Young Person Rant

[rustomatic]

Go to events--in your area, there's a Goodguys autocross (and SCCA events, which you can watch for free), where you'll undoubtedly see everything from mom's Honda Accord to somebody's six-figure Camaro being beaten on like a step-child. People love to talk; they want to educate you. Read threads by guys who make their own stuff; the most inspiring cars (to me) are the ones that are not bolt-on specials. When you've got a canvas, look for idiots like me who are selling expensive, high-quality parts cheaply to get to the next phase (however stupid it might be).

Buy cheap tools, and upgrade when you break them. Some "junk" can last a really long time...

On a final note, look at what the teams in Lemons/Chump Car do on their "cheap" race cars. They show you that a bit of engineering (and endless pondering) goes a lot further than a high-dollar part in making a car work in a performance (or commuting) scenario. To tie this to something above, I sold a bunch of really nice Mustang parts recently to a guy who worked on a rear-engined VW team (at a low price, of course)...