Help Me Price My Racecar

I could use help pricing my racecar. I really don't want to sell, but I have some personal issues which have prevented me from using it for the last few years and unfortunately I don't see that changing any time soon. I can't find many comparable ads from the last year (covid I guess!). In some ways it's a bit unusual because it has a taller than normal roll cage (won't fit a hard top). I built it for Champcar. I won't have access to the car for a couple of months, so the selling window might not be optimal. I'm also north of the border, but I can apply a fudge factor for that. 

1994 Mazda Miata MX-5. 1.8L engine. ~125k miles. ~45 hours on track. 100% reliability.
Wheels: Choice of TR Motorsports C3M 15x9", or C1 15x8". Old BFG Rivals 225/45/15, 205/45/15 respectively.
Safety: 
- Advanced Autosports Spec Miata Roll cage extra tall. 1.625"(1 5/8") x 0.095"  DOM. Nascar bars on both side, gussets, large/thick base plates. 
- Spa Technique Fire suppression system, 2 nozzle, 2.25L tank.
- Kirkey 45 series seat, on OEM seat rails.
- IO Port back brace
- 6 point SFI harness (expired).
- Allstar Window nets (expired). Quick releases both on sides, slide over rods on roof.
- Kill switch.
Suspension -  ~28 hours/2 races of use.
- Bilstein B6 Shocks 
- Eibach 2.5" Springs 550lbs/inch front, 325 lbs/inch rear.
- Allstar coilover sleeves
- KYB foam bump stops - cut.
Other:
Raceland Header - Approximately 6o miles. Online dynos I saw at the time of purchase suggested similar gains as the best name brand headers.
Custom fabricated Exhaust - 2.25" pretty straight back to magnaflow muffler. 
Intake - DIY - Cone filter setup with Randall cowl intake inspired design.
Braided Stainless brake lines.
Hawk HP+ brake pads.
OEM fuel tank with filler restrictor removed.
Weight: ~1925lbs. Measured by adding up corners when performing DIY corner weighting with a full tank. I'm sure it could be dropped into the 1800s lbs by removing the OEM bumper supports and pop up headlights.

Edit: Passed Champcar tech back when.

It's not the prettiest car because I imagined it only ever for myself. The fenders look a bit beat up because I was terrible at flaring them, but it's certainly not worse than many cars that have had minor fender rubs with other cars. I made DIY hood vents by cutting slits in the hood and pounding them up with a 4" pipe an mallet. Front fenders exits are tucked in a DIY manner, etc. I cared a lot about the function/maintenance, less so about the appearance. There's some rust forming in the rear drain area.

Pretty hard to set a value without some pictures...  and the inability to use a hardtop with the current cage is going to hurt it a bit.

I'm not all that familiar with the ruleset for Chumpcar/Lemons... how does sales value on a built car (with safety equipment) affect eligibility?

The safety equipment does not factor into the $500 price in Lemons as well as a number of other items such as tires & wheels, brake system, racing seat, etc. You have to look over the rules to get the full list.  I've seen Lemon's car sell for anywhere from $1K up to $5K depending on the model of car and level of prep.

So what can it be used for?   It sounds a bit overmodded for spec Miata use.   The expired safety equipment can't be counted toward any competition value as it would need to be replaced.

So that leaves HPDE toy.  Certainly a fun one but a pretty limited market for someone to want to spend money on.

Has it passed Champcar tech?

I’d look around on the Champcar forum and low buck endurance racing Facebook groups to see what similar stuff is selling for.

^ this. If it's never passed tech and doesn't fit a class it's not a "race car", it's a track toy. There's a pretty big price difference between the two. 

I found when trying to sell my ex SM race car (still have it!) - Lemons has some unique cage rules.  Like min wall thickness has to be .120 - SCCA allows .095, which is what my car was -  so my car was not ideal for Lemons.

That being said, a  caged running miata that just needs updates?  5-6K?

Thanks for the responses.

It did pass tech. I believe Lucky Dog would be another option. I haven't deep dived the other organizations tech specs, but I imagine it could be used in other sanctioning bodies (non-SM), possibly with other minor changes necessary.

I don't have a lot of great pictures. These are missing a couple minor cosmetic changes.

The new rule for champcar is the dash bar, no excemptions, they gave over a year for particpants to update their cars.

A dash bar is part of the advanced autosports SM cage, so it has one.

I could see this as a wrl,  champcar, lemons, and lucky dog car.

I would probably spend the money on a window net, belts, and make sure it has a dash bar and up to date fire system.

You could then probably sell it for 5k+ to a new champcar team

Lemons probably won't give laps to the car if you come up with a crazy story.

Should fit right in at wrl or lucky dog.

Thanks for the responses, they're helpful!

I don't think it can do lemons. From their rules: " Minimum tubing size for cars weighing under 3000 pounds as raced is 1.50″ x .120″ or 1.75″ x .095″ "

The way to learn what the car's worth is to put it up for auction, letting the market decide. When it sells, there's your answer. If you want some bare minimum, set a reserve.

Snrub said:

Thanks for the responses, they're helpful!

I don't think it can do lemons. From their rules: " Minimum tubing size for cars weighing under 3000 pounds as raced is 1.50″ x .120″ or 1.75″ x .095″ "

I'm not sure.  It kinda falls in line with those numbers.  I'd ask at least.

kb58 said:

The way to learn what the car's worth is to put it up for auction, letting the market decide. When it sells, there's your answer. If you want some bare minimum, set a reserve.

Agree.  Except in my experience a reserve puts a lot of people off.  If you are going to sell it anyway, advertise it well and send it.

Sold the car! It's sad. Thanks all for the help in selling the car. Hopefully the new owner will get to have a blast with it.

Somehow I completely screwed up the roll cage specs. Lack of access and not using it for 5 years was part of thenl reason, but really I have no excuse. Apparently it was 1.50 x .120" tubing. I know this because the Lucky Dog Canada tech inspector actually came to help the buyer evaluate the car and measured it with a sonic tool! He did a tech inspection on the spot. I thought that was seriously crazy service. He didn't know the buyer or me, he's just super cool.

Congrats. And, yes, nice when a tech inspector makes house calls. Hope the new owner enjoys it. 

In reply to Snrub :

What did it sell for? 

It went for a bit less than was suggested by the folks in the thread. I had some decent interest and a couple of guys who seemed very interested. I think it could have sold for a bit more, but I wanted to get a fair amount for it, without going through hassle to extract every last dollar. 

Snrub said:

I know this because the Lucky Dog Canada tech inspector actually came to help the buyer evaluate the car and measured it with a sonic tool! He did a tech inspection on the spot. I thought that was seriously crazy service. He didn't know the buyer or me, he's just super cool.

Lucky dog is awesome!  When I built my race car, the head of tech (in the US) came to my house just as a courtesy so he could flag any potential issues before getting to my first race. Good to hear we'll have another racer in LD!

MaxC said:

Lucky dog is awesome!  When I built my race car, the head of tech (in the US) came to my house just as a courtesy so he could flag any potential issues before getting to my first race. Good to hear we'll have another racer in LD!

Building/prepping a car to race in a series can be stressful business. Going above and beyond like that certainly builds confidence and let's you know the series is trying to work with you. If I was still able to race, that's the kind of series I'd want to race with.