Does my car exist?

Having a brief and minor part in a potential Challenge Car build a few years ago that got kiboshed at the last minute, I haven't quite been able to shake the desire to attend this at least once, even if it's in a boring car. 

Ideally this would be a car I could drive there and back, and possibly spend a bit of money upgrading afterwards to attend lapping events at a local course I'm fortunate enough to have nearby. 

The ideal car would be:

rust free

rwd

stick

plentiful and inexpensive spare parts

easy to work on/not too many electrical gadgets

 meet challenge budget .

So ideal car appears to be the one I already own (Miata) except for the challenge budget part. I'm not adverse to importing something to Canada from the US if I could find the right car (doesn't have to be a miata). I'm in SW Ontario. 

Thoughts and suggestions welcome. I scour FB marketplace daily but not finding much inspiration.

Cheers, and HNY to everyone. 

I had one, and while I didn't love the interior quality and it felt like it needed a mild restoration to make nice, I think an SN95 Mustang would be an option.  Especially a 94-95 GT with the old 5.0 V8.  Or a V6 swapped car.  They're not hard to work on, they made a million of them, nobody cares if you cut one up, lots of cross-corp swapping etc etc.

Another option that I've been thinking about would be an S-10/S-15/Sonoma etc small GM truck.  Same reasons as above + it's a truck so you have a bed to haul stuff in which could be useful for a self-supporting Challenge vehicle. 

Both of these have "compromised" suspensions which can be forced to work and the truck has worse brakes but if you like some engineering and digging for parts I think all of this could be dealt with. 

Volvo

No.

There's a reason that cars that tick all those boxes but price will cost a lot... everyone else wants one too.

For cheap parts a new car is usually best, oddly enough.  They attrit to damage long before they start wearing things out, so used parts are worthless.  Remember when 2.0 Ecoboost engines were $200 with warranty from LKQ?  Nobody wanted them yet but everyone was wrecking their cute utes, stocking the shelves with parts.

My choice of "drive to and drive home" Challenge cars were Infiniti Q45s (1990 and 1991.)  Here in the states, any day you can find a 300hp Infiniti Q45 for near $2k and then negotiate down from there.  Sorry, no manual trans.  The first year Q45 took 11th overall in a near stock form.  The second Q45 for 2015 took 10th overall, also in near stock form.  

Other target cars for me to take to The Challenge are PT Cruiser Turbo.  An unloved car who's styling appeals to an older crowd but the older crowd no longer want the manual trans that many came with.  Think of it as a Neon SRT in an ugly suit.  

I also think a Chrysler Crossfire is an unloved model that "with the right damage" can be bought cheap.   They do come with manual trans.

Lincoln Mark 8 is another "go to" model.  We ran one in 2015 at The Challenge and it ran 13.8 drag time...stock.  

Just to prove my point...  
Q45 just 2 hours south of me asking $2k and will likely take much less.

$1,000 Lincoln Mark 8 needs brakes and tires.  Tires are completely budget exempt for the Challenge and brakes are partially exempt.  

In reply to MX_Brad :

You are going to have to change your shopping technique. They exist but you have to find them.  They won't be advertised.  They will be in someone's back yard, garage,  or hidden away.  Maybe they are asking over budget allowance, explain why you can only pay what you are limited to. 
  Go to club meetings of cars you are interested in. Bad Paint? dents? scruffy interior? Wonderful! Should lower the price.  Fix that stuff when you get back.

  Drive through back alleys.  Leave notes at independent car repair shops  that repair cars like you'd accept.  Dirty, dust covered,Not running?   Well that's where the deals are.  If you understand how to fix cars there are some fantastic deals.  Replace a part or Re wire something properly?  The points on a SU fuel pump need to be cleaned a few minutes with some ultra fine emery paper and you have a running car worth thousands more.  Defective sensor? Bad ground?  Those are the deals. Not a shiny clean well Advertized 
 
     I regularly get leads on Jaguars but I've been doing this for a very long time.  
  Don't worry about electrical gadgets.  Just remove anything that doesn't work.  Radio bunk? Go to Goodwill  and pick up a $5 boom box.  ( if you remove it before you race it doesn't count towards the $2000). 
no A/C?  Remove it.  Just remove anything  not needed to make the car run. ( save weight).  Top not good? Remove top, iron man it.

Carefully  read the rules.  Do not assume anything.  Ask,  but there are some on this site who will put their own interpretation on the rules.  The publisher has the final word.  A
  Plus you can attend the event and do the.   Drag race*  and autocross  even if you've exceeded the $2000 budget.  
  * the rules aren't exactly drag racing. In that it's not the first one across the finish line but the one with the lowest ET. 
  I'm not sure, please ask others but I think you can replace broken stuff  with the same quality as original without taking a budget hit.  Trying out the car and something breaks?  I believe as long as you don't improve the car it doesn't count.  ( budget wise). 
     

Even if you allow some rust, it will be very difficult to find something that ticks all the boxes, especially price on this side of the border. Entering a Canadian bought & built Challenge car would probably be harder than doing a half-budget-class entry. Importing a car could buy you some budget headroom though.

If you want to do a Challenge entry with a car you won't be keeping after the Challenge, you could buy something cheap in the US not too long before the event, go down there and work on it in the last few weeks or even make it a Parking Lot Build, and enter it, then you can look at selling it at the end of the event, plenty get sold this way.

If you don't necessarily want to build you can do what I did this year, enter your current car in the over-budget class for fun and also participate in the PLB (and track day).

