include the cost of towing or food or gas for the race car etc.. I don't want to belabor the point, so I won't point out everything you missed..
Plus we are talking about what you actually spent not what you should have budgeted for.. A good budget for racing should include stuff at new prices and then attempts are made to find the deals so you can come in under budget (and maybe have enough left for another race?)
By the way for about $200 (about $100 a corner) if you go shopping at swap meets etc. you can buy Wilwood racing calipers. they will bolt right on! (I gave new list prices in my budget) Then racing rotors for your car will cost $91 at tire rack or $92 at XK's unlimited.. (drilled and grooved)
An even better deal is buy brake hats and then use 1.25 rotors.. that way instead of having to take the front hubs apart to do brake work you can pull off a tire, pull off the rotor slide on a new rotor and put the tire back on!
Get rid of those inboard brakes! They will cook your rear end! Go to a pick a part and for $45. you can bring home the parts you need from an XJ40 to go to outboard brakes!. You can update those or leave them stock..
As for rebuilding the front end, go to pick a part.. XJ6, XJ12 and XJs all use the same suspension parts!The XJ6 has a deeper rear end ratio (3.31) so if you go to a XJ12/S you'll get positraction but either a 3.07 ratio or worse a 2.88
You can bring home a whole front end for $100 and (I've got 4 , None of which have any detectable wear).. Not only would it have been cheaper, easier.. think of the spare parts you'd have!