Well, first of all, thank all of you for the warm welcome. I certainly hope to become an official member of this fraternity.
I suppose in order for you folks to be able to help me, I should first let you know what some of my wants, intentions and limitations are. I would prefer to buy a good turnkey car but am not opposed to one that needs a little work to get it to where I want it. As a matter of fact, for me, half the fun with owning high performance cars is the tinkering, improving, etc. One very important factor for me is purchasing a currently registered California car (yes, I live in the Peoples Republic of Kalifornia
). I have studied the SB100 regulations and having dealt with our DMV many times over the years, I am pretty sure that trying to re-register an out of state "Special Construction
Vehicle" in this state will turn into a nightmare. They are already coming down on newly constructed kit Cobras. Anyway, I would prefer one with "cubic inches" whether in the form of an FE motor or one of the new small block 402 or 427 motors. I want a streetable engine that runs well on pump gas. I want an IRS car. My intentions for use are about 95% street and 5% autocross (not really looking to be competitive, just have some fun). I have a max budget of about $50K but of course like most people, would like to save as much as possible. Actually, what I REALLY want is a brand new turnkey CSX car for $10K
For the past couple of years I have been getting a lot more serious about this so have been investigating the various builders and have kind of picked what would be my first choices. First of all, the CSX and KMC cars are way beyond my budget. I like the ERA and SPF cars and possibly BDR.
O.K., for my first inquiry, I would like to hear opinions (maybe even actual facts
) about the 429/460 engines vs. the FE engines.
Also, the SPF I drove with the FE motor was quite a handfull to steer at very low speeds. Are there good solutions for this or do I need to just not whine and man-up ?
Silversmith,
Yes, the one I drove was a genuine sideoiler, and no, I didn't push it very hard. Just hard enough to fully understand the stories about not being able to reach the $100 bill on the dash
Bernica,
Thanks for the book info. I will be looking on Amazon in a few minutes.
Thanks again folks
Ted