First off, hi Oppo. Long time no post - it seems somewhere between the birth of my second daughter in February and then moving to working from home shortly thereafter I stopped visiting killing work hours on Oppo so much. Glad to see things are still here and active.
Secondly, the purpose of this post: After being a rally fan for most of my life (this hasn’t changed), I’ve had to be realistic about the fact that competing in grassroots rally is not something that I’m going to be doing at least any time soon. Even SCCA rallycross would be hard to do at this stage in my life, with the nearest event 2 hours away and the rest of them another hour or so further. Meanwhile there is a drag strip an hour away, and the one test and tune night I took my XT to was a lot of fun. I’m starting to realize if I want to have fun with cars at an extremely grassroots level that might be a more approachable path.
I’ve also realized that the most fun I’ve had with cars & bikes has always been with the rattier vehicles I’ve owned - the ones where I didn’t care about chopping into bodywork, rattle can paint jobs, etc. I’m now wondering if I had money for one hunk of junk ‘fun’ car, if it’d be better spent buying something American and body on frame rather than foreign and AWD. More specifically, I’m wondering if a GM G body would scratch the itch.
Anyone have any experience or opinions? Basically, fox bodies are starting to get priced out of the ‘cheap’ category, and the Panther platform cars all seem extra heavy. I’ve noticed you can still find some crusty Regals and Caprices (Capri??) Cutlasses etc for like $1-3k. They are also already so ugly that cutting one up almost seems like an act of mercy. I’ve got a sawzall, grinders, a welder, and time to tinker around the house... just not a lot of money. I’m thinking like a stripped out, primer black, tubbed with an oil drum kind of deal using junkyard parts, home-ported heads, and enough nitrous to make a dead man laugh. Or maybe an ebay turbo and several blown shortblocks, that sort of thing.
Anyone familiar with these cars and know if there are some that would make a better starting point than another? Is there a better platform I haven’t thought of? Right now I hardly wrench as our family cars are honestly too reliable, and while I am thankful for that I kind of miss it.