I would say, it depend on your skill and ability as a gearhead, (how much work you can do your self) spend the 5 grand wisely, and have a nice starter car.

Just doing a short search on RJ I was seeing nice Mustangs in the $5000 range running. Watch Craigslist also. I am not a Ford guy but I would race one of them in a heartbeat. Plentiful cheap parts to make a nice footbrake car to get started in. The G-body chevy cars are the same way. I have about $13,000 total in my roadster but I was really patient and bought parts for a long time so you can go fast on a budget. Good luck with whatever you choose and I hope you get on the track soon. We can never have enough new racers.

Curtis

Generally buying something already built can be cheaper than putting one together yourself, unless the car has major issues.

i have alow 10 second car and trailer for sale, 86 ss monte carlo(sbc) and enclosed trailer or just the car and i live in md.

I am with J3Rd. You have the opportunity to make a great purchase instead building it in a questionable economy. If you buy the Camaro for 600.00, you will be spending money & fixing, replacing, working out all the bugs so to speak... when you could buy a roller or complete race car... it could be the difference between being a garage racer missing seasons or really going out there & doing it. You can get a roller pretty cheap these days... just a thought.

Not sure if it's alot different today than it was over 40 years ago but my first race car was my daily driver. I worked alot and saved any extra money to put it in my daily driver until it was no longer a daily driver. I bought an old junker and made that my daily driver. So my daily driver became my race car as I earned extra money working two jobs and putting it in the race car to go faster. So if you have a daily driver then buy that $600.00 Camaro and start making it your race car.

Alot of people don't have $20,000.00 to put in a race car. I sure didn't, so I did as much as I could afford with any extra cash. Mind you it took probably 20 years to finally have a legit race car. Nothing wrong with running slow until you can afford to run quicker. Plus sounds like you need the experience behind the wheel. In any case. Good Luck you picked one of the most rewarding things to do. OH YEAH! Most expensive too. :lol:
Just my advise, Right or Wrong.

cheaper to buy one already done but then where the pride and joy in that you get to say "yeah i bought it from so and so pretty bad ass hey" and who's to say the guy built it right or knew what he was doing ive ran into a situation where a guy told me he had it in his vette it was a 3970010 4 bolt 350 i was gonna rebuilt it any way come to find out he had a push rod chilling in the lifter valley and enough gasket sealer to fill up a 5 gallon bucket

i prefer to build um myself then when some on compliments you can say "I built that" sure it cost more and take more time but thats the way i would go not let some other joe schmo build it for me
-J.M.O

X2, i've been dragracing for over 55 yrs. and have built every car i've ever ran. I've won some and lost a lot, but when you win there's a lot more pride when you win. I've never been the fastest (brackets), but have run the tree, so it's up to me to win not the fastest or best car. Build it yourself and you know what you have.

JMO

Zip.