Coachella Valley Street Racing

i told you to do a search:

two posts here from before:

Hey import nuts, when are y'all going to open your eyes and stop following the crowd? I have some things y'all might want to look into in terms of good inexpensive performance imports that might have been overlooked:

Simple Conversions that Produce LOTS OF Power...

MG B w/ Wankel Rotary Engine
MG B w/ full T-Bird Turbo-Coupe Drivetrain (incl. the 8.8" Rear end)
Datsun 510 w/ Nissan Maxima V6 Drivetrain (FWD or RWD)
BMW 2002 w/ 2.5l Baby Six & Five Spd.
Datsun 510 w/ Corvair Drivetrain (run CV's to Front Suspension, Weld Up Driveshaft to output to rear diff too - AWD Flat 6 in a 1800lb car)
Mini Cooper w/ Honda VTEC DOHC 4 Zyl.
BMW 2002 w/ 80's M3 DOHC 4 Zyl.

Vehicles with a good base to go turbo or all motor:

BMW 2002 (Run a set of Weber 45DCOE sidedrafts, cam, compression, later head, etc)

Datsun 510 - A very overlooked easy to modify hot little car that will run 11's with ease if built right. Also, it's carburetted...so much easier...

BMW 700 / Honda S600: These little monsters - one fwd, one rwd, both operate on the same principal - build a tiny car that weighs nothing and power it with a motorcycle engine. The S600 (i can get you one for dirt up here if you're interested) is a decent car, but the BMW 700 is a MONSTER. it will do 1-60 in 5 seconds, run at 120mph all day long and it gets 45mpg. The engine is a 700cc roller bearing crank motorcycle engine. And the way it is set up, you could easily run it awd as well.

Overlooked Engines that can be found in junkyards ready to go for less than $1000 complete:

Jaguar 5.3l 60 deg V12 - Good Unburnt full Engines for $800, add a good $4000 and you have a 12.5:1 compression monster breathing through 6 Weber IDF Downdrafts and sparked w/ a custom crane ignition. Good to run at 7000rpm all day long. Make sure you cool it properly. That and the stock ignition were the death of many of these engines.

BMW Baby Six / Big Six Configurations - These inline 6 Zyl Engines can be found in junkyards (even the 10:1 Euro Engines) for under $300. They will fit in a lot of rwd vehicles and the euro engines w/ a few little $100 mods here and there can put out up to 260 horse for a total cost of under $2000. In the right car with the right trans/flywheel you can be running 12's for cheap.

Mercedes Diesel 4's and 6's: These engines can be converted to gas use with different pistons to build a monstrous stroker engine. The high deck height to accomodate for the diesel rotating assembly provides a perfect base to build a monster gas motor from...

Just some thoughts to get the ball rolling. I just think a lot of you kids end up spending enough money on your cars that you could be running far quicker times with a different configuration and a little 'outside the box' thinking.

ain't that the DAMN truth! your first car should break your bank account. not only that, but new drivers don't put too much mileage on their cars (generally).

now my .02 cents (as always):

don't buy a damn gs-r! if you want a fast car, go buy a regular honda and drop an oversized engine in it. learn all of your auto knowledge up front, you'll save more money that way than finding a car that gets good mileage. then, you'll get good mileage while you build the engine for the car (the big one, prior to the conversion).

also, buying a special model like a gs-r not only comes with a big initial pricetag, but almost guaranteeably comes with the fact that the car has been driven HARD. why start out with a car you KNOW someone has beat the shit out of (even if it's not visible damage)?

it's like buying a buick grand national. you're guaranteed people have lead-footed the thing for years. you get what you paid for.

NOW, if you really want to be creative, why not buy an old early '70's two door volvo, and drop a turbocharged vortech v6 into it? the volvo rear axle will handle a lot of power, the 4.6 (i think that's the displacement) liter vortech v6 is a healthy little motor, turbo on a stock used fuel injected engine would be probably around $3000, add a tranny at $500 for used, and you'd be hauling balls.

and before you say anything, volvo's kick ass. ok, here i go showing my 'i may own american iron, but i'm a crazy oddball euro import fan to the core' side.

go to www.turbobricks.com and see what those crazy guys have done to their cars. they put vette engines in them, gargantuan turbos with 6:1 static compression and a cam that revs to 11,000 rpm on a stock bottom end, you name it.

my idea is just an example, but it's a good example of a car you could spend, say $500 for, and run into the ground while you build the conversion engine in your garage. in the end, you have a fast unique car on the cheap. i have a million and five other examples of this.

read my 'no creativity in the import scene' post. two of my favorite often done conversions that are cheap and very reliable are the following:

Mini Cooper with honda vtec engine/trans
mgb or triumph spitfire with rotary mazda engine

small cars, good looking, plenty of performance parts cheap for the conversion engines...

not only that, you're FIFTEEN! you have plenty of time to plan out a good strategy, search for just the right car and make all of this come together. if you were so inclined, you could go take auto shop and build your conversion engine BEFORE buying the car or even turning 16. depends on your level of ambition...

and yes, i'd guess a mini cooper with a 2.2l dohc prelude motor would run a very fast quartermile. and handle like jesus riding a lightning bolt.