I just thought I would chime in on the "build it in spite all conventional wisdom" side of things. I am well aware that it isn't for everyone to build your first car, and there is A LOT to be said about buying one already built. While you will learn a lot from building a car(what we did), I believe there is also a lot to be said about buying a turn-key car and looking at how it's put together.
For instance, while the labor of doing it yourself may be free, I'm still finding myself spending many nights trolling forums to find tips and tricks that fast people have done on my car. While all of this is well and good, personally I'm a very visual, hands-on kind of learner and nothing compares to seeing how it works in person. I can look at numbers and spring rates and suspension diagrams all day and night, but it seems that only after we've bought and installed the stuff on the car does it really "click" for me. It seems I need to feel the difference from the driver's seat before I really understand it.
Just something to keep in mind. I'm 100% confident that I'm a better driver because we've built our own motor after the first one grenaded in the Driver's School, made improvements to the cage design(additional bracing and such), and changed spring rates and adjusted the suspension settings in the pursuit of those dang Miatas. It is true that all of these things take time, but for me at least, it is WELL worth it in the end to have an far greater understanding of the car dynamics and the effect that the different changes have made. As far as I'm concerned, knowledge = speed.
Also, we won our first 2 races this past year in our second season of running in the Midwest Division after muchissimo help diagnosing things and getting a decent setup from people like Greg Amy and Matt Kessler that I found on this very forum.![]()
Bookmarks