Re: Today's cost to build a stocker ?
 

Agreed, it is expensive, real expensive to get a fast stocker to be competitive. Then if you have a 'normal' under 40 yr olds budget you get to race in your class maybe 5-7 times a year. The NHRA TV coverage does nothing to get young people interested in actually racing themselves. I grew up going with Dad, so it is in my blood. My buddies here in Michigan that I went school with(we are all mechanical or product design engineers) know nothing about drag racing. Some have fast daily driver cars too. Mustang, Nissan 350, Audi S4, etc. Young people like me (I am 34) have 20-50k in student loan debt to pay off before being able to drop the same coin on a race car. My Dad and I are pooling out resources to be able race our 1969 Chevelle in C/S or H/S in the next 5 years. I would estimate the total bill to be over $30k and we can do most of the work ourselves, including designing and machining parts from scratch, where applicable.

IMHO the NHRA needs to lead the charge, hard, to get the next generation of racers to back fill the spots the previous generations of racers have made. Every 3 hour NHRA show with the pros should have at least 30 mins of normal joe sportsman coverage. Wheels up super stockers, home built stockers, etc. But actually talk to the racers of these cars. That this guy is a machinist, and he has a normal house with a normal garage and he just worked hard to get to the track. Put a face and story with the sportsman cars. Someone that the average person interested in cars can feel like they relate to or could be like. The stuff that the pro classes can do these days is flat out amazing. But I can't relate to it. I will never be able to afford to get close to those machines so it is less interesting.

I will be racing in stock eliminator before I am 40, or die trying. I love drag racing and have so many fond memories racing with my Dad that I want to duplicate with my daughter and soon to be wife.

Re: Today's cost to build a stocker ?
 

Doesn't Koski have a U/S mopar for sale?

Re: Today's cost to build a stocker ?
 

If you can do a lot of the work yourself you can cut the costs down a ton.

Re: Today's cost to build a stocker ?
 

In the process RIGHT NOW. Upper level car (loophole to boot) D/E/F had the body but doing ground up resto. 2 engines ( one a dyno mule) complete one of one combo. I will be about 30k done at .5 under...should see track mid year (I hope). All good parts and a top shelf engine builder doing a mid level build. And believe it or not the most expensive part....PAINT!

Kenny Newsome ?/SA 7709

Re: Today's cost to build a stocker ?
 

I agree tenfold on the cost of body and paint. You guys have got it made at $10,000 for body and paint. You would have a coronary if you saw the prices here in Saskatchewan. Environment was not necessarily the biggest drive here. It was the money printing machine our gov't insurance provided the body shops here. Doug

Re: Today's cost to build a stocker ?
 

My attempt at building a stocker(89 mustang) is about 30% complete and I have about 7500 in it (car was 600 of that). I expect to have another 3500 in it just to get it running and on the track for some testing. I'm hoping to be .30 under index with this set up. And this thing is U G L Y.

I would expect to sink another 10-15kin it years 2 and 3 assuming all goes well for a stouter motor, paint, race trans/clutch etc.

I'm pretty cheap and will do as much as possible myself, and it looks like 25k might get me a so-so looking car that's not super competitive.

But, I wanna go racing!!

Re: Today's cost to build a stocker ?
 

I have no doubt I could have picked up a used stocker for a fraction of what I paid to build my F/SA car.....but for me this was a bucket list thing. I also have no doubt that if I had participated more in the build I could have reduced the cost somewhat. But after hearing the rest of you it sounds like my spend was not totally out of line. We were able to go rounds at every race attended, and the equipment was never the reason for an early round departure.

No matter what you spend, whether it's a 5,000 actual mile 69 Z/28, Original Cobra Jet, or my 40 year old $1500 beater, you still have to DRIVE the thing to get maximum enjoyment out of it. Truthfully, I would have had just as much fun in a beater if I had driven it to the winners circle a few times!!!

Re: Today's cost to build a stocker ?
 

Pure Stock will bring in the younger crowd if you start Classifying the new American cars and allow Imports to race. I get an email every couple weeks from someone asking about Pure Stock.

You want the younger crowd. They are buying the little cars. On test and tune days they are out in force. Add Stock Class Record at local track again and you will see interest.

The issue is not young people not wanting to race in Stock.
It is the entrenched American Car only racer community preventing it from happening.

Dan

Re: Today's cost to build a stocker ?
 

Those young people you see on test and tune days are not driving stockers. They can run tens in their ricer for less money then they would have in a 15 second pure stocker. It's all about cheap boost.

Re: Today's cost to build a stocker ?
 

You have but to look at the Stock Car Classification guide...there are no slots for their cars.