Just wondering. Seems like a lot of the contenders have some type of sponsorship funding with their race cars.
Who actually built and bought every single part that is in their SFWD car with their own money?
I guess I'll be the first to raise my hand. Im building the whole car myself, everything bumper to bumper except the cage which I had some help with. Tuning will more than likely be all me as well. The only help I got so far is by working at a shop where I get parts for less than retail. Although the car isnt up and running at this time, hopefully in the next couple weeks it'll be ready to go. I hope to have the car be competitive and run around 10.40's, hopefully I'll make it there if not faster.

 

10.40's in the 1/8th?

Good luckj this season, your setup is proper

 

My experience building my SFWD Honda.

I built my car out of my pocket. I have had some price breaks here and there, but I pretty much built my car without any sponsorship whatsoever. Don't feel left out thinking why can't I get something for free? I have been in this import game a long time now and it is very rare you get stuff for free. Sponsorship is limited to how much you initially spend on your own, networking and commitment to a race schedule. You basically have to gamble to see how far you money and exposure can take you.

I can tell you that I have to give people like Gary Gardella huge props for supporting his own car financially in a class that takes big money to go fast. HOT ROD class support money makes the SFWD budgets look cheap in comparison! That is what makes SFWD so appealing to everyone. It is still attainable.

Like a lot of you guys who run or want to run at the top of the ladder in SFWD, I have nearly $40,000.00 invested in my car and hundreds of hours of labor and sweat. Now, I know that seems high figure, but I am not talking about a low budget build because eventually every low buget build ends up costing that much anyway Costs like:

1. Buying a car (shell or complete car)
2. Engine Management
3. Fuel system
4. NHRA legal 10 pt cage
5. Engine Build, Swap and sleeving
6. Good strong Axles
7. A really good long wearing clutch (we are not talking ACT single plate stuff)
8. Spare trannies and maybe a spare motor
9. Wheels (Bogarts or Welds)
10. Intercooler
11. Turbo system
12. Complete race head
13. Intake manifold
14. Safety harnesses, chute
15. Drag suspension
16. A decent paint job (no chevy nova primer job)
17. Transportation(GAS) and Hotels/Buddy's couch
17 etc.etc.etc.$$$$$$

You start to get the idea. For you guys thinking about building a competitive, reliable SFWD race car, start planning on your budget before your ego gets the best of you. Racing is expensive. If you think you can get away with a $20k total budget, forget it! You have to think about breaking **** like engines, trannies, axles, clutches. Once you are done with that, it ain't a $20k race car anymore. Tell me I am wrong?? Any racers out there done it cheaper and did it reliably without blowing up a motor for a couple of race seasons?

I like to know your secret if your out there. I am sure everyone else wants to know too.

 

you can def get away with a 20k buget , XXXracing did it with his old set up. Im not counting on breaking anything big here either, that depends on each person on how they tune and drive the car. I could sit here and list all the parts and prices for building a car for 20k, but i dont want to. If i only used it to race at events, it would be good for 100 passes then i would have to replace parts like the clutch but by then i should have sponsers and **** to help me out.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 1.83Tc &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you can def get away with a 20k buget , XXXracing did it with his old set up. </TD></TR></TABLE>

$20k if you do all the work yourself. 2 weeks ago I had 2 sfwd/turbo 4 cars ready to race. This week I have none. Engine problems on both are keeping my cars away from Dinwiddie this weekend. Oh you forgot to mention a way to get to the track. Add a truck and trailer to the equation. If you go with new add $70k to your budget.

 

Jeeze, there goes my dreams of building a car, maybe I'll just stick to taking pictures of them......

Brian

 

Yea thats what im assuming if you do all the work yourself and the fabrication and all that ****. Im saying i could def build a car for 20k right now and i would be fine because i have a trailer, a shop to do all the work and a car already. If i had 20k right now that would be fine for me to build a car and have it ready to race this season.


Im only talking about a SFWD car. Any other class hot rod and up , thats another level

 

I think you can build a competitive car for 15-20K. Jason built his CRX all out of pocket for less than 15K. Last season my car had about 15K into. But the case with both of these cars is that they have evolved over a period 5+ years, we did not decide to build them last year. We now get some product from companies but it is still an expensive hobby. Brian

 

here's a hot rod car if someone wants to pick up for under 15k if someone is interested....needs a good home........it wants to stretch its legs once again...

 

Mine is all out of pocket, with only a few of exceptions. Kinda hard to say
just how much is in it, I stole alot of parts from the last car before it was sold.
But it's safe to say there's about 10-12 into it.

My real pride is the fact that I did almost everything myself from the engine
work, turbo system, building and devolping the auto trans, most of the cage
work, pretty much all of it in my garage. If I had to sub this stuff out I think I'd
have twice as much sunk into it.

I'm praying it's gonna hold up and run with the fast guys.

