New guy from santa rosa CA

[ssteve]

Hey guys my name is steve and I live in the CA bay area. I am looking to make a fairly large purchase in the near future and am keeping my options open but see this as a good resource to do a little homework. Basicly my criteria consists of a chasis that is capable of handling VERY well as I wish to do hdpe and auto-x stuff with it, capable of handling around 500whp and something that in a couple years I wont absolutly loose my arse with. I know cars arent a investment I just would like to loose as little as possible yet still be able to use it a few days a week and take it to the track, im not into the garage queen thing. My initial thoughts are a c5 z06 or mod the heck out of something old, my oly problem with that is that i have a budget of about 27k. and dont know exactly what would be worth while in that price range.

[Ralph LoGrasso]

Welcome to the site, Steve. A C5 Z06 is hard to beat in the bang-for-the-buck factor, and $27K will get you an '02 with around 30k miles or so. If you're looking to do a pro-touring car, considering your budget, you'll want to start with one of the "less popular" (read: cheaper) models so as to stay within budget. I'm sure everyone can give you lots of ideas on what to start with; in fact, there is a good thread now in the open discussion forum on cheap starter cars--you might give that a read.