"what do we look for"

A car someone else spent a lot of time and $ on so you don't have to. Unless you are hell-bent on reinventing the wheel, I'd buy a car at least w/ the basics already there. Over in the Classifieds I see a clean car for $7000 in your area, and there is a SpeedSource car for sale here in Memphis for $10,000 OBO. When you start adding up the costs of parts alone, like a $2500-3000 diff., you will see the beauty of an existing race car.