Does a basic race pre 73 cost more or less?

[bigrubberjeep]

Does a basic race pre 73 cost more or less then 10K?

[Tim Walsh]

are you asking if a basic pre 73 race car cost more or less than 10K?

[bigrubberjeep]

YES! Im trying to figure out if maybe a (mild) race pre 1973 can be made or baught for around 10K (im not crazy just optomistic)

[racea911]

If you meant to post this on the 914 forum than the answer is yes.

If a 911 is what you are asking about, you can get a decent 120-140 hp 911T in very nice shape for about $10k and then you can start some basic race preparation. If the motor and trans are excellent when you buy it, I think another $5-6k will get you a very basic early 911T race car. If $10k is your budget, I would suggest a very nice 914 or 944 or a BMW 2002 or an Alfa GTV. Rebuilding a stock 911T motor will cost surprisingly close to $10k

[bigrubberjeep]

Thank you racea911 - Basicly I have 7-10K to spend at the moment, and I love racing and Porsches

My options are

buy a pre 73 porsche and invest in to it for racing
buy the above car for daily driving and invest other money in to Kart racing instead.

My racing budget is about 5k per year

[Jim Richards]

brj, if you haven't raced before and if you are serious about being a racer, perhaps the kart racing is the way to go initially. Then, get a 911 to drive, autocross, and or DE. Just my 2¢.

[cstreit]

Your best option for a race car is to buy one that is already built. Building your own race car is vastly more expensive. Talk to characters like Mike Marsh, Jack Olsen, Vintage911Racer, etc.. and I'm sure they will concur.

That being said, 7-10k for a 911 race car is probably a bit optimistic. You can certainly find the street car, but then will likely sink at least another 7k into it pretty quickly for the most basic updates and development time. Again, that's basic stuff such as (and not necessarily in this order):
- Uprated shocks
- Uprated anti-roll bars and/or beefier mounts
- Larger torsion bars
- Camber Truss
- Harder suspension bushings
- Uprated brakes and/or pads
- Racing seat, harnesses, steering wheel perhaps
- Roll cage
- Fire extinguisher and mount
- R compund tires
- Fuel cell

-and so on. remember that each of these parts comes with a labor charge and some significant development time as well. 'm not trying to talk you out of anything, rather, get you more educated as to the costs. Racing can be done on a budget, but I'd recommend DE's first, while developing the car, then maybe a few races in year 2...

Of course car racing is more expensive that kart racing, but for $5k per year you could probably do at least 3-4 events per year and still have a little left over for development...

[nostatic]

Seems to me you should be able to find a pretty servicable 914 for that...should give you plenty of grins.

[emcon5]

I'm going to commit herasy here and say with starting budget of 10K with 5K /year , you should look at spec Miata.

Cars are fairly cheap, fields are large, and consumables are about as low as you can get in a car.

Tom

[cstreit]

Tom, I agree, if I wasn' racing 911's I'd probably go for one of those, great competition too!

[Dantilla]

I've got a 944 I'm setting up for racing. I bought the car for a thousand bucks, not running. There's a bunch of other 944s locally, so I've got great competition, and if I roll the car up into a ball, hey- it was just a 944. If I crunched the 911 after all the tme, effort and expense, I'd be seriously bummed.

[bigrubberjeep]

Great reply's guys - I trully apreciate the info. I also know that labor would cost me some money, this is why I plan on doing 80% of it my self. I have built a couple of nice Jeep's for off road purposes and want to get in to On Road with the Porsche and such.

Looked in to some Kart packages today, seems like 5K alone will buy me everyhting to get on the track. (NOT BAD)

However I still have the 911 in the back of my mind too.

So i guess I have to keep researching some more.

Thank's again.

[Superman]

The Pelican BBS is actually a support group for addicts like you, so you've come to the right place. We know how you feel. I think you're on the right track, so to speak. Cheap but fast 944's can be found. Same with 914s. I think it'd be a blast to toss a 914 around a track, and it'd be fairly cheap, too. If a guy were strategic, he could probably make a pretty competitive one for low bucks.

-OR- you could just find an inexpensive but reliable (yeah, right!) 911, top off the oil and drive the pi$$ out of it.

[bigrubberjeep]

you are probably right about the 914 , everyone keeps suggesting it as a good racer. (dont flame me to death) I just cant get my self to liek the body of the car, but maybe I have to get in one and actually drive it. I might actually like it.


So I guess I could start with a 914 for racing
and with time save money for a daly driver 911 .


Hum......The sound of having a Porsche for racing and a Porsche for touring pacific coast highway sounds very nice to me.

[BK911]

I'll have somewhere between 10 - 12k invested in a 73.5 911T track car project. It won't be extremely competitive but I will still have fun. That's with upgraded suspension, brakes and engine, and a fuel cell and roll cage. And I can add better stuff as my experience and wallet grow. So yes, it can be done. But I do all the labor myself. I don't want to think about how much I have invested including labor!

[john70t]

Buy a mid 90's japanese car for the track, excesively modify it, and spin it out at least 5 times. Oh yeah, and have lots of fun!!
If you want an early Pcar, save it for the weekends.

edit: I ment plough it.

[widebody911]

You can get a used Spec Miata for ~$5k, and if you roll it into a ball, you'll have done the rest of us a favor by eradicating one more Miata.

[9XI]

I would go the 914 or 944 route, depending on which one you like better and whether you need the extra interior space of the 944. A race prepped 911 in any form would be pretty hard to come by for $10K and I am pretty bearish on prices.

[Nader]

I got into Spec Miata racing when I started worrying about wrecking my 911 at DE events. If you're gonna wreck, it ought to at least be in a real race. Competitive Spec Miatas run on average between 10-15k. You can buy a stock Miata with a requisite hardtop for 4.5-5k, but it still costs on average another 5-6k to build it up. But once you do, you will have the time of your life, and the cars are bulletproof. I managed to toast my 127k mile engine, found another used one for $500, and was up and racing at the next event (rules dictate a stock engine). Can't do that in any Porsche that cheaply. Oh, and you'll never take 1st-3rd place by virtue of being the only one in your class, because you'll rarely see less than 8 SMs at a time in the field. PM me if you want to know more.

[bigrubberjeep]

Nader: The spec Miata class sounds very very interesting.

Please send me info on your car, and what all you have done to it to get it race ready.


How much do you spend per year for the racing hobby?

Anything else you can think of I would apreciate

serna@engeniustech.com