Starter Car

Y

yeppertea

Guest
I am pretty new to working on cars.
I was wondering what a great starter car is; or what to look for in a car to build up on.
Some tips and details on parts and building would be greatly appreciated.
So if you were to have $3000, what would you get or look for in a car?
 
yeppertea said:
I am pretty new to working on cars.
I was wondering what a great starter car is; or what to look for in a car to build up on.
Some tips and details on parts and building would be greatly appreciated.
So if you were to have $3000, what would you get or look for in a car?
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What are you looking to run? UCAR might be right down your alley.
 
I was thinking a 1980 Mazda RX7. But how hard is it to find nice parts for it? Is it much harder for older cars?
 
More info needed.
Are you building a race car, if so will be oval, dirt, asphalt, or drag? Whatever the case you also need to provide the class or division.
Based on your question I am thinking you are wanting a street car.
It is a good thing to get info, but it is almost like picking a girlfriend, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, your avoids and must haves should be based on your own individual taste.

Also realize a 50 year old guy like me is usually is going to have a different definition of classic cars. Personally almost any two door Chevy built before 68, with a V8 could work. If I was going to build a keeper, I would have a primary and a junker with a decent body, in the event of a fender bender. Small block Chevy engines are usually easier to find, and provide the most bang for the buck.

If you pursue anything built prior to 1966, check out the jalopy journal (hamb) website.
If you want to do a foreign car which is understandable for someone younger, I still wish you the best.
 
I was wanting something street car worthy but gets off the quickest. But I also want a little style.
 
BobbyFord said:
$3000 is not going to get you into a race car.
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$3000 dollars to start it. I decided that I am going to build a stage 3 engine for my Cavalier that I already have. I am going to get piece by piece until it is ready and drop it in. I can afford this.
 
It's gonna take a lotta dough to get any ponies out of a 4 banger. You're gonna get toasted by the first guy with a stock V8.
Is this gonna be a street car? What kind of racing are you planning on doing?
 
I am building it to be 500 HP. It will cost less than a stock V8 and run better than a Challenger. I already found all of the parts, now is time to save a little money. I am going to just see how fast I could do the quarter mile, run it a bit, and probably sell it for my next car.
 
Here's a little advice from experience. What ever you think it's going to cost, you should at least double, if not triple your estimate. Your brakes, suspension and drivetrain was not designed to handle 500hp, so plan on spending some money there, too when things start to break.
 
BobbyFord said:
Here's a little advice from experience. What ever you think it's going to cost, you should at least double, if not triple your estimate. Your brakes, suspension and drivetrain was not designed to handle 500hp, so plan on spending some money there, too when things start to break.
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Thanks for the tip. I understand that, I feel my best route would be to build and prepare it aside, rather than replace it piece by piece on my preexisting car. Such as different springs and cam shaft would mean that I would need different cylinders.
 
yeppertea said:
435-500 HP
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Good luck but you're not going to get that HP out of a normally aspirated 4 banger.
The Cavalier 2.4 DOHC put out 150 hp from the factory and you want to triple that. There doesn't appear to be a abundance of speed equipment for that application. What do you mean by "different cylinders"?[Such as different springs and cam shaft would mean that I would need different cylinders.]
 
SST55 said:
Good luck but you're not going to get that HP out of a normally aspirated 4 banger.
The Cavalier 2.4 DOHC put out 150 hp from the factory and you want to triple that. There doesn't appear to be a abundance of speed equipment for that application. What do you mean by "different cylinders"?[Such as different springs and cam shaft would mean that I would need different cylinders.]
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Cavaliers seem to run open quite easily, and just getting stage two or three springs would add a lot of wasted power back. I have a link of the parts I am looking at here: http://www.importperformanceparts.net/imports/importscavalier.html
 
I have also heard of a couple of cavaliers that ran over 700 HP. I don't feel that my goal of 435 is too far off.
 
I am trying to plan on exactly what I need, rather than part by part so that I know what parts are needed for each other. I don't want to blow my head from too much compression not thinking about the overall picture.
 
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