2011 Challenge Rules

These are airplane batteries. I'm not sure if they are worth the same or not. They are the same size as a small Honda battery but use bolts to hold the wires on rather than the big round lug

They still have lead acid cores. They are recyclable. Take them to a battery shop. Usually $10 ea.

I'm a first time entrant but long time admirer of this event. Just bought a 1991 Spirit R/T with 78k miles on it in rather Stellar condition. Paid $1700 for the car off craigslist. Only things to sort out are peeling paint, floppy suspension, and some race worthy tires. With only $311, it won't be easy.

Maybe you can sell some parts off the car to help with the budget. Otherwise you don't have much room to play with

A few first timer questions if someone can clarify for me.

1. If a sponsor wants to give you parts or service to have their name on the car, how do you account for that?

2. Aside from the GRM stickers, what other sponsor names are REQUIRED?

3. Does the cost of GRM or other REQUIRED sponsor stickers count towards the budget?

If you get something from a sponsor it has to effect your budget as if you bought it new, unless a sponsor gives you something used, then it's fair market value. For example, I got a racing seat and harness from a sponsor brand new. The seat has to hit my budget for $200 cause that's what I would have had to pay for it if I bought it, but since the harness doesn't hit the budget at all being a safety item, then I don't account for it.

I can't comment on the rest though. I hope sponsor decals don't hit the budget. Although, I made mine myself, but I have quite a few.

GRM will give you the required stickers @ the event, and they are free.

How do you value a set of wheels and tires you already own? I have a somewhat beat up set of 04 Sti wheels with Star Specs that I use for track days. I got them years ago in trade and the 5x100 pattern is the same as the Spirit R/T. The Star Specs have a few track days on them already.

Rules #20 states "today's fair market price" but that leaves alot open for debate.

Just wanna make sure I'm doing the accounting right.

What did you trade for them? Maybe you could just use the value from that. Or if they are beat up, find a nice set and use 30-50% of that price.

I traded a set of 05 Sti wheels to a friend that was converting his 04 Sti to 5x114 hubs. I bought the 05 Sti wheels off craigslist for $350. this was a couple years ago so i dont kmow how i would go about documenting the trade. i figured unless i had concrete documentation of the trade i would have to use today retail value (prol $500-$700)

I think $350 is very reasonable and I doubt anyone would even bat an eye at it. Something's you just can't document and it just has to sound reasonable. I'm hoping the way I bought my car sounds reasonable since I didn't buy it with the intentions of doing this race, but I got it so cheap with a lot of budget mods included with the car that it made sense.

watchdoc wrote: I traded a set of 05 Sti wheels to a friend that was converting his 04 Sti to 5x114 hubs. I bought the 05 Sti wheels off craigslist for $350. this was a couple years ago so i dont kmow how i would go about documenting the trade. i figured unless i had concrete documentation of the trade i would have to use today retail value (prol $500-$700)

officially, you should budget what you've got in them. even without a receipt, if you budget $350 for wheels and tires and don't show up with V710s still wearing their stickers, you'll be fine.

Awesome, what a relief. The tires are dunlop star specs with a few track days on them. Much better than the all seasons but certainly not a fresh set of hoosiers. This also means I won't have to drive with a trunk full of wheels.

watchdoc wrote: Awesome, what a relief. The tires are dunlop star specs with a few track days on them. Much better than the all seasons but certainly not a fresh set of hoosiers. This also means I won't have to drive with a trunk full of wheels.

Hang on, watchdoc. Either you are confused, or I am.

You said you You have $311 left in the budget.

You also said you paid $350 for the wheels, and did not say what you paid for the tires.

That tells me you are already over.

You can't put the wheels AND tires on the car without hitting your budget just because you already own them.

Beyond that, I'm trying to figure out what the point is in putting the STI wheels on the car, other than that they look cool. I don't think they will make it go any faster. Why hit your budget for $350 at all?

BTW- I also own a Spirit R/T.

SVreX wrote:

watchdoc wrote: Awesome, what a relief. The tires are dunlop star specs with a few track days on them. Much better than the all seasons but certainly not a fresh set of hoosiers. This also means I won't have to drive with a trunk full of wheels.

Hang on, watchdoc. Either you are confused, or I am. You said you You have $311 left in the budget. You also said you paid $350 for the wheels, and did not say what you paid for the tires. That tells me you are already over. You can't put the wheels AND tires on the car without hitting your budget just because you already own them. Beyond that, I'm trying to figure out what the point is in putting the STI wheels on the car, other than that they look cool. I don't think they will make it go any faster. Why hit your budget for $350 at all? BTW- I also own a Spirit R/T.

possibly you are both confused. he paid $350 for a set of wheels which he then traded for a different set of wheels and tires.

but SVreX is right, if you paid $1700 for the car and claim $350 for the wheels and tires, then you're $39 over budget and better start selling parts off of the race car to get back under.

I took out a couple of steps. The wheels in question were traded for a set he paid $350 for, making the value of the set in question $350.

That's over budget.

I still don't see where it says the deal included tires.

And we haven't figured out how he's gonna pay for fixing the peeling paint and floppy suspension.

watchdoc, you needs a few pointers in Challenge math. Angry is just the guy to give them to you!

I paid $350 for the 05 Sti wheels, then traded them for a set of 04 Sti Wheels. I then installed a set of Dunlop Star Specs which are now 2+ years old and have approx 10k in daily driving and several track days on them.

I wanted to trade myself the mint stock 15" Spirit R/T wheels with NEW all season tires for the somewhat rough 17" Sti wheels with well used Star Specs.

I thought this would be an even swap and not come out of the $311 budget.

Reason??? The Star Specs are much stickier than the new all seasons on the car now. I am driving from NC to FL and would prefer to use one set of wheels and tires for the entire event and not have to lug an extra set of wheels and tires in the trunk. Everyone's advice seems to lean towards tires so I thought this was an elegant solution.

Like I've said prior, I'm new to this event and I don't wanna do anything that would be considered cheating so how do I find out if this is legal?

BTW, new shocks and struts are $130 shipped from Just Suspension (be sure to use the 5% Facebook friend discount)

Paint supplies to fix the roof and hood are gonna be around $100. The majority of the paint is coming off with a razor blade. Gonna use a DA on the rest.

In reply to watchdoc:

OK, the "trade for stock wheels with new all-seasons" wasn't clear to me from previous posts. sure, that'll work. self-trades are acceptable as long as FMVs are similar. it's not stated specifically in the rules, but was clarified here on the board many years ago.

In reply to Karl La Follette:

Any pics of the whole car??

foto bucketlink and here is the MGexperience link Mg X thread link

Painting complete underside of car today and working on rear end , wish we had a rotisserie !

AngryCorvair wrote: self-trades are acceptable as long as FMVs are similar.

Wait- "self-trades" are legal?? Is that right?

SVreX wrote:

AngryCorvair wrote: self-trades are acceptable as long as FMVs are similar.

Wait- "self-trades" are legal?? Is that right?

you're kidding, yes? Per approved them in '02 when I asked about trading a corvair transaxle from my parts car for a corvair clutch and pressue plate i already had in my parts stash.

Nope. Not kidding.

That's a big game changer for me.

SVreX wrote: Nope. Not kidding. That's a big game changer for me.

the game changed years ago. where were you? see link from the grm archive (below). it was the oldest post I could find on this subject.

http://archive.grassrootsmotorsports.com/board/viewtopic.php?id=13063

In reply to AngryCorvair:

This is news to me too. Apparently I've been doing it wrong. (puts palm on face)