Haha...excellent! Well good luck to you in your racing career!
Right back you! Hope we are behind the wheel sooner than we both think!
When you autocrossed....was it SCCA Solo events? How much do you think it cost you to register and buy safety equipment and stuff? And did you run your daily drivers? Did you drive right on the edge? Ever break anything?
I drove my race-prepped Civic which, yes, was my daily driver at the time. HOWEVER, I'd
highly recommend starting out in a stock or nearly stock car. Having the dozens of mods I did, it should've bumped me into a higher class. I talked with the inspector about it and he agreed to put me in HS to let me get a feel for things, it was all for fun anways.
That's pretty much why I was only racing it for the fun and experience, there was NO WAY I was actually going to be competitive with the engine setup I had in combination with my full-blown suspension (I should've been in an SM class). I still had a stock non-vtec d16 with supporting mods at the time (no all-motor gsr), however I had a fully adjustable and built up suspension with sways, coilovers, 11" wilwood brake kit with rear disk conversion, braces, relocated battery with battery tray, the full shebang. Basically, my car handled the course amazingly, but I was majorly lacking in power, and nowhere CLOSE to as fast as the real racers.
I like to think I can get into it and do that like on the weekends or something with a random car....but I imagine there's more to it than that. I once literally ALMOST bought a Dodge Omni GLHS that was already race prepared and 100% street legal. Even test drove it. It was a BEAST. Had some issues and I ended up not getting it. Woulda been my DD, and it wasn't a nice ride.
Autocrossing would be your best bet, it's a ton of fun man. Like I've recommended before, look around for someone else's project, it's the best way to get up to speed on a budget. Look around on craigslist, check the local autocrossing forums, or starting hanging out down at your local race spots and get to know some of racers and let them know you're interested in getting involved. You KNOW one of them has a buddy that can't afford to race anymore, or they have a spare race car in their garage. Especially with this economy, there are a ton of race deals out there! I've seen people selling off whole TEAMS for super crazy deals lately, don't be afraid to look around and play hardball.
