Honestly, I've never paid much attention to the Challenge, since Florida is way farther than I've been willing to go for it. But now I hear it's going to be at Summit Point, an hour from home, this summer.
So, since my wife will certainly not tolerate another project car around here, I'm left with a couple options:
First, I have the rallycross e30, which apart from a $200 M42 engine swapped into it and Bilsteins/springs, is mostly a stock car. I figure I've spend about $4k on it (including purchase price), but $700 of that was for the roll bar.....$500 of that for the Star Specs, $200 for rally tires, $300 for the crappy Sparco seats. I could probably take enough stuff off of it to get it to about $2k (put the stock radiator back on instead of the aluminum one, take the stainless skidplate off, etc etc etc). Again, not sure how that works. Car was rattle-canned, so cosmetics didn't cost much at least, lol.
Second, I have the e21, which I bought for $200 or so as a COMPLETE car with a good engine (I have the title with the sale price on it, and I posted it in my build thread 6 months ago before I was thinking about GRM challenge). The engine is already out, as I'm putting my spare M42 into it (which I bought 2 years ago for $150 locally and am rebuilding with STOCK parts, and no performance upgrades). I could find the seller and get him to sign an "affadavit" as to the sale price...didn't think to get a receipt since it was a spare engine. I can probably recoup the $200 or so by selling the stock engine, probably less. The car is in good shape and even the shocks are still good. ALl bushings need replacing, but someone told me that if I use OEM-equilvalent stuff there, it's budget-exempt. I could definitely do this car under $2k. Car has a full original interior in good shape (except for the carpet), FWIW.
So, since I'm working on the e21 anyhow, I'm leaning towards that. YEs, I know it wouldn't be very competitive in any category, but that's not a problem. But the posted GRM challenge rules aren't very detailed, so am trying to figure out a few things that perhaps you guys could help on:
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So...for suspension stuff....since I was going for a "stock-ish" restoration anyhow....if I use OEM/OEM-replacement bushings, tie rod ends, control arm balljoints, etc....those DO or DON'T count toward budget? I would probably do mostly stock stuff, maybe a poly bushing here or there, and some good shocks, and maybe cut the springs. But I planned to use mostly OEM-style bushings, motor mounts, etc.
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For engine.....I'm not doing much to it since it was a running engine, but it is getting a new HG, gaskets, seals, etc. I'm not doing any performance upgrades to it whatsoever. Just making it more reliable/refreshed at stock power levels. Does that stuff count?
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Tires.....since I need to get some for it anyhow, Kumhos are budget-exempt? I'd still need to find some wheels, since it's on two steelies and two e30 wheels right now.....
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How closely should stuff like spray paint and bondo be tracked? So far I'm just using leftover primers and bondo from other projects, so I can't really say "how much 8 half-empy rattle cans" cost. Do I just make an estimate, or is there an accepted "standard cost" for a rattle-can paint job?
I'm sure I"ll have more questions, but I keep hearing different takes on the rules so want to make sure I know what I'm doing before I decide to do this. Any other suggestions/comments/thoughts are totally welcome.