Track Vs. Street

Originally Posted by BGTV8

The NISMO Fairlady Z RC has the following:

1. Full race brakes including Bosch motorpsort ABS figure $6K and $10k each
2. Body pulled out of the assembly line pre-paint - lacks seam-sealer, underbody paint protection and undercoat - $15K
3. Full FIA spec cage - to fit it, the roof panel is unpicked and removed
4. Once cage is fitted, body is seam welded, that would be 100+ hours of labour, figure $10K in labour alone, more if you are paying race fabrication hourly rates
5. Air-jacks supplied and plumbed - $10K
6. Diff and gearbox coolers supplied, installed and plumbed - $10K
7. Custom wiring harness - $5K
8. TE37 wheels and Yoki slicks - $6K - additional wheel sets @ $4K
9. Custom interior - seat, harness, switch gear, dash changes, FIA electrically controlled fire-bottle - $10K
10. Titanium exhaust and headers - $3K
11. Engine - $12K
12. Gearbox, carbon fibre tailshaft, diff, half-shafts etc - $10K
13. Suspension bits, hubs plus Ohlins TT44 shocks - $ 15K

The total is north of $120K easily .............. and there are lots of things I've omitted

I have built a couple of race cars, and it is surprising how expensive it is ... and the most expensive way is to start with a new car off the showroom floor as you pay to remove stuff (HVAC - interior strip, pull redundant wiring - there is 40Kg of wiring to get rid of for instance).

The most cost effective way is to start with a shell, but that means putchasing all the "bits" you need (suspension, steering, driveline, etc), and then cosider CF guards (fender), doors, hatch - there is another 6-7K alone.

The NSIMO Fairlady Z RC "retails" at 12.5Mill Yen and IMHO that is a realtively cheap race car eligible for FIA GT4 championship. Note that the negine in this car is quoted at "more than 355ps" and according to my research the GT4 MISMO VQ37 engine makes around 440hp at 9000rpm with a 30-hour time to rebuild. Makes it a pretty good option in my book.

You need to comapre apples and apples ...