About To Select A Project And Would Like Some Advice

[PWND]

Hi,

I thought I would see if I can get some advice on here before I start pouring cash into the black hole that is called car modifying.

Some of you may have seen my previous car, which I recently sold off in parts.

Link is bellow for those interested

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/topic/388746-another-rb25-r32-thread/page__fromsearch__1

This car was my first foray into serious car modifying and was an absolute money pit. A lot of this spending could have been avoided as I did little work by myself and also did half assed upgrades, which then required re-upgrading etc.

Also, I went about it the wrong way, in my opinion, which involved spending a lot of money on getting power out of it, and adding suspension, brakes, wheels that fit and tyres as an afterthought.

So my plan now is to try and do things right from the beginning.

What I am after ideally is a track specific car that is still registered. The registration is not for wank facor of street racing or anything similar, I just want the flexibility of being able to drive the car to wherever, whenever I wish. But, I also want the car to be street legal in QLD, which obviously makes things trickier.

So the questions I do have are around what platform to start with, as the ultimate goal will be to strip the car of all unnecessary weight and try to make it go as fast as possible.

What I would like to know are some of the finer points of what I can do. Such as what I am able to strip out.

My plan was to look at an S chassis car, preferrably an s15, as I like the shape, they weigh in mid 1200kgs, and have a huge ammount of after market parts available. Furthermore, there are pretty decent examples going for around 15k.

What I need to know is, what can I get rid of? Do I need to retain the factory airbags? Demister? Sun visors? Padded steering wheel? ETC

My plan for the car once I get it is to strip it entirely, all carpets, plastics etc, and have a cage welded in.

Buy coilovers and some adjustable arms, a radiator and have a go at getting some laptime under my belt from there.

Several other options I have been thinking about is to start with an s13, but due to the age, money required to get 5 stud, s14 or 15 rear cradle etc, I though I am better off with a newer car.

Another option I have been looking at are mx5's, as they are cheap and handle well, and even 1970's ford escorts, as I love the shape and have seen a few cars go for reasonable money.

Suggestions, feedback is appreciated.

I am ideally looking to get something somewhere between March and July as no performance car at this stage is killing me and I have decided not to get a bike as I like my legs too much.

Am overseas for two months before that, hence waiting until then. Heading to Vegas so keeping my spending money for thats, so I can double it. Or at least spend it on hookers.

[mad082]

If you want the car to be registered (legal) then you will need to leave a lot of the factory stuff in there, and for the sake of having the car slightly nicer to drive around the place, leave the carpet in too. There isn't that much point completely stripping the car unless you want to brag about lap times or race, where the less weight actually helps. You can take a stock car to the track and flog it round all day. At the end of the day, if you knock a second or 2 off your time then you've improved.

[PWND]

The car will get driven once a fortnight at best. I don't need it to be comfortable, and am hoping to slowly develop it into something quiet quick on the track so I want to get rid of every excess kg I can.

I am trying to find out what I legally have to leave in there to help me select what car to use. If I need to leave factory airbags in an s15 and there is no way around it with mod plates or maybe club rego, then I am better off using an s13 as a basis, as they did not come out with a lot of the newer stuff and just putting in a s14 or 15 rear cradle for the updated suspension. Clean s13's are harder and harder to find and would rather just start off with a newer car like an s15 or 14, especially since there is less and less of a gap in price between them.

Stuff like demisters. Is there a way with getting around those, maybe with heated windshields etc.

I was hoping someone on here may know before I go harassing my mechanic about it.

I could just rip stuff out and hope for the best, but I don't want to be looking over my shoulder every time I drive past a cop or into an RBT station and want the car to be street legal.

[Seano350GT]

Hey mate, been reading through your 32 GTR build that was a great read and loved the pictures!

In regards to the project car being street legal and registered, i think your going to come across a lot of difficulties with the QLD government as i'm sure you know. I'm no expert in this field, but have you considered buying another car something like a ute or wagon (wagon would probably be a better idea for the twins) and a trailer and just doing what most people do with track cars and tow it around? I can understand how great it would be to have your track car also a daily drive, but unfortunately there are a lot of hoops you have to go through to make that possible.

Whatever you do, goodluck! Once i'm off these silly green p's i plan on getting myself a pearl white S15. Absolutely love the shape of the S chassis and the range of parts and mods you can do to them is massive, not to mention SR20DET parts are reasonably cheap.

[m.j.h]

Have you thought about something like this

http://my105.com/ListingDetails/tabid/65/p/1/cid/3916/id/1884/Default.aspx

Put some slicks on and ready to race

Fast, light and should be cheap enough to run

There are a whole lot of cheap racing cars around at the moment if you want to go that way

[R31Nismoid]

What I am after ideally is a track specific car that is still registered. The registration is not for wank facor of street racing or anything similar, I just want the flexibility of being able to drive the car to wherever, whenever I wish. But, I also want the car to be street legal in QLD, which obviously makes things trickier.

So the questions I do have are around what platform to start with, as the ultimate goal will be to strip the car of all unnecessary weight and try to make it go as fast as possible.

Not really trickier, just painfully more expensive and restrictive.

What I need to know is, what can I get rid of? Do I need to retain the factory airbags? Demister? Sun visors? Padded steering wheel? ETC

To stay legal, you won't be able to strip it and that's the part that will hurt you. Airbags, demister and so on all need to be retained as it's factory safety equipment. You only need to be caught by the wrong Revenue Raising Officer, and you'll be off the road.

Better off to buy a cheap S13 that's an ex-track car or something, no rego, body can be rough etc. Fix whatever is tired on it, rubber underneath it and you'll be out and racing for easily under 10k, the rest you save (over going a S15) - put into a trailer.

[samstain]

If you want a road registered track car, perhaps look at a clubman... with a full cage perhaps.

Its too hard for a cop to work out what is stock and what is not, so they generally don't have any trouble on the road - apart from the odd loud exhaust.

There are plenty of them out there running SR20DET's etc that are sub 700kg and will do 0-100 in well under 4 seconds in road trim (mine is one of them). Though in all honesty a mildly tuned modern 2L NA is probably a better choice.

Also because they are so light, a day at the track will cost you about 1/4 as much in fuel/brakes/tyres etc, you also don't need a big tow car capable of towing 200kg+, If it ends up more than 900kg on the trailer your doing something wrong.

Edited December 27, 2012 by samstain