Well the more and more I think about things, the more and more the idea of buying/building/converting a dedicated track car seems to makes sense.

Anyhow, I'm just a bit curious as to the history of everyones dedicated track car. Was it your daily driver that eventually made the jump? a salvaged (flood, wrecked, theft recoved?) car that you rebuilt? did you buy someone else's project or completed car? etc...

Just wanted to hear some stories and maybe some tips/advice/concerns about each option.

Buying someone elses car is always cheaper. Although you don't always know the complete history.

Buying someone elses car is always cheaper. Although you don't always know the complete history.

Which can make it more expensive.

Also, I don't fully subscribe to the idea that buying someone's car is always cheaper. If I bought someone else's car, first thing I'd do is tear it down and build it the way I thought it should be built. That may entail replacing a lot of things thus negating the savings.

Then there is the fact that if you are racing, if you find illegal items, correcting them can be expensive. Most race cars I've seen for sale have had some illegal items ranging from relatively cheap to correct to pretty expensive. I've also seen some race cars that would be IMPOSSIBLE to properly fix to make them legal in the class they were in.

The bottom line is, even if you are going to buy someone else's car, you'd better know what you're looking at.

I guess it depends on the racecar.

If its a professional racecar you are buying, almost always they will have pretty detailed build sheets, with dates, item descriptions and prices, as well as lap times, setup sheets, and track records (not lap records but a history of where its been).

For example of you are purchasing a car from Speed WC GT, all races are on video, and you will know if they had an accident or problems during practice/qualifying from the race video and/or times.

Also, if you are very interested in the car's past, say if the cars' salesperson does not openly say everything thats happened to it, i would suggest not being afraid to try and dig up dirt on the car. Call previous owners of the car is possible, previous crew cheifs, shops that worked on the car, people that saw the car frequently (other teams, etc). Just get all the info you can. having too much information is much better then having not enough info and finding out later you got a dud.

Converting my new/old Winter driver in the Springtime. More access to parts...e30.

hmmm, no option in the poll for more than one answer..
i have both bought one fully prepped (first race car)
and
built one from a pristine daily driver.

highly recommend that order. first car, buy it already done. learn to drive it. notice the things you don't like. make a list of how you want a car to be as you learn to drive.

then build you own the way you want it after a few seasons.

i learned far more driving a car someone else built at first than i would have struggling to both build and learn at the same time.

slowly converting my old part-time daily driver/weekend car