Here are a few of the pics I grabbed from the Challenge. Sorry, these are all raw/unedited. These pics represent just a small sample of the cars there, and there is much more cool stuff in the gallery links at bottom.

500 hp VW. Has a semi radical small block Chevy 350 under the hood and a big NOS bottle in the back.


Vorshlag's LS1 swapped widebody E30, the overall winner



Toyota pickup. Nothing under the hood except for a hamster wheel, and no I'm not kidding. In the bed is this supercharged GM 3800 drivetrain out of a Riviera.


It looks like your ordinary, run of the mill widebody BMW 2002. But really it's kind of more like a 2002 shell over E30 subframes and suspension. Not to mention the turbocharged M20 stuffed under the hood. It's also a brand new build that the builders intentionally "distressed" to make it look like an old race car. It came out really well.


This Fast Butt Ugly Starion (nicknamed "Uranus") is driven by a clown




Wreck Racing's supercharged 1UZ V8 Miata (with NOS). No windshield on the car, which was totally against the arbitrarily enforced rules. I don't think it had headlights either, also in violation.


LT1 Firebird that also has NOS, and the best rattle can paint job on earth


Engine swapped Honda N600 that came all the way from Washington State. Has a Honda D16 engine swap in the back. You have to see this car to believe it. His build thread is here (and there are lots more pics in my gallery)
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/for...r/33452/page1/



Porsche guys came out to play with us on Saturday, but unfortunately it rained.


Me in my $930 Miata. Stock suspension fail.


Pro driver George seemed to like my crap can Miata. Wish I had a larger version of this one



Galleries on imageshack
http://imageshack.us/g/7/pict0138v.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/g/543/pict0255h.jpg/

Not my pics, but much higher quality galleries
http://imageshack.us/g/199/dsc0001elg.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/g/213/dsc0102bd.jpg/

A few professional photos here
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/challenge/updates/

 

Nice pics man - looks like a good time. Are results published somewhere? The LS1 E30 is awesome - I like the new paint scheme they did this year.

 

The N600 Honda gets my vote. Phenomenal from start to finish.

 

While these are cool cars, I feel like the whole point of this challenge has been perverted over the years. I'm sure the E30 guys have some story about how they got an LS1 for $200, and your $900 nb is very abnormal as well. I suppose that's why lemons/chumpcar type races have popped up, but even they have crazy v8 swaps and B18 honda's.

 

this thread lacks mt.net stickers... fail.

 

I'd pay double 2011 dollars for the e30 right now.

That's $4022.

yes sirree.

 

Damn, that was you! THE Ben. I should've introduced myself.

The Honda almost flipped during autox. Found picture.

 

The whole point of the competition is to show what people with above average skillset can produce with creativity, hard work, and scrounging.

It's not that hard to find a deal on a wrecked car if you look for it. I passed on a Miata last month. $750 2001 with a solid driveline, but took a hit. Could have been a good "pile of parts" to start a locost, which is something I'd like to do one day, but can't right now.

Deals are out there if you look for them.

 

I had typed up virtually the same thing yesterday and then deleted it for fear of being called a hater. Which I'm not. I'm also a scrounger and a DIY fab guy, plus an ex tool and die maker so I know about machining. It seems to be getting a bit extreme and "not believe-able".

 

I know some guys that built a fast Z32 for Chump Car. They were very strict on the amount of money spent and the car mostly has crap parts - but, like a lot of the fast cars in these kinds of competitions - it has a TON of man hours and setup work done.

 

Well don't they do that law of averages rule? If you find 5 beater '87 CRXs going for $500, you can say that your $4000 swapped (I'd love to name an engine buy know nothing about hondas) '87 CRX was bought for $500?

 

I can speak from experience, that these cars can be built for as cheap as stated. We came back 3 times with the same car. Selling off its parts to upgrade others when deals came along. The amount of man hours into it to make it were it was and win were um.... A TON.

I know our car was legal, it was the man hours and finding deals over time that made it happen. Also... the rewards of winning are just that... a funny trophy and tires maybe? The real winning aspect is meeting people who are as car crazy as you and generally very nice/helpful/talented etc... The people make the event, the cars are the bonus.

And in the end... you built a plain silly car... for almost nothing... what downside is there?

 

I'm sure they'd sell it to you for that. Not sure you'd like the labor adjusted price though.