So, if you were to look for an affordable SCCA logbooked race car out West, where would you look?

Edit: I'm looking for more for a purpose built racecar than a converted street car. I can find some of the latter if I could live with FWD, or a Miata.

OK, I checked racingjunk - not much if anything on my side of the country. Not sure I want to send $10k across the country and then track what comes back.

Local CLs are pretty useless for it as well, not much on ebay, either. Oh, and not much on Apexspeed out West.

Anywhere else I should look?

I'd get on some scca forums and put the word out you are looking. They all go up for sale right after the last race of the season with spares. Same for nasa, bmw and pca. They all have General and class specific forums where people post just like the challenge one here.

You have "affordable" and "race car" all in the same thread title. I have found that the affordable ones for me required major wrenching and safety updates.

www.improvedtouring.com

http://www.improvedtouring.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?65-IT-Touring-Race-Cars-For-Sale

You want to get something that is current, not some rusty beat up cobbled together POS that needs lots of updates.

Spend some time at the track and keep your finger on the pulse and have cash ready, be patient a great deal will come along. After a couple of deals get past you you will know when to jump on the next right one that comes along.

Work the pits, bring a cooler to lubricate the pit network after the races! You can steal speed secrets and catch up on the track gossip at the same time.

Trackhq, maybe?

sfbay craigslist has a few good 1st gen RX7s recently for under $3k and some Spec Miatas for under $7k. Let me know what sort of car and budget you are looking for and I can ask around at the next race.

Beyond that, check nasaforums.com, sccaforums.com and post WTB ads there. Also check ebay. Those resources have worked best for me.

Also, my neighbor has a cherry 1st gen RX7 set up for stage rally if anyone is looking. An acquaintance was also recently trying to sell a former showroom stock race Neon for a common friend who passed away from cancer. Only 13k miles on that car.

try a local race shop? they may have customer/client looking to get out.....

Wait, are you looking for Formula type cars - rather than production based race cars?

Ask a shop that sells race tires.

amg_rx7 wrote: Wait, are you looking for Formula type cars - rather than production based race cars?

I was thinking along the lines of Spec Racer Renault/Ford, older sports racers or older Formula type cars. There is a Formula Vee for sale locally that might fit the bill, but it doesn't have an SCCA logbook and I'm not sure how much I'd have to change over to get one. Note that I didn't say "competitive" anywhere .

That said, a Spec RX7 would definitely do for what I have in mind and with the prices they seem to command, they're about as cheap as a rented car for a couple of events. Mind you, nobody rents out race cars up here, most/all the rental companies I'm aware of out here only cover Sonoma, Thunderhill and Laguna Seca.

Woody wrote: Ask a shop that sells race tires.

Out here, that's mostly a company with brown trucks. Well, they don't sell them, but they seem to be the main supplier...

Keith Tanner wrote: Trackhq, maybe?

Thanks Keith, I keep forgetting about them and they seem to have a bigger user base in CA.

BoxheadTim wrote:

Woody wrote: Ask a shop that sells race tires.

Out here, that's mostly a company with brown trucks. Well, they don't *sell* them, but they seem to be the main supplier...

Ask a shop that mounts race tires...

Also check out the 24 Hours of LeMons forum, ChumpCar forum, and the Open classifieds here. Someone on this forum should be selling a race car.

Mr_Clutch42 wrote: Also check out the 24 Hours of LeMons forum, ChumpCar forum, and the Open classifieds here. Someone on this forum should be selling a race car.

I didn't quite think that the LeMons and ChumpCar forums are full of purpose built, SCCA log booked sports racers and the like but I guess I should really go look...

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: I'd get on some scca forums and put the word out you are looking. They all go up for sale right after the last race of the season with spares. Same for nasa, bmw and pca. They all have General and class specific forums where people post just like the challenge one here.

Yeah, I might be better off waiting until the end of the season. Probably would mean hardly any track time this year but that can't be helped.

Note to self - don't buy a really nice car to convert it into a track car.