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I think that’s a valid point you’re making. I guess my personal feelings are just that a few popular classes would be better than a lot of unpopular ones. It would be great to see more people in SE30 too, but the Hillburger’s are few and far between. Most of those guys running GTS will never make that switch, even to Spec 3.
I’d love to see a healthy ecosystem of Spec classes from cheap to expensive, and good competition in all of them.
[quote=“harper” post=74924]Not to rain on the spec e46 parade…but do we need yet another series?..
[/quote]
Exactly. We don’t need spec3.
SpecE30 is awesome and has good staying power. The Hp rule is interesting, but not unnecessary maybe. Just like your racecar, maintenance is important for durability.
Classes are competitors in a marketplace with a somewhat defined number of customers. To be a healthy market, you don’t stack your store with the exact same goods but a different logo and paint color on top of the market leader. The goal with SpecE46 isn’t to move people to a different class - AT ALL, and there is no pride of creation or ownership. The goal is to have a good place for people who might want something different than what an awesome entry-level class is - not a different color or flavor.
A lot of my friends and customers have been in various other classes and they are great until someone starts spending big money and thinking outside the very large box that was defined in the rules - if there was one. For guys that want to go faster, have more technically interesting cars, like turning a knob or two, but didn’t plan to get a second mortgage to finance it, there should be a proper, stable home. If there isn’t one for them in NASA, or the larger racing community, golfing or boating will always have one, and I have seen plenty of people go that route. The goal isn’t moving racers to OUR class, it is providing YOU (well them - not you SpecE30 guys that love what you do) a place for this type of racer, which doesn’t already exist, that can be a home for lots of years, just like SE30 is a good solid home for racers that like that class.
Just don’t make the exhaust sound terrible like spece30 or most e46 m3s I hear at the track.
Exhaust will be a production piece, made by a respected US manufacturer (I think ALL spec parts are US manufactured!) of performance exhaust systems. It will sound right, and have the ability to pass sound at the tough tracks - Laguna, LRP, etc.
Tough for me to stomach too. Might be a little bit before I start on mine. Gotta remember though, if you had to build a competitive Spec E30 from scratch it wouldn’t be a TON less. DeVinney’s sold for what, $18,500 used?
Part of the issue is there are no built cars. When I got into Spec E30, I bought Travis’ ragged out pile for like $7500. Those cars just don’t exist yet in SpecE46!
Tough for me to stomach too. Might be a little bit before I start on mine. Gotta remember though, if you had to build a competitive Spec E30 from scratch it wouldn’t be a TON less. DeVinney’s sold for what, $18,500 used?
Part of the issue is there are no built cars. When I got into Spec E30, I bought Travis’ ragged out pile for like $7500. Those cars just don’t exist yet in SpecE46![/quote]
I’d like to build a car, my home built pile specE30 has never had a DNF.
Who am I kidding I’m still in, just might take a while. Gotta get comfortable with pushing that much $ off a cliff…
Tough for me to stomach too. Might be a little bit before I start on mine. Gotta remember though, if you had to build a competitive Spec E30 from scratch it wouldn’t be a TON less. DeVinney’s sold for what, $18,500 used?
Part of the issue is there are no built cars. When I got into Spec E30, I bought Travis’ ragged out pile for like $7500. Those cars just don’t exist yet in SpecE46![/quote]
2yrs ago I bought an ugly duckling GTS2 car, swapped over the suspension from my wrecked car and then paid $1k for paint and decals. Total cost ~$3500. Then I sold the spares and everything from the 2 cars that I didn’t need and the final cost was 0.
Sure, building a SpecE30 for $3500 is unusual, but so is $18.5k for a car.
[quote=“Ranger” post=74939]
Sure, building a SpecE30 for $35,000 is unusual, but so is that poor bastard selling it for less than $18.5k.[/quote]
Fixed it for you.
[quote=“Steve D” post=74940][quote=“Ranger” post=74939]
Sure, building a SpecE30 for $35,000 is unusual, but so is that poor bastard selling it for less than $18.5k.[/quote]
Fixed it for you.[/quote]
Some guys build and some guys check in on the progress once and a while…Smart guy like you had to know that wasn’t a good investment!!! Every person here has put up a sum of money they are comfortable with losing, I’d say you did well getting 18.5k back. In the end you wrote off the cost of building a really nice Spec E30, pretend you walshed it B)
For 18.5K I’d have built 2 cars…
because when i googled “spec e46” a couple of months ago this thread was the first hit that came up, and i thought it was funny that jeff hall created it six years ago 
Good investment? It wasn’t an investment at all.
I was happy with what I got for the car when I sold it. I can say with 100% seriousness that the friends I gained and races I had over the 5 years I owned it were worth every penny.
Just to prove I still make bad decisions with vehicles, I spend that money on a boat. I figure I am one transaction from pissing 100% of the build cost away. :woohoo:
Good investment? It wasn’t an investment at all.
I was happy with what I got for the car when I sold it. I can say with 100% seriousness that the friends I gained and races I had over the 5 years I owned it were worth every penny.
Just to prove I still make bad decisions with vehicles, I spend that money on a boat. I figure I am one transaction from pissing 100% of the build cost away. :woohoo:[/quote]
I spent 2012 building a fuc$ing boat!!! Damn boats :evil: I do have a sweet boat now though.
Investment was the wrong word, I just meant that going in you had to know you were just burning money…
I’m wondering if a daily driver will fit into this class. I know I’ve been totally opposed to DDs fitting into spece30 but reducing my total number of vehicles sounds pretty appealing right now.
I think a DD could be run in a lot of classes. I think it is typically a very bad idea. By definition, in racing you will at some point be calling someone to get you home. And for this reason alone, car prep aside, most people wouldn’t ultimately be competitive. Will the parts last? Sure. Can you dumb down the spec enough to make it work? Sure. Are the parts streetable? At some level of prep, sure. Is a front-running car a DD? Likely not in any race class. I think for the most part, that went out the window 10 years ago when SCCA Showroom Stock began to change.
Not that I’m closely keeping tabs on this or anything…
$1900-2500 plus shipping if you have to buy it new. I just saw a used 3 plate one go for $1800 on another forum.
James put together some detailed build costs, with options for entry level, typical, and baller: