In the never ending quest to pay less, and race more, we all come across good bargains, and clever ideas that were proud of. Lets put some of these finds together in one place.

I'll start with a few:

$35 Lexan windshields - ask for them here: www.racingmetal.com You have to call, its not listed on the site. They're take off Lexan for Nascar cars, complete with serval left-over tear offs. You need to trim to them to fit, just use the old windshield for a template. The curvature works out well. I've run one all last year.

A good place to find some cheap parts is a car trailer retailer. They often have large sheets of aluminum tread plate. They cut these to repair the front of enclosed the trailers, and end up with large pieces left over, which you can buy for cheap. I've used these pieces to make belly pans, sunroofs, jack pads, etc. (though not Big Dog size:P ), on the cheap. The trailer fender hold downs also make nice hatch hold downs. I can vouch they stay in place even when you flip the car over its nose

Used tires: RA-1's are great used tires. I use JB used tire out of Milwaukee, and have gotten prime 4/32nds tires for <1/2 price. Always as advertised.

Then there's the old stand-by of bartering on Pelican & Rennlist.

next?

Thank you for starting this thread Eric. This is a great idea.
The lowest cost HP increase has to be having the head shaved.
Proper set up is almost free if you can do it your self and is very important if you are approaching the limit of the car.
Typical set up for me is 3-3.5 degrees camber on the front and 2-2.5 in rear. Zero to 1/4" toe out in front (1/4" for slow tight tracks and rain) zero to 1/8" total toe in on the rear.
I have made a very low cost string alignment system for my car that I will post some pics of and description later. Makes alignment a breeze.

I began work on a cheap and quick to use string alignment tool. I got all the parts together and would have debuted it a National this year, but personal issues changed that.

Even so I will try to finish the $15 "Cheap Strings" alignment tool (cheaper version of $300 "smart strings") and also share my water level system.


If you are trying to set camber in home garage you must realize the floor is never level. It is very easy to have the car sitting at an angle and therfore never get the camber correct. A simple Water level does a great job to notice hat.

How does it work?

Easy two small buckets connected by a hose. Fill one with water and the hose lets the water balance between the two buckets. Then use thin tiles or anything that works as shims raise one bucket. Make sure the water level is the same in both buckets and you have two level spots on the ground.

Combine this with $0.05 dollar turning plates and you have do nice alignments at home. Turning plates can be may be using 1 gallon ziploc bags where you put dish soap in