So the wife finally agrees that we can indeed afford a project car/track car/race car/etc.
We set a budget of $8000 (she would prefer lower) and that leaves me with a whole lot of options. I could buy something cheaper and build it the way I want it (class spec) or something that is already done like the M3 Giant Purple snorklehackaer323rfwsd posted in my other thread that is pretty much ready to race.
Then I run into a few conundrums. Now that the issue is resolved that I can bite the bullet on buying one I have no idea what I want. I went instant durrr. Which leads to what exactly do I want? An HPDE car that I can still street and have fun with until I have a garage and trailer? A rallyx car? And obviously not purpose built club racer yet because of two sentences ago.
Going crazy!
Definitely take some time to reflect on what you enjoy the most. Talk to some folks who race in series/events that you think you'd like. Then, make a decision, figure out what the rules are and build/buy a car for that.
It's easy to just run out and buy vehicle X just cuz you always wanted one then you find it's not eligible/competitive in whatever events you want to run.
Personally, I get bored of auto-x, rally-x, even HPDE. I really need close competition to get a lot of enjoyment out of racing. So, if I were in your shoes, I'd probably build or buy a chumpcar or something like that. But, everyone has different tastes, so find out what you think will make you happiest and go for that.
My .02, you can usually buy a prepped race car for far less than it cost to build it. Sounds like you're going though exactly what I went through.
You can check out my build thread, 2500 in that fun machine, that'd leave a lot of extra for go fast bits. Mine might be a bit slower than you're aiming for though. I think a streetable track/hpde/autoX car is always a good idea. Until you're good enough for the fractions of a second to matter, don't completely forgo things like blinkers and such. :)
Having a valid title really helps with re-sale later down the line. I see a lot of race cars that the title gets lost along the way and they never bother fixing it.
We build $20xx cars all the time, build for your street toy and buy an already constructed Chump Car.
2 cars for $8000, in this crowd those would be high water mark cars and it would include your safety gear
Whatever you do, don't look at the classifieds on specialstage.com 
