Kevin,
I feel for you on this one. I had a very similar experience this season. I started out my racing career by taking a street 944, doing Porsche Club Racing and then building it into an ITS car. Realizing that even if I had the money to build it to the max of the rules, it still would not be competitive, So I sold it.
Over the winter I got a great deal on an 84 GTi. First time out at a PDA event I was using for testing, I had a rear wheel come off at the axle!! (I swear, I checked the bolts!!
) First race of the season, with one lap to go in the race I was spun and got hammered in the front bumper, bending the front frame about 14”. Next race, 2 laps into qualifying, I had a tire go flat and put the car on its side. On the third lap of the next test day, engine lost power down the front straight and all sorts of smoke was coming out the exhaust. As it turns out, there were 16v pistons in the engine and it created a “little” extra compression and melted one of the pistons
. (yes, I take full responsibility for having illegal parts, but again, one of those pitfalls of not building your own: Not knowing what’s inside!!)
When we got into the engine, it was amazing the bottom end had lasted as long as it did!! I spent $5K for the car and spent another $5K on parts and an engine rebuild. When you are dealing with a 20 year old car, parts are going to fail!! As you said, there is no such thing as a race ready car for sale!!
My next car I will build myself.....
Hang in there, it can only get better!!
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Jeff L
#74 ITB GTi