Quote Originally Posted by forestdweller37 View Post
The top running teams here in the Iowa/Minnesota/Wisconsin area aren't that expensive. They're just stock E30 or E36 BMW's with some maintenance and good drivers.
Quote Originally Posted by spawpoet View Post
The same drivers/cars wouldn't be running up front in a more competitive region then. IMHO good/great driving, good suspension, stock motor gets you mid-pack in parts of the country where IT is highly competitive. We put a driver who's finished 2nd in prod at the Runoffs more than once in our car, and he was more than 3 sec slower than top ITS times in our region (CFR) at the track we ran. We have spent about what you'd have in a top running Chump car in our car, with essentially a stock motor. To play up front in ITS in Sediv you're gonna have 12-15k in your car unless you're building your engine yourself. I might be low with that number.
We may have had a miscommunication. I was referring to the fast Chumpcar teams around here. They proved their pace at the National Chumpionship last year. If they're faster teams in the SE, we haven't seen them up here.

The point is still very valid that the Chumpsters are starting to look decidedly less "chumpy" and the costs/prep level are evolving rapidly. "$500 car" is more of a qualifier for the year/make/model than any reflection of the cars' true value. I think the pace of development is a result of the team-based structure. i.e. 4x the check writing capability, 4x people turning wrenches, 4x data collected and shared between drivers, etc.