Steve

 

mine is def. out of my own pocket . my paychecks are spent before i even get them . i was going to build 2 cars but i am now selling my EK to finish off my DC project . hopin to finish it soon , im tired of buyin parts

 

i am building my car out of my own pocket with my paychecks, side work and selling parts and other projects that i had over the years. i am doing alot of the work in house. i am shooting for 10- 15k range and looking to mostly compete in local smaller events such as the survival series and other track events.

 

ive been building my SFWD car for about a year now and im finaly almost done...
I have built this car from the ground up by my self, with the exception of the motor, wich was built by Exospeed..
I started working on my car when i first bought it back in 1997, but i built it to be a show car untill just over a year ago when i decided to build it into a race car. When i say i built the car, i mean i built the car, any and all fab work done by me, all machanical work (except building the motor) was done by me, I even did my own paint job. I dont have an actual cost of what i put into this car, but i think its close to 20K. but i do know it would have been alot more if i didnt do all my own work.. The only free parts i have on the car was a set of plug wires i got from NOLOGY when i used to show the car, and those wires are not going to be on the car for much longer.. Every penny i make, goes into the car.
i just hope after all of this hard work and every cent i made in the past few years, i can compete with the SFWD class, those guys are gettin pretty damn fast..
Here's a pic of my SFWD project almost completed...

 

I am building mine all out of pocket and also doing custom pieces to keep the cost down on it, i have recieved a few things in the past (large discounts) but no free parts yet just waiting that will end up coming after i take the car out and run it, because no one wants to sponser a car that dosn't move

 

My car was built 100% with money out of my own pocket. The only free part on the my car is the AEM UEGO controller because I was testing a prototype. I paid for the O2 sensor myself. I'd say that sponsored cars in the street classes are the minority and I hope it stays that way. That's the same reason I'm not really in favor of a national points series. Ideally, I would like to see regional racers go and battle it out at the races with their street cars. Street class racers traveling across the country to compete should be the exception, not the norm. That's just my opinion, but what do I know?

Tyler

 

I am building everything out of my own pocket. There are people who have helped me along the way which is priceless. All the info I gather from Larry at Endyn, Tony1, Ben Strader, Mike Laskey and Jason Hunt are all priceless! I think the only thing I go for free was a Carbon sunroof plug.

art

 

Art good luck with your car.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TEAMGENDAI &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Art good luck with your car.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Thanks homie..

 

Dan i deff feel your pain . All mine is out of pocket. Except i decided to do it on a car where i owe soo much money on , that was 1/2 my mistake.

 

Building mine out of pocket. I've been working on it for over a year. Everyday its been nothing but research, buying parts, making things work, more research, paying off credit cards, putting off buying a house, more research, putting things together, and have I mentioned research?

FINALLY, I just took my motor out of my chassis last night and will be putting the new one in tonight to start fabricating for lines and exhaust and whatever else that needs to be done. Then, the chassis work begins...

 

I think you can build a competitive car for 15-20K. Jason built his CRX all out of pocket for less than 15K. Last season my car had about 15K into. But the case with both of these cars is that they have evolved over a period 5+ years, we did not decide to build them last year. We now get some product from companies but it is still an expensive hobby. Brian
___________
Kudos for you Brian. I heard you beat my man Frank@SFP. Great Driving Man!When I mentioned a budget of $20k, I originally mean all costs including development time over your 5 years. If you had to build this car over 5 years, it would not cost you just $20k? Am I right? How much of last years stuff have you keeped? Upgraded? What stuff have you broke over the 5 years? Just curious on your racing budget. Just trying to get a reality check for some of the newer racers out there on the message board so they don't get into too much debt and over their head.

Also, how many racers did you attend last year? Fuel and traveling expenses? Flat tires?? ok that is priceless.

Rule is don't spend more than you can afford. If it takes longer, then it takes longer. Your creditors will be happier and the cost of borrowing the money will be cheaper (interest rates) which will bring the overall costs down.

 

Yeah I've been lucky enough to be able to pay off whatever is spent on my credit cards within at max 3 months. I also didn't spend anymore when I did use my cards. This has been my first time seriously building something in a long time. The last time I built up a car from the ground up it was an 84 olds cutlass supreme with a 383 all motor for the street back when I was 15/16. A 650hp anything is no car for a 16yr old especially when its the car. I loved that car

 

We have paid nearly everything on our car.......only to have it stolen 3 dyas before the first race

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Arturbo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I am building everything out of my own pocket. There are people who have helped me along the way which is priceless. All the info I gather from Larry at Endyn, Tony1, Ben Strader, Mike Laskey and Jason Hunt are all priceless! I think the only thing I go for free was a Carbon sunroof plug.

art</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

Im think im about to build another car....to run in SFWD/Turbo 4..

I will try to have a bit by bit cost on all the items and everything ive spent... I really dont see myself spending more than 10K including the car....