[lateapex911]

Yea, to run at the front can be sobering, LOL.

Dantilla has chosen the classic route, and it's a great one, where you and the car grow together. Both get faster as you progress.

But sometimes there are stumbling blocks, like when you go to the ARRCs, and you are all over the guys in the corners, and even off the corners (the key) and you get halfway alongside on the straight, and then they just drive away, to the tune of 4 car lengths by the braking zone.

Gulp...guess what honcho? You just got beat by.....a checkbook. You outdrove him, but he outspent you. As in he wrote the check to the motorman, LOL.

That's fine if its something you can stomach, but when you call the motorman and find the check is 15 large, you have to think twice. SCCA allows a 40 overbore. Uh oh...that displacement, and you gotta have displacement, right? Right...so the moroman sends the block off to the one place in the country that can reapply the Nikasil or whatever magic plating it is, and then you write a check for thousands. Then you buy the magic 40 over pistons...not Chevy 350 prices here either, LOL. The perfectly gound "stock"cam, properly reindexed (3 or 4 dyno runs, cam in, cam out), the con-rods all balanced to the lightest one. Multiple heads bought and flowed to find the best one..(A big key to a "stock" motor that makes more power than other "stock" motors), And on and on.

Look up all the prices on Chuck Morelands Elephant racing site for the suspension stuff. Nice stuff, and honestly, it's fairly priced, but it isn't free.

Dantilla has probably not added up his receipts, and he probably won't....if he doesn't know the total, his wife/girlfriend/significant other can't either, LOL.

But a famous first bit of advice is that you can usually sell your race car for 25 -50% of what you have in it if it is a fast relibale and unwrecked car. Which means you can usually just go and buy one for half what it would take you years and thousands to build.

The raw chassis it the bait...people see a free chassis and they thing it's like a free car, but in the end, it's such a small bit of the big picture.

I'm not saying don't do it, but just think about what you want to get out of this very carefully. Hang around race tracks....everyone will love to help and fill you in on their experiences. Then make your move.