if you had the choice.....

[SkinsandJrfan]

So when u built my 68 Camaro I was a rookie to building cars, car shows and racing. I wanted a car I could show and race. I have since learned that the 2 doesn't mix. With that being said I have decided to stop racing my Camaro and build a car to strictly race. So if you had the choice, what car would you look to build for racing if you had the choice? I'm thinking either 62-67 nova or 65-67 mustang. THOUGHT?

[alocker]

What kind of racing?

[SkinsandJrfan]

Auto cross and road course.

[NOT A TA]

Miata

[Knoxferatu]

4th generation F-body.

[T_Raven]

Miata

This is what I was going to say lol

[MonzaRacer]

Why not show and race? I have several guys who daily drive race cars and race in multiple forms. one guy has hit autocross, road course and drag races every weekend locally.
Heck I had a guy tell me he could afford to drag race. wound up he started out with a 78 Camaro, added stock 307, th350 only 4bbl and headers. Ran in 9s for two years, learned how to tune a leaf car, then saw an autocross, tried it and now he has modded a ridetech airbar, added a set of their coil overs and still hopes to add coil overs to the front soon.
He had an accident in his truck and wound up driving the Camaro for 6 months while scrounging parts to fix it. He still drives it but over years it has progressed into a full on beast, well built 355, good parts, AFR heads, 4l60e.
Saying something CANT be done jut means you havent figured out HOW to do it.

[Twentyover]

Locost 7, or any variant of a clubman car. Light weight lets you turn better on a smaller tire. If you're like me, spending a ton on consumables is ... um...sub-optimal. Low displacemenrt cheap motors give you the same acceleration in a 1300lb car it takes a big motor to do in a 3000 lb car

[BuzzKillian]

First off... I don't think you have to compromise, I just finished reading The Pro Touring Book that Mark Stielow wrote. All it takes is money.
I hear what you are saying about racing your car though, I have been running my car about a year now,and it is showing signs of track rash. I can understand why you don't want to tear up your car.
If you can afford to do a second car... I would do a 2nd gen Camaro or Firebird. That is if "Pro Touring" racing is what you want to do. (keep it '72 or older, so you can still do Good Guys)
If you just want to AutoX SCCA then a miata.

[ho428]

If you plan on "racing" do it right. Autocrossing ain't racing. Wheel to wheel for 40 minutes with 30-40 other cars, 140 mph straights down to first gear, left right, back through the gears again lap after lap. It's tough on the car, no show car will withstand the assault on it, very few pro tour car will withstand the attrition it'll take on the systems.
Nothing against the aformention cars, great builds, but racing is not easy, do it right.

Given the two choices you present, take the Mustang. More support, lower cost, great road race platform.

[rustomatic]

What that guy (Gordon S., directly above) said. But I say you should only do it with a car you genuinely like; otherwise, what's the point?

Begin by applying can opener and/or hammer lightly to several areas of your Camaro, just to get used to looking at the scuff marks... This will allow more of a focus on application, rather than theory...

Note that I'm pathologically incapable of having a pretty car, motorcycle, truck, etc. Being pretty is my wife's job...

[Simmo]

LS7 + FD RX7

Or one of these http://aviracing.com/gt1-corvette/

Or an RCR Superlite if you've got even more $$ to burn, should owe you less than 90K in race trim and F all would touch it on a road course. Plus you can say you built it

("sits and dreams")

[vintageracer]

Datsun 510