I'm in the GTA BTW, you should add a Garage/Rides entry for your Miata so I'll recognize it if I see you at an event

Somewhere there is a cheap V6 Mustang waiting for a new home, or maybe even a ratty V8. That's what I'd look for

Hey Brad..Good to see that the Volvo fiasco did not scare you away from doing this event. The Volvo we build with you was pretty much what you want now. Key to that was that it was an abandoned project with most of the parts already on the car. 

An option to consider is an MGB with a more modern 4 banger. MG Midget could also work. If you are serious about this I can put Tow-Truck and Mustang on the search for a platform and/or parts. 

Another path is to give up the aversion to FWD ( I know, hard cause I suffer the same) and find a cheap POS like a Nissan Versa or Micra and just send it with a set of wheels, nitrous  and sticky tires.  Drop by for a visit, there is always thinking-fluid in the shop fridge.

Pete

3.8 Mustang or 1.9 BMW E36.

I keep forgetting that in other parts of the country E36s and SN95s didn't rust to E36 M3 about by the time they were paid off.  Mostly the SN95s with losing the lower torque boxes or the shelf above the front crossmember rusting through, leaving the front end held together by structural paint.  The V6s are more prone to this because people who bought GTs or Cobras usually had one or two other cars and they would park the Mustang five months of the year, but the V6s got used as daily drivers.

I'll say yes and no. Schrödinger's car. Statistically, probably not. One of the requirements--rwd, manual, rust free, under challenge budget--would probably have to be dropped for an average Craigslister or casual FB shopper. But Frenchy's logic follows, you'll just have to be in the right place at the right time. I suppose you could also do the leg work and talk to local mechanics, used car dealers, etc. but that seems like it requires more social skills than I have the spoons for or interest in developing. 

S10, Ranger, Comanche, Ram 50

In reply to frenchyd :

You have a lot of bad advice for a race you've never entered.

I like the Versa or Micra idea. Might be a little easier to source.

Thanks for all the great replies folks. 

The SN95 idea resonates with me as I'm a bit familiar with the 5.0/T5 combo. No chance of finding a $2k rust free specimen up here in salt country, but I could have a look in the southern states. 

The econobox suggestion is good too, except for the thought of spending 12+hrs a day (x4) on I-75 to make the Challenge. 

There's no panic. If I keep eyes wide something is bound to turn up eventually. 

Cheers. 

Here's one in Bismarck, ND. Leaves you $1100 leftover to get it going. 

Bismanonline.com 1975 Fiat X1/9 project convertible $900

My thought looking at your requirements was "No", but there are some obscure ones out there that you might get lucky with. I'm thinking Forzda Brangers, Isuzu Hombres, Ford Explorer, S10 Jimmy/Blazer, Nissan Xterra... Basically cars that should be 4WD, but are not, or cars that you forgot were ever offered with a manual. 

My hunch answer will be "no", but you may get lucky - see Fiat above.  I get the impression you may need to go through more than one before you finally get one that you can get operational while staying under budget. That Fiat makes me think of that - while the price is good, it's a bit of a crap-shoot to guess what it'll need until you get it home and start tearing into it.

The manual transmission is the setback. G35 sedan, Mustang or Camaro are the most common RWD vehicles that could be had under budget and be relatively competitive with. If you wanted a manual transmission a Sentra SE-R or versa, fit, fiesta may be available under budget. 

That Fiat ad text waves big red flags at me that the owner likely found something really scary/expensive that sank his plans. Yes, it could also be what he said, but such a car deserves a good going over, no matter how cheap the price.

As Canadians, with Canadian budgets, we don't have a lot of choices. But these are the ones I see:

Find another abandoned project like the Volvo 740 and finish it.  It was a finished car that got sidelined and nobody wanted cause of electrical fire. Wires scare people to death. Patience, networking dumb luck and jumping on it when it shows up are the keys. Trick is to finish it on budget.

Arrive a week early and drive a Honda with sticky tires and nitrous.  The car could be bought anywhere along the route, not just FL. This is the easy button, Gets you to the Challenge on a plane, gets you in the show, and depending on luck and nitrous, you can try to drive it home.   No chase vehicle required. A stripped-out econobox is most likely going to be a lot more pleasant to drive on the road than anything you confabulate.

Automotive Junk pile traveling in close formation. Collect parts for cheap or free until they add up to a car.  I would go with an LS /4l60 powertrain cause cheapest most power you can get for next to free. Find a free body, don't really matter what or how rusty cause you are going to cut it up. Tin  and scrap metal to join the parts is cheap and welding is easy. 8.8 stick axle out the back. Maybe crown Vic front suspension.  Tires are budget exempt and wheels are cheap if you are not fussy. The autobox wont matter cause you will be hanging on with both hands trying to direct this scrap-pile; no chance to shift. Driving it to the Challenge would be like wearing a hair-shirt  jumpsuit in the middle of a FL summer heat wave. You will most likely set fire to the creature if it ever made it home if not sooner. This car would be a cheap hooker; lot of guilt free fun but you don't want to take it home to mom. I would want a chase vehicle for this option.

Well, seems like this idea will possibly take a major leap to left field if I let it. 

My Mom will be replacing her Dodge Grand Caravan likely this spring with a newisher model. It's a 2008 with 200k km,  rusty shell , FWD exactly the opposite of what I'm looking for. It's worth nothing.....she'll be lucky to get $1k on a trade. 

This is what I'm thinking....keep in mind this will be only for the Challenge and not for my lapping activities, though possibly a semi functional vehicle for making trips to the dump. 

I'm just thinking out loud at this point. I may conclude this to be a bad idea once I sober up.