Quote:
Originally Posted by mr3
I'll just add this up for the sake of it.
$150 for the car
$200 for tires
$50 for fluids
thats $400 right there and you still have to find hubs. It's going to be hard working on a budget but it can be done.
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You're being too honest, sheesh. And you're thinking like you want to own the car after the race, which is not really the point.
Really, the whole point of this kind of race is how creative you can be in coming up with your car and parts on the cheap. The trick is to know people who don't need what you're after. And people who work around cars who are willing to help you out. If you've got a good friend working in a tire shop, you might score a set of nearly new tires for next to nothing.
For this kind of race, you don't run antifreeze, you run water. And how much is that old oil on the back shelf of your garage worth, anyway? $1 a gallon? Sounds good, but if you're out of budget--change the oil in your daily driver ahead of schedule. What's that used oil worth?
Tires--who needs new ones? There's a guy on my local Craigslist selling a set of 4 rims & tires (he says the tires are good) asking $50. Sure they came off a Honda, but they'd fit. Or, you go find an old Corolla that's headed for scrap, pay $60 for it and you get its wheels, tires, and probably wheel hubs that a machinist could make fit, plus another engine and transmission.
You don't need any new parts, everything you use should be somebody's cast-offs. But you need cast-offs that aren't likely to fail. Tires are a real high priority, and so are coolant hoses. It sounds like fun to me, and if you succeed in building a street-ready MR2, you will absolutely blow everything else away. The MR2's acceleration is excellent and the speedometer goes to 150 for a reason.