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Crikett, I live in the bay area, and yes, I'd be very interested in something like that. As far as safety equipment, a simple roll bar would be nice, but it should be well-padded. An extinguisher too. Ideally it would have a shell seat and 5 or 6 point belts. Obviously the seat would have to be on tracks. If you keep the stock seat or any reclinable seat, and have a roll bar, the seat should have a back brace. Just about every sanctioning body requires this, and for good reason.
As far as what kind of cars, your list is pretty good except for the Boxster. I wouldn't be interested in one of those, and for what it costs, you could get a nice 911 variant. On the other hand, people driving a 911 hard that aren't experienced with them is maybe not a great idea. The only other car I might suggest would be some American v8 powered car like a Camaro or Corvette. I've seen theft-recovery and salvage titled cars at good prices. They are prime theft targets.
A couple of major concerns would be insurance. I'd sure hate to pay for crashing someone else's car, so whether insurance was included or I had to pay for it, I'd certainly want it. Whether you want to self-insure or find a policy that allows rental drivers, it's important, imo. I wouldn't rent without it. Similarly, you'd want to figure out what you'd do about mechanical damage. If it's not the drivers fault I don't think you could charge him for it. If it is his fault, like a blown shift or something, you will want to have a company policy up front stating who's responsible for what. For example, if I do a "money shift" on an M3, I wouldn't expect to get off scott-free but I wouldn't be happy with a $4000 bill for a complete used engine either.
I wouldn't know what to suggest for rental rates. I know bigger, heavier, faster cars are going to go through consumables faster and the rates would be higher. I don't think many people would want to pay 4 digits because they can get an actual race day in a wheel-to-wheel race for that.
I think you'd have the most appeal if you set it up as "arrive and drive", which means you'd have to provide a certain amount of support. Air for tires, torque wrench for wheel bolts, etc.
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