Challenge Budget and rules questions

For people who have not been to the challenge yet, it's really a stand up event. Competitors are proud of their creations, and the limitations imposed by the rules inspire creativity. Challengers are proud of meeting the letter of the law with their builds, and the creativity they incorporated as well.

But please don't let us make you feel like the challenge is not accepting of newcomers. It is. We want to see your awesome build, and we want to see how fast you run, and we want you to succeed. (And we want to drink your beer at the hotel).

The first (and maybe only) rule of the challenge is "don't be a dick". If you're cool with that we want you there.

Everyone has different advantages.

I have been working on a shoestring budget for years. This lends me to scrounging for deals or getting creative with my welder. I can make things that would otherwise cost big $. I tend to be in the right place at the right time a lot. The $250 4.8 with harness was on CL for 18 minutes when i called on it. I'm going to pick up a complete $800 99 LS1 this week. And i have a pile of cheap donors. I bought a tig welder to modify truck oil pans with the $ it would have taken to buy 2 swap pans. Heck i pick stuff out of the trash for more than just challenge builds. I've been selling toys i pick up at the curb to the kids resale shop for years

Advantages are all around you if you just look.

The "only cheaters win/only winners cheat" thing threw me off. Using your advantages within the rules isn't cheating. Buying a $10 part for a receipt and then using one you paid $80 for is.

I was at a crossroads with this in my head a few weeks ago. My fuel cell in the datsun was $133. I need to make budget room of about $45 to bring the car back and have it perform better after gutting any unnecessary purchases including the engine dipstick and tube. I won the exact same fuel cell for $88 on ebay. So do you swap receipts because exact same part, or do you deconstruct your enclosure, unhook everything, spill gas everywhere, put the new identical part in because technically that's the one on the receipt even though same place, same box, same brand, both new when bought, etc... I've always been by the book letter of the law guy, and I couldn't live with myself if i were to cheat or fudge numbers and then win. And my goal is to win.

My first Challenge car (2004) was a Subaru SVX. We went over budget on the suspension.

Found a better deal on the suspension, removed the old suspension, and reinstalled the new IDENTICAL suspension to get it under budget.

Being honest on the budget is sort of a badge of honor at this event. (and the competitors AND staff definitely know when people are cheating).

No feathers ruffled here.

I've built 13 Challenge cars. I've heard dozens and dozens of people brag, and very few of them actually even show up, no less compete.

Bring your smack to the track. No worries.

Just make sure to put your radiator in your budget.

In reply to GTXVette:

Oh yeah... Who are the Neumans?? Did you mean Nelsons?

SVreX wrote: In reply to GTXVette: Oh yeah... Who are the Neumans?? Did you mean Nelsons?

Andy, his purple q45, and his ego

In reply to GTXVette:

For a second I thought I was getting drug into this.

On topic, the fist couple years when I actually thought about being competitive I purchased many a multiple part just to get the lowest price possible. I always lowballed on craigslist from the last deal I received. First three years of thinking about the challenge I generated quite a bit of profit, eventually I started feeling bad for taking advantage of people that needed money. When you have 10+ sets of extra wheels and tires because you found a "deal" let me know.

On another note after talking to enough people and pricing things out I'm surprised more people don't go as fast as the Nelson's. I personally don't have the time or fabrication skills to keep up with them but I can see the parts required to build such machines as fairly easy to acquire and to fit within a budget like this.

End of the day if people don't think you cheat you didn't do a very good job of building your challenge car.

In reply to patgizz:

Exactly, even if I brought my new mustang I'd lose miserably but it would make a decent benchmark for everyone. I only made a slight profit on the Purple Q45 even though it was awesome.

Also, you're not in the club until the municipality sends "the letter". Welcome to the club.

Here's a good question. The brake thread that just started reminded me I bought rear pads, but not rotors.

Police duty rear rotors are 80 on rock auto, I would call that oe equivalent so no budget hit.

There are much cheaper options available even in the "severe performance" category that the police duty is in. Since they're in the same category, do they count as Oe equivalent and therefore still budget exempt? Heck, could I go lower performance, category wise, and not take a budget hit?

I'd rather spend $50 real dollars than $90 budget exempt dollars, but if it would hurt the budget to change I'll spend the extra money and get the police duty without taking a budget hit.

If the police duty rotors were what the car came with, they are budget exempt. If they are better than what the car came with, they are not budget exempt.

Increased performance is increased performance, regardless of the price. If you install rotors that are a higher performance spec than the car came with, they go in the budget (even if they are cheaper)

There's a lot going on in this thread, and I'm wading into the middle of it after not keeping up.

If there are still questions that need to be answered, could you guys post them here:

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/challenge-supreme-court-questions-answered-here/128167/page1/

Thanks!