AF, I need you to help me decide what to do

Here's my situation. I'm 18, been driving for 3 years now. Currently drive a 1991 Honda CRX Si with 190k miles on her. She's still going pretty strong. Currently drive 10 miles each way to school/work. I'm going to move to college next fall, so I will not even need a car for everyday driving. Currently I'm taking auto mechanics class at my school, where we have tools for everything, and we can bring personal projects, and stuff. I used to like domestics, like mustangs, and camaros, but this year I would really like to start racing. Not only drag, but auto-x, and even some road racing. That's why I would like japanese cars better. My concern with racing is not finding enough times to race, since I don't race on Saturdays. Until about September, I can save up about $5000 that I can spend on a car. I was thinking of trying to find something that has a blown engine, and rebuilding it, or replacing it with a better one. Here are the cars I was thinking of:
1. Thanks to JekylandHyde a turbo MR2
2. 95+ 240sx to do an SR20DET swap
3. 3000GT
4. 300ZX
Another option would be getting a $10k student loan at 0%, and paying it back over the next 3 years, but the problem is that I won't have money left over for mods if I'm paying payments. Options then include:
1. 02 WRX
2. S2000
3. Audi TT
Anybody else have any other suggestions? The car needs to be RWD or AWD. Should I try to take advantage of the opportunity to get the engine rebuilt at my school?

Another question: Would it be easy for me to get sponsorship for either of the situations I listed above? Would the fact that I'm 18 make any difference?

Another option I thought of is a 94+ miata, and turbo it.

I'm in pretty much the same boat as you are. I just turned 18 a month ago, and I'm looking to get rid of my Camry and get something a little sportier with a manual transmission, and I'm also looking for good handling rather than just straight-line power. So far the cars that have intrigued me the most are:

1. 1990-1996 Nissan 300ZX (Z32 Fairlady Z)
2. 1989-1998 Nissan 240SX (S13/S14 Silvia)
3. 1993-2002 Chevrolet Camaro/Pontiac Firebird (4th gen. F-Body)
4. 1992-1999 BMW 3 Series (E36 3 Series)
5. 1990-1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse/Eagle Talon/Plymouth Laser (AWD Turbo DSM)

All of these cars are affordable (under 10K), rear-wheel-drive (except for the DSM), sporty, fairly reliable, and come with a manual transmission. For a while, I was considering higher priced options like the Toyota Supra and Mazda RX-7, but I decided that the initial cost and cost of maintenance (gas, insurance, repairs) would be way too high. I was also considering the Miata, but I don't really like the idea of owning a roadster.

well im gonna just deal with the cheaper route for you because i think you will be far more pleased to NOT have a car payment when going to college at the same time.

first i got rid of the 240sx. when you start getting strictly japanese motors and weekly racing involved, your gonna have the problem of finding parts when they break for your SR.

so that leaves mr2, 3000gt, 300zx....all built with performance in mind. so atleast your starting with a very good platform.

mr2 is a great choice because reliability will almost not be an issue...these motors are known to take a beating and keep on performing.

now i know first hand that for both the 300zx and the 3000gt you can pick up a very nice shell for under $2000 and swap in the TT drivetrain of either car. but with the 3000gt, be sure to buy a VR4 shell due to the fact you will have a hell of a time changing an FWD car into AWD...this will stay under your $5000 limit with room to spare. the 300zx is the same way except you can pick up an N/A shell which sometimes go for just over $1000 on ebay. i would put the 300zx over the 3000gt just because of a ~500lb weight savings.

personally for me it would go 300zx, then mr2, then 3000gt for track use...and with the extra cash you would save from taking out a loan, you could eventually turn either of the 3 cars into a track star.

oh yeah, the miata is also a very good track performer but i do not know much about miatas so someone else will have to input their advice about those.

I'm thinking very hard about it. I just don't want racing to become an obsession for me. First of all, I'd like to find out how good of a driver I am. On the road in everyday driving I feel that I'm better than most people, but then again, probably everyone else on this board feels the same way. winters are soo long in michigan. I'd like to go auto-x-ing with my crx at least once, not very often, because I don't want to get used to FWD. I would also like it if more people responded to this thread :)

I'm thinking very hard about it. I just don't want racing to become an obsession for me. First of all, I'd like to find out how good of a driver I am. On the road in everyday driving I feel that I'm better than most people, but then again, probably everyone else on this board feels the same way. winters are soo long in michigan. I'd like to go auto-x-ing with my crx at least once, not very often, because I don't want to get used to FWD. I would also like it if more people responded to this thread :)

your gonna need this track car to be your daily driver/winter car too???

well, your not gonna get very far on snow in the 300zx...it is definitely not a bad weather car. the mr2 is probably even worse...of course it could be done but the odds of you making it through an average winter without an accident is against you...

the 240sx isnt so bad of a winter car do to lack of power but as soon as you add some HP to it, im sure its just as bad as any other RWD performance car.

you would think that the VR4 would be good in snow but its not becasue of its weight. but it is still better than the other choices...

