Salvaged NSX for Track only use car?

[wonsup]

Hi, I did search on the forum about salvage titled cars, and general consensus is to stay away from them, since these are not Ford Tarus, but a high performance car.

I am thinking about getting a dedicated track car that is light, fast and handles well. I don't care what they look like. I am going to strip them and put roll cage in it.

I have a friend who is a mechanic who bought a wrecked NSX 91 from auction at $7,000. He is going to rebuild it sell it.

Shall I go for it? The car has about 85K miles on it. Red with white leather seats. The leather is really worn, both drivers and passengers. The car is not in the best cosmetic shape both inside and outside.

But the engine and the tranmission seems strong. The wreck was on the front end, dead on. Air bag exlpoded. The entire front end is missing, but the control arms and wheels for both left and right are intact and it seems straight, and you can drive it as it is now. Just not too long, since radiator is busted.

My friend thinks it will cost him about 5K for parts in the fronts to fix it.

I am thinking maybe I will buy it from him and work with him to convert it into a track car. 7K+5K plus 5K for his work. I am thinkgin 17K-19K should do for him.

Should I not do this? I don't want a pretty car, since I am going to gut it out any way, plus sonner or later I will bang my car up on the track and I don't want to wrack an expensive one.

 

[nsxtasy]

Think about this: If you have an accident on the track - which you seem to consider a certainty - which would you rather be driving:

a) a car which still has its structural integrity, or

b) one that has already been in a crash, for which you have no idea which parts are too damaged to hold up in another one?

When someone has a crash on the track and hits his helmet, they tell you to buy a new helmet. When a car has been crashed, do you REALLY want to risk driving that car again?

If you answer "yes", I can only imaging what Darwin would say...

 

[MYNSX]

Good point NSXTASY!!Well put.

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[MAJOR STONER]

"Should I not do this?".........."general consensus is to stay away from them"

"Red with white leather seats".........."I don't want a pretty car"

"The leather is really worn".........."I don't care what they look like. I am going to strip them and put roll cage in it"

"The entire front end is missing".........."the control arms and wheels for both left and right are intact and it seems straight, and you can drive it as it is now. Just not too long, since radiator is busted."

"these are not Ford Tarus".........."I don't want to wrack an expensive one"

"I am thinking maybe I will buy it from him and work with him to convert it into a track car".........."I am going to gut it out any way"

 

[Chuck]

If you are going to track the car in competition, why put all that money in a suspect NSX. Have you ever priced NSX parts. Economics dictate a throw away car for the track. Hell, you could buy a new spec Neon for what you want to do, have as much fun and cost of repair would be mimumal compared to the NSX.

 

[bobyang]

Just to put things in perspective on repair costs, I recently dinged up my '91. I hit a guard rail on the front.

-All front body panels were bent (hood, bumper, headlights, spoiler, etc), but from the quarterpanels on back, no damage.

-Mechanically, everything was fine, including radiator, tho the radiator mounting point got pushed in.

-The car was completely driveable, with competely straight frame.

total cost to repair: $22K

5K seems WAY low to fix the car right.

 

[Carguy!]

It looks to me he is saying it will cost 10K for the repair, 5K in parts and 5K in labor. Still seems low in my opinion also though.