AutoX Project Car Idea

CHS c/o '07... Junior...which means i have to start contemplating my senior project (required for English 4). I have a couple of ideas in my head.
-Auto X car. Something small. early 90's and cheap with good aftermarket. Honda comes to mind. and by cheap i mean less than $500, body and interior i dont care about as long as the motor still runs and the tranny is still good. What money i would have would be putting this car into Solo 2 prepared class. Suspension, Strut braces, and swaw pars would be all that would be purchased. Im fairly talented with basic fiberglassing so a functional hood scoop with the intake sealed to it and duming and open exaust right behind the driver, gutting the interior, and moving the battery to the trunk and putting a smaller fule cell further back (in the trunk as well probably). if budget allowed headers and perhaps intake manifold would be in order.
Springs woudlnt be of concern as i would likely just tighten them for added suspension stifness, no lowering needed.

-Fiberglass/surfboard cosntruction, as i said, i am proficent with basic fiberglassing.

-SPL install or even demo car for a friends shop. not likely as this cost mucho denaro.

Basically what you do is undertake a project, could be a sport, could be a car restoration, could be community service, w/e. then after compleeting it you write a big ass informative paper on it.

So, what im asking is to give me ideas for the first and opinions and the ideas i already have. i wouldnt be worried about placing or anything, just compeating in jacksonville (the car would be a trailer queen of course) and i want to do prepared class because it seems it would be more fun to drive, and since i dont care about placeing at all and just enjoying the experence... loosing every time would be fine, id pay $25 entrance fee to get to go all out in an old striped beater with open exaust.

the big expense in building a Prepared class car is the brakes. Likely the entire brake system on such a cheap car will be junk and you'll have to replace it with high performance bits. Also, running in Prepared without R-compound tires is kinda dumb, so you'd have to buy those too, which are rather pricey. Maybe you might want to shoot for Street Prepared rather than Prepared.

you can make an autocross car from just about anything... classing allows for quite a bit... so before you decide to gut a car and make it unstreetable be sure it is something you want to do.

listen to the doctor ;) running in prepared is expensive.

if it is something that you really want to do; get a car you like, look into what aftermarket there is for it then decide what you want to do. running in Street Prepared, Prepared or any modified class requires quality suspension, tires/rims, and a car that has the structure to compete. This, of course, is not cheap.

if you are just planning on non-competative fun, don't waste your money on an experiment you could do with your mom's car.

thing is we dont own a car...lol.
I drive my B3000
My mom drives a Frontier and my dad drives a silverado.
and i cant sell my truck and get a daily car used for autoX...anything even removely fast would surely land me in jail or licensles... to give you an idea im 16, have had my licnese since july, and already have 3 points on my license and 2 tickets...
a fast car would be far too tempting.

then buy an old golf and run it in H Stock or STS.

maybe you should get the car if that is your case, you can't autoX without a license ;)

Get something RWD. In 85 I won the SE div DSP in a tricked out Renault LeCar. Before the year was out I had decided to get rid of the FWD pos and get something that spins the back tires. I ended up with a Fiat Abarth 1300/124 [ Fiat 850 coupe body with a 1300cc 124 pushrod motor in the back ]. Although not really competitive in D Mod I still won a few events and the car was a blast to drive.

I would try to find a 16V, 1600cc Corolla. And get something at least semi-competitive. It's easy to say you don't care about winning but unless you are just brain dead it's hard not to get caught up in the desire to win.

cheap with lots of aftermarket, look at MK1 mr2s or mazda miatas... a corolla will be expensive right now (but that's a good idea)

From what I've seen... All of the more experienced drivers in my Region run with Miata's. And they destroy everyone.

I started out with a stock Civic, and as time went by, and more parts were needed, it's become a quite respectable car.

Honestly, if I were you, I'd start with a stock car, and move my way up. This way you learn the car better, and you'll know what's going on with it.

Example:

I just put my TEIN S-Tech Springs, and Tokico HP Struts on. I figured it would be better for Auto Cross, not the case. The Spring rate, and Strut stiffness is ample at normal weigh transfer, but when having the steering wheel to one extreme, or the other, and turning very hard at higher speeds, the tires were rubbing horribly.

Now, if I didn't start out stock, I wouldn't have known that was causing it.

Why not start racing with a stock car NOW, and THEN turn it into your Senior Project? By the way, try and get English 4 Fall Semester... It takes a lot of the stress off :D

-Wes

personally, id go with a saturn. u can get sc1's and sc2's for dirt cheap, theyre suprisingly fast, and fairly cheap to upgrade. not dimension theyre plastic so they never really get old looking.
my aunt has one thats 10 years old and it looks brand new.