If it's gotta be a winter car, you're not gonna wanna have a race-worthy RWD car. My recommendation would go to the Eclipse GSX.

I would probably just store it winters, I can just bum rides off friends. I will live in the dorm, so I can walk to classess. I heard that problems creep up with age on the Eclipses, and the GSX is actually kind of hard to find. i'd rather stay away from them. The 3000gt is my second least favorite from those listed above.

I would probably just store it winters, I can just bum rides off friends. I will live in the dorm, so I can walk to classess. I heard that problems creep up with age on the Eclipses, and the GSX is actually kind of hard to find. i'd rather stay away from them. The 3000gt is my second least favorite from those listed above.

well if your willing to sacrifice, i will go back to my first choice of the 300zx or mr-2 turbo...

you can always save an extra $500 and buy a beater car for the winter or when your car is getting work done to it...

95+ 240sx to do an SR20DET swap

95+ 240sx to do an SR20DET swap
Why? Please support your answers.

Just found out that I need way too much safety equipment to do the kind of racing I initially wanted to do. Guess these races were not mean for an 18 year college student who supports himself 100%. I think I'll just buy a WRX for 13-15k and go autocrossing with and I'll just do mild mods. When I'm done with college, then I'll start road racing. Then I'll be able to afford 3 cars, hopefully. A daily driver, big diesesl truck for towing and of course a fully stripped racecar

You can always buy a gen1 1.6L Miata for around $3000 and play around with it on the weekends. Mod the Miata whenever you have money to spare and just keep that as a hobby car. Use that student loan to buy a decent and reliable everyday driver, so you don't have to dump money into THAT car also.

If I had to choose the most important lesson I have learned with cars .... it is this:
Do not borrow and/or use credit to buy a car and/or mods ... unless you can pay it off within 60 days.

It is not worth it, especially if it is a project car.

I have 3 MR2s and I paid: $1,000, $1,750 and $4,500 for them. I paid $600 for another MR2 that I recently got rid of and I had an 87 Turbo Chevy Sprint that I paid $1700 for. That's a total of $9,950
How many people spend more than that on ONE car?

Yes, I have had to put money into them, but I do not need to. If one of my car breaks down, I can drive the other and so on. If you invest everything into one car ... you are completely reliant on that one car.

ok ... off the info-mercial on debt :)
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For $5K, you should be able to find a failry decent used MR2 turbo.
I highly recommend buying one that does not havea SINGLE modification on it.
I bought Hyde from a guy in his late 30s and it was bone stock ... he was religeous about changing the oil and that is a big reason this engien has lasted so long.

A lot of the cars you are considering are great cars.
There are pros and cons to each.
If you are racing for fun, grab which ever you like best.
If you want to race to compete, you may want to check what classes the cars run in and what their competition is.

Sponsorship ~ from what I have experienced, you only get sponsorship when you start showing results. I've been racing on and off since 1996 and I have only managed to start securing sponsorship deals in the last year or so.

Good luck. You know you have a solid community here that you can bounce your ideas off of ;)

Well I missed out at a 240sx without an engine. It was only 3 hours away from where I lived, and the guy was even including front and rear bumpers off a sylvia. Guess how much it sold for? $2100. I would have bought it, but then I was thinking more about the whole money issue. Then two nights ago someone hit my car in a parking lot, and now it looks like I'm going to get a nice settlement from his insurance compnay.

On the whole racing issue, I will not be able to race to compete, because I can't race Saturdays. That means that I cannot go and race at the racetrack, as in SCCA club racing. I can however go Autocrossing, and I can just run my car on open track days. I thought that I would be able to get a subsidezed student loan for like $10k, but now I know I won't be able to do. Another thing on the racing: I don't want this to become an addiction, this is just something that I want to do for fun maybe for the next few years, but as soon as I get a real job/start a family I plan on giving it up.