Don't buy an old race car.....unless you just want an expensive "Trophy"...

I see an alarming trend among the More-money-than-brains crowd, and it's spreading to the normal people as well. Magazines are doing big write-ups on people who buy and restore old racecars. This is not fun or cute, or profitable. Old racecars are a worse moneypit than anything else on the planet!! And when there immaculately restored, their still an obsolete piece of shit from a racecar standpoint, they can't be made street legal in any state in the union, and the only time you can drive them is in Vintage car races against other people's overpriced garage jewelry. You think I'm being cynical or jealous?  I'm not- let me break it down for you.  # 1. Obsolescence. NASCAR rules say the bodystyle can't be over 5 years old. That kills everything right there. Secondly-the cubic inch limit is 360 cubes. That eliminates all the 421 Pontiacs run by Fireball Roberts, the 426 Hemis by Richard Petty, the 427 and 429 Fords run by David Pearson and the Wood brothers, the 427 Chevys by Cale Yarborough and Junior Johnson and so on. Third, the new NASCAR cars are so light and so aerodynamioc, and so light-years ahead in handling, braking, and everything else, that even if they made an exception and allowed some gazillionaire to campaign a '60s or '70s car, it wouldn't be competetive anyway!!  So it's useless as a race car-which is what it was built for. # 2.  If you can't legally race it anywhere, what are you going to do with it?  I saw an article in High Performance Pontiac on someone who had restored Fireball Roberts 1962 Daytona winner to the nth degree. Big deal.  Like I said, he can't race it anywhere except vintage car club racing, and with a curb weight of about 3,700 lbs and no power steering and manual drum brakes, it's not that much fun to drive anyway. Further, when he does drive it, it's not like he's going balls-out, and doesn't give a shit if he wrecks it-he spent a zillion dollars chasing down a real 1962 Super Duty 421 and a Warner T85 three-speed tranny to be totally accurate. He's not going to risk blowing a rod out the side of that block. Wouldn't it have been a lot easier to just get a 389 or 400 out of a clunker and buy a used Muncie or Saginaw 4-speed for $500?  # 3. Don't get the bright idea to make it street-legal and drive it. First off, where are you going to get a title? Most race cars have no titles, as they've never been registered. That right there is a DMV nightmare you don't want. Secondly-it's a gutted race car-you think restoring a regular car is hard? How much of a pain in the ass do you think it's going to be to hook up headlights, tailllights, turn-signals, etc on a 40 or 50 year old car that never had them?  Are you going to drive it with a gutted interior or are you going to try to restore it? Do you know what a nightmare it is chasing down door panel clips, and sun visor screws, and seat and dash trim, and indicator light bulbs, etc, etc, etc,?  # 4. How in the hell do you know or even find out what is and isn't original?  It's a race car, so it was modified from day one!!  It doesn't matter what was or wasn't factory optional that year!!  Think about it-If you buy a 1969 Trans-Am Camaro that was supposedly raced by Mark Donohue-and it has a 9 inch Ford rear end under it, how do you know if it's original or not?  On the stock GM 10 or 12 bolt rear ends that Camaros came with, if you break an axle, the wheel comes off. Something a racer doesn't want to happen, especially at 155 mph!!  So how do know if, in 1969, Roger Penske didn't install a full-floating 9 inch Ford to avoid this problem? Or did Penske just put a c-clip eliminator kit in the stock GM rear end, and the 9 inch was installed by some other gear head who bought it in 1974?  How do you know if the 4-speed tranny is original?  Z/28 Camaros came with Muncies, but road racers often preferred the closer ratios of the Borg-Warner T10, which GM also used. How do you know if the engine is original? A lot of racers, did what Chevrolet engineers did-built it from parts-So it could have a 327 or 350 block, with a 283 crank and custom pistons in it-4 inch bore x 3 inch stroke equals 301 inches-it would have been legal to race-but it won't have the coveted "DZ" 4-bolt main 302 block in it. Does that make it worth more or, less?  # 5. So, What the hell are you going to do with it?  You can't drive it on the street and if you do race it in vintage car races, are you going to run on the ragged edge, ( which is what it takes to win, even in this arena ) or are you going to be so damn afraid of wrecking it or blowing the motor that you spend your life at the back of the pack being lapped by assholes in MGBs and Austin Healeys?  You buy a car because you want to drive it, not tow it around or look at it. I'd stay away from the old musclecar / race cars, unless of course you fall into the "More Money than Brains" category.  Mastermind