Need some advice from you "experts"

I have a bit of a “car fund” that I have been squiring away for the past few years. It probably is enough to buy a car and do minimum prep but not run it for a full season (it’s challenge money if I add my change jar to the fund). It’s coming up on the close of track season here in Michigan and I need some help making a few decisions. (Keep in mind I’m still in college. Don’t have much coming in but I make ends meet and have a bit left at the end of each month)

Options: 1. Buy a car (or build a locost++) now and work on it over the winter (space is a bit tight) which would burn most of the money and I’d be counting my pennies for running costs next year.
2. Upgrade the DD (Hyundai Sonata, Shushbox). New wheel tire and combo (riding on steels w/caps and 215/60/16 all season tires that are a bit chunked) and there is a clunk when taking a sharp/fast right hander. Sounds like it is coming from driver’s side wheel well. You can only hear it on track. 3. Keep saving and wait till I get more hours at work…any leads on a second job? Possibly buy better next year…hope and dream. 4. Take a chunk of the cash and upgrade my paintball gear. I love cars, like them more than paintball but it’s my number two hobby. Most of my friends play and none of them are into cars. I am at the point where I need to upgrade/replace some of my stuff. Replace the cash over the next year and start next fall. 5. Sell all my belongings, buy a great car, live in a box at the track and, take up puzzles to pass the time between sessions.

You guys have been in the sport for a very long time, and I need real “start this way not that way” or “If I was to start all over again I’d…” or even “I did it this way and I questioned it but looking back on it I wouldn’t change a thing” Advice.

Thanks Chris

I'd sell the Hyindai and buy a Miata. Fun DD, and a heckuva track/auto-X car. Have one of your buddies drive you south of the Mason/Dixon line to make sure you avoid our Michigan tin worm.

I would not waste money upgrading the Sonata. That's money you'll never get back, and it's an uphill battle to make that car into something fun.

Building a Locost is a big endeavor. I'd start smaller.

I'm not into paintball, but do have other money sucking hobbies. If you have a lot of friends who share the interest and will use the stuff regularly, that may be the way to free time joyousness. Used paintball equipment doesn't seem to be a tough sell when you get tired of it (and I suspect you will, eventually).

DrBoost is making sense.

Sell off the Korean and grow the fund to buy a Miata or E30. If you are patient you can find one that has a bit of track prep done already... the end of the season approaches in the NE and there are always deals to be had just before the snow flies.

I will throw in the 1st gen RX7 as an alternative but nothing is wrong with DrBoost"s statements

When you say 'track" I am assuming you mean that you want to take your car to a HPDE (high perf driver education) event, but... Would autocrossing your car satisfy your interest? It is cheaper and does not have the negative downsides of high speed errors (of course it does not offer the joys of higher speed either.) Either way, it is still autosport competition on a budget.

My advise (like Dr Boost) is to purchase a more multi-purpose daily driver. At your college age, it will likely be cheaper to have one car that does it all. Miata and e30 have been mentioned and I agree. In you northern area a Subaru may prove helpful as well for more year round service.

Buy a rust-free Miata with your savings, then sell the Hyundai and use that cash to buy two sets of wheels/tires. One for winter/everyday use, and the other set for summer/track. Upgrade other things as cash comes your way.

If space is at a minimum, one reliable car is your best bet. Don't get a project just yet.

Kramer wrote: Buy a rust-free Miata with your savings, then sell the Hyundai and use that cash to buy two sets of wheels/tires. One for winter/everyday use, and the other set for summer/track. Upgrade other things as cash comes your way. If space is at a minimum, one reliable car is your best bet. Don't get a project just yet.

If you have money left over, a HF trailer to carry the tires is a good thing. And a roll bar- many of the clubs in Michigan (particularly mine) require roll bars in open cars.

I'm sure you are not all that worried about it, but Miatas do just fine in Michgian winters. If you have even more (small) left over money, steel wheels and snow tires. IF (and that's a big if) my Miata was also my comp car- I'd have daily tires, racing tires, and winter tires. If you can afford just two- HP daily tire and winter tires.

If you don't want just a stock Miata on street tires, check the STS threads over in the performace area on form.miata.net- OR read the STS Miata articles in the back issues of GRM- you'll end up with a very streetable Miata that can be used all the time. And if you keep that car when you get your next car- it's a great canvas to many directions.

Or. Find a cheap Alfa. (I keep thinking I can find my old GRM car somewhere in southern MI- if anyone knows about it, shoot me an e-mail)

E-

It was near Jackson last I heard but that was when I was thinking of buying it from who you sold it to.

Option 5. Obviously the only solution. Maybe get a dog that you can train to hunt for varmints to cook over a fire.

ddavidv wrote: Building a Locost is a big endeavor. I'd start smaller.

It's hard to get much smaller than a Locost.

Maybe he meant he should scratch-build a model of a Locost first?

How about keepin the Sonata as your comfy car and getting something to be a track car. Something like.... I dunno.... a miata, or Accent hatch with the DOHC, or building yourself a locost.... somethign that would be exactly what you wanted, a no-compromise kind of car.

If you try to pick onecar to do it all, there will always be compromises. Be it reliability, comfort, speed, handling..... one car cannot do everything perfectly.

As for a track car/dd. Keep in mind that when you are two hundred miles from home and the tranmission decides it doesn't want to drive the car. Long tow job.

Bank the extra cash...wait until Spring...re-evaluate your options.

Not the "fun" way, but your priorities/situation may change.

iceracer wrote: As for a track car/dd. Keep in mind that when you are two hundred miles from home and the tranmission decides it doesn't want to drive the car. Long tow job.

and then I'm SOL for work on Monday. I forgot to say that I need to keep the Hyundai for a few reasons its less than 3 years old and I cant break even on it. and I really need a 4 door because I have a little girl who cant ride in front for a few more years. I'm tight on space but I can make something work. My parents have a third stall I could try for and I have a storage unit that could fit a car but not really work on.

My track time is HPDE and a test and tune day at Gingerman. More people took pictures of me and that car than of the GTR that was there. It was a sight.

Why can't she ride in front, exactly?

I think keep saving

In reply to ErinS:

car seats in front = against the law

Butch, can we talk figures? How much are you looking to spend now, and how much more scratch could you get together by spring time? You are keeping the hyundai so you need something that would be fun to drive, economical but not a DD, right? BTW, I understand the front seat thing. That's the reason I picked up a pre-passenger air bag miata. That way I could have fun with the kids as well.

Wow. I had no idea of that particular stupidity.

So yeah, if you can't get rid of the babymobile, cheap Miata + much track time = win.

Edit: Wait wait wait. So it /IS/ legal if you have no airbag on that side/can disable it? (like just about ANY car) Or is this a state to state issue?

I've gotta add to this one, on your PB gear is it just wore out or are you upgrading to "keep up with everyone else?". One of the best players at my field here locally is playing with a Viking, and yeah he's playing in tourneys with it, poke the tip of your barrel out and he'll hit it, if your not watching yourself, and I'm not talking about spray and pray, 1-2 shots he's got ya. I've been using my craptastic ION for almost 2 years now, and with the upgraded barrel, bolt, qev, etc (yup sunk way to much money into an ION), upgraded board is next. It was my first gun and it reliably shoots 13bps, and I can hit what I want with it. That being said, I play a back slot where light weight and moving like a speed freak with a meth habit isn't as important as decent air efficiancy, and reliably throwing ropes of paint downfield to keep the oppositions head down. That being said I bought a Threshold at the begining of summer I haven't even had a chance to take out to the field yet. Still sitting in the box, haven't even air'd it up yet. Once the challenge is done I think I'm gonna start playing again, I feel rusty, really rusty. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you are prob quite comfortable with what you have gear wise, why change it? Upgrade it a little bit at a time, ( I treated my upgrade list like a car's, all the little things then the brain.)

Buy a cheap miata, the more work you're willing to do the cheaper it will be. Put a true roll bar in, and sit back and just smile when everyone at the field ask's if you're gay or something? Because they will ask, or at least make the assumption. But if you enjoy corners, it will never fail to put a smile on your face, my sister and I are working on her miata project and even with a complely shot suspension, it's a blast, rear end steps out REALLY easily. Funny thing is she nabbed a pre passenger air bag model for the purpose of my niece riding with her, and she's never been in the car at speed.

Good luck with it.

My ,02

ErinS wrote: Wow. I had no idea of that particular stupidity. So yeah, if you can't get rid of the babymobile, cheap Miata + much track time = win. Edit: Wait wait wait. So it /IS/ legal if you have no airbag on that side/can disable it? (like just about ANY car) Or is this a state to state issue?

Here in MI, it's the airbag, not the RT FT seat. If you can disable it, then you are legal. That's why trucks come with a disable switch so you can take a youngster with you.

With My PB gear my Co2 is out of hydro next year in May so since I need to get a new tank (or re-hydro it) I want to move to HPA. I have a 4 pod pack that is starting to need extra love (tape etc) before I play. I play lots of woods/scenario ball so I’d like to move to a vest that can hold 6 pods, a tank and extras for future use. I have an old Tippmann Pro-lite (had it for the last 7 years and it was used when I got it) and it has only left my high and dry once (it was my fault not the guns). I love it but would like to move to an a5 with response trigger (if you look hard you can find one for about 100). I have a barrel for it and some pro-carbine parts that I have used as upgrades but it’s so old that there is not much to do to it. Heck it’s almost a collector’s piece.

To talk turkey with the fund it’s pennies over 2.5k and by next spring it might go up a couple hundred. By the spring I really don’t see it getting above to three unless I can get a second job (willing, just there is not much out there for in college folk) I can’t even get a 2nd job at the local video store…mainly because the shifts I get for my current job are night and weekend shifts and that’s what places want. I’m not about to jump ship with where I work until the ink is dry on something better.

Say I am able to find a Miata (1.6 preferably) for 1800, I’d want to freshen up the brakes get a roll bar and some nice rubber I'd be pushing 2500 am I right?? Most Miata in this area are still breaking budget (Best price on CL is 2750)

I'm really starting to lean to the hold on to it even though there are going to be some killer end of season deals soon. The track season round here is Late April-Oct (last year it snowed Oct 12)

ErinS wrote: Wow. I had no idea of that particular stupidity. Edit: Wait wait wait. So it /IS/ legal if you have no airbag on that side/can disable it? (like just about ANY car)

don't really think of as legislated stupidity so much as the continued eroding of our right(s) to be stupid all by our selves.... and I don't know about "like just about ANY car"... my Acura can't be disabled.... (of course it's old...'01) as someone else said pickups have a disable mode ... maybe newer passenger cars also have that capability but not the older cars...