I am the proud owner of a 2003 White GSR. The car is very clean, with only a few bolt on, exhaust, intake, fuel pump, controller and a tune. I've been debating for a while to make it a nice track car that i can still daily drive. Is it worth it?
I know i'm looking at engine rebuild (possibly, i have 84k miles, compression is perfect though), turbo kit, intercooler, injector, fuel pump and cams.
Has anyone gone from a bolt on to a build car? What was the downtime? was it worth it, and what was the price. Is 4500 budget enough?

Thanks for the advice in advance

 

Lots of people have those mods and can def be achieved with your budget. Just depends on if you want used parts or new and budget parts or ballet parts. Better question is:

What is your goal with the car? You say track car but what kind of track? Or what kilns of racing will you do?

 

$4,500 for an engine build, turbo kit, and cams ? Mmm.... No! Engine build alone is gonna run you like $6,000 depending on parts and who builds it. A good turbo kit or a good stock frame bb turbo is about $2,300

 

As track I mean road course, like Palm Beach or Sebring most likely.

I was not aware of the labor cost of engine rebuilding, i can do most of the work myself other than that and I noticed parts are not so expensive (less than 2000) so I understand labor is what really brings up the price of the engine work.

I think for road course a fast spooling 450 hp setup would be ideal. Keeping the torque under 400 would probably allow me to skip on the engine work?

 

yes 450 is the most that you will ever need for tracking. Anything after that will require more aero and lots of money into suspension work to keep her planted and make use of the power. 400-430/380 (keep tq low for obvious reasons) is what i would say is a perfect number you can achieve on the stocker on e85 that i have seen many 150k+ mileage STOCK BLOCK evos make and get beat on consistently at the track with absolutely no problems. Of course with track time you'll have to stay on a strict track maintenance routine (oil changes no later than 3k miles and drivetrain flushes every 5k miles, or if its gonna be occasional than before and after the events to be safe). For $4500 that is plenty enough for a good set of coils such as kw3 coils and a rear sway bar and good tires (nto5s, federal rsr's (great budget tire), good rotors and brake pads, and finally a bomb alignment/ corner balancing is key (suspension tuning)! The car will feel absolutely amazing after those suspension mods!

 

Thanks evodriver for the good advice, got a good set of tires, new brakes and rear sway bar. I would love the Kw3...
To keep it in the 400hp without e85, unfortunately not in my area of florida, what set up would be optimal. I would not mind going away from stock frame to allow upgradability when i decide to build my motor.
I might look into used turbos to keep my budget down and invest in some more track time , but i'm kinda scared of that...