Which Challenge Car (not what you're thinking)?

In reply to JohnRW1621:

What's the 411 on the Q45? Very interested

I'd like to do a Volvo 240 wagon sleeper.

The Q45 was posted here on the board and was in Jacksonville, FL.
I agreed to buy it as a "fly-in"
The plan was to fly in Weds night. See the car for the first time Thurs morning then drive the 1.5 hrs to Gainesville for Thurs night. Compete with the car on Friday and Saturday then drive it 1,000 miles home Sunday.
What could go wrong???

All went well, till...
On the third drag run, the engine started making a bad noise. Could have been a lifter or rocker or whatever but it was decided to park it. The real concern was that the car was not up for the 1,000 miles the next day.
Lots of options were considered:
I could rent a truck and trailer (not cheap.)
I could have it fixed in FL and then fly back in for it (more time and money.)
I could come back down with a truck (more time and money, again.)
Or, I could sell it.

The Challenge is a combination of bought right and built right. Our entry was all about being bought right. As such we were going to highlight this purchase with a Used Car Lot Theme in our presentation. We had a window sticker and Red Tag Special sticker that we were going to spell out our budget on. Our big secret that we were going to reveal at the judging was that we had a budget of $1,006.49
With the need to sell the car, we still went with Used Car Lot but now focused on really selling the car. The Red Tag now said "Make Offer"

The budget was:
$815 Car
$154 Control Arm
$32.99 Trans Cooler
$4.00 Beer (for afterhours alignment)
$0.50 Fuse
$1,006.49 Total

Exempt from the budget were 4 new Hanook RS-3 Tires and fresh street brake pads (about $500 worth.)

All along, I knew that we could not win the event but there was nothing stopping us from winning the party.
I wanted a mid pack autox score: 18th out of 33
I wanted a mid pack drag score: 17th out of 33
For Concours we scored 7th out of 33
Overall: 12th out of 33
Goals Accompished!
Won the People Choice Award and Spectacular Failure Award thought the failure was not that spectacular this year had few real failures. The real failure to me was that I did not get the chance to enjoy the Q45 for the 1,000 miles home and I do not have the Q45 for next years event (though I am considering another.) The ride home was in a Chevy Cruze LTZ via Hertz. The one way rental was $80 and completely trouble free along with Sirius Radio to make it even better.

I did sell the car at the event to Tom Sullivan (with the Acura and 350z) for $750. Though I took a loss, I was then "unburdened" of the car and the needs to get it back home.

In reply to JohnRW1621:

I REALLY need to get in on this whole Challenge thing!!!

Great story!

I really miss this car as a DD

ebonyandivory wrote: In reply to JohnRW1621: I REALLY need to get in on this whole Challenge thing!!! Great story!

Maybe an all Q45 class for next year would be the answer.
I see your profile say Mass.
http://newyork.craigslist.org/wch/cto/4757895207.html
http://cnj.craigslist.org/cto/4758045724.html
http://nh.craigslist.org/cto/4737058243.html
http://burlington.craigslist.org/cto/4733455812.html
http://westernmass.craigslist.org/cto/4704924949.html
http://providence.craigslist.org/cto/4749072031.html
http://newlondon.craigslist.org/cto/4723984385.html

I drive the echo every day to work, total budget was $298+bicycle thats with a new clutch and hoosiers! drove the car to the event and back getting 44mpg. 3 of the 4 tires the car came with blew and last week the clutch master cylinder started leaking, other than that the car has been a great commuter.

I'm going to start my DD/challenger build next month if all goes well. Clean well sorted turbo miata for SWMBO. The next one after that will be for me. I can't promise that one will be as "tame".

For a daily-driver in NW Ohio that could also be respectable at the Challenge, I guess I would pick a car that is already taking up space at my shop.

Since it needs to be a DD in the snowbelt, it would be awd, powered by two sport-bike engines. One in back, and the other in the passenger seat area, powering the front wheels.

I've had a great daily driver challenge car for years- I just never made it to the challenge. I saved a nice Galant VR-4 from a tow yard years ago, paid $750 for it. I built it with the challenge in mind, so I kept close tabs on cost (plus I'm cheap). It's comfortable (leather interior is in great shape, power everything). It handles great (shocks, springs, bushings, swaybars, rear LSD all addressed). Good has mileage, 24 mpg combined, should see an increase with the latest tune. And it makes a bit of power- old school 20G turbo at 20psi on pump gas.:) I daily drove it for a coupe years, 100+ miles a day. I'd love to bring it to the challenge some day.