"Good Deals" should be something the average Joe can find in Anytown, USA....

After griping about all the 100K+ cars featured in magazines and T.V. shows, I heard from a lot of people who agree with me-that they'd like to see cars that people built for maybe $25,000-including the purchase price of the car. That's reasonable. I also commend Popular Hot Rodding-they always give an itemized account of what their projects cost. For example-"Project Talledega" the 1975 Chevelle Laguna done up like a '70's NASCAR racer is quite popular with readers. They had $33,740 in it when they were done. This included the $5,000 purchase price of the car, the 560 hp 408 inch solid-roller small-block, beefed up 700R4 tranny,Global west suspension, tires and wheels and bodywork and paint. Considering how badass and cool the car is, 33K isn't bad. What drives me up the wall is these magazine features you see on the cover-"12 seconds for $1,200" or "400 hp / $1,500 engine build" and so on. The reason they infuriate me is when you read it-there's always a big surprise where they get some mega-buck part for free or dirt cheap. Don't get me wrong-if they said they bought a used Edelbrock manifold at a swap meet for $75, or a set of used headers for $50 from their neighbor, or a T5 tranny out of a totalled Mustang in a junkyard for $200 I wouldn't care. We all get stuff like that if you've played with cars for any length of time. What makes my head want to explode is-  "Hey, what about that set of ported and polished Brodix Aluminum heads "That we almost forgot we had". Arrrrghhh!!! Or "Joe's brother not only gave us the 3.73:1 geared, disc braked posi rear end out of his wrecked Trans-Am, he even helped us put it in the Camaro and bought the beer!" Two of the most foul ones were these- # 1. "10 seconds for $10,000" I was totally fine with the seven grand for the 550 hp 383 crate motor. What drove me insane was the "Engineless" '79 Camaro they bought for $2,700 to put it in that had a 4.88:1 geared 9 inch Ford rear end, a TCI built powerglide with a 3,800 rpm converter and a trans brake, an 8-point roll cage, a safety fuel cell,and set of Weld Wheels with Moroso 26x7.50x15 front tires and 275 / 60 /R15 BFG Drag radials on the rear. Gee, I'd like to buy a car for $2,700 that has eight grand worth of premium parts in it!!  Don't believe me? A Currie 9 inch with GM mounting points retails for $3,300 through Summitt Racing. Now add 2 grand for the trans-braked racing tranny, another grand for the roll cage, and another $1,500 for the tires and wheels. That adds up to $7800 on my calculator!!  # 2. "Budget 550 hp 440 Buildup" was in a Mopar magazine. They bought a junk 440 out of a wrecked '75 Imperial in a "U-pull-it" junkyard for $250. That I was fine with. After boring the block .030 over and buying new pistons they decided to use a forged steel 440 crank and a set of "Six Pack" rods that they had "Laying around". They paid retail for a Comp Cams cam kit and a set of Edelbrock heads, and then decided "Just for kicks" to use as induction a complete 3-2bbl "Six Pack" setup they had "laying around". You can buy the Edelbrock manifold, the three Holley carbs, the throttle linkage and the air cleaner through Mopar Performance for $2,300!!  Summitt Racing lists a forged steel Eagle crank for $1153, and a matching set of "H-beam" forged rods for $650. How nice that they had $4,100 worth of rare parts "Laying around!!"  I have a complete ZZ4 "Turn-Key" crate engine with less than 5,000 miles on it "laying around" my garage. If I buy a beater '86 IROC-Z Camaro for $1,200 bucks, slap that motor in it and run 12s at my local strip-I'm not going to crow about my "12 second, $1,200 Camaro."  Because That engine retails for $5,299 today, and I paid $4,400 for it back in 2008!!  So in reality-I'd have $5,600 in the car-and if someone wanted to duplicate the build using another $1,200 Camaro-they'd have $6,499 in it, not $1,200!!!  And that's if they were a mechanic and could do the labor themselves-if they had to pay a shop $75-100 per hour to install the engine you could add another grand to that tab for 8-10 hrs labor unbolting one SBC and bolting in another!! So now you've got $7,500 in your "$1,200" project. What math are these people doing?  In the same Mopar enthusiast magazine they talked about a guy that had a Duster with a 4.30:1 geared 8 3/4 rear, a pinion snubber and drag-race style suspension, and a beefed up 727 Torqueflite. They thought it was so cool that he had a 400 hp nitrous system complete with and extra fuel pump,Throttle position actuated solenoids, and Jacobs ignition that could adjust the timing by turning a knob on the dash. This "Budget" racer would buy a 318 or 360 for $300 out of a junkyard that had "tons" of Dodge trucks and Jeep Cherokees in it, slap it in the car, and run low 11s or high 10s until the engine grenaded which was sometimes 30 or 60 days, or sometimes just one weekend at the drags. That's nice, except if he does that 10 times in a year he's spent 3 grand! If he spent 3 grand on the first motor re-building it with forged pistons, chrome-moly rod bolts, a cam designed to use with nitrous and o-ringed heads,it would have lasted a lot longer than a year, and he wouldn't have had to change the motor 10 times!! If he does that 20 times in two years he's got six grand in junk engines. For six grand, he could buy a Blueprint or Smeding built 360 based 408 stroker with 400+ hp that would run 11's "On the motor" and would probably go 100,000 miles-without the elaborate nitrous system. I didn't think he was that much of a genius, but like I said-I'm doing "Old school" math. The point is-"Good Deals" should be something that "Joe Average" can find at his local speed shop or swap meet. Just had to vent that. Mastermind