WAGON PROGRESS (REALITY CHECK)

When I started this project last year, I was thinking 6 months and $10K would do it. Well the reality is I’m gonna be in the ballpark of doubling  those estimates by the time I’m done. I’ve been working on cars and motorcycles for 30 years, and felt like I knew what I was doing, but this project of building a race car from scratch has taught me I had a lot more to learn.  I certainly added more high-end components than I originally planned, and I moved twice last year as well, but my budget and timeline were definitely inaccurate.

I originally thought I would have the chassis done before the drivetrain, but it has ended up the other way around. I bought a good street drivetrain months ago planning on breaking in the car with it, but it has ended being scavenged for parts and will leave me with some good spares. The mild L20b race motor is now done, built for endurance and not for all out power. The Datsun Comp five speed came out nicely, and the welded R160 4.11 will get the party started.

The chassis is now primered up and ready for paint. My revised plan of attack is a couple of summer track days, and a first race weekend with VARA at Buttonwillow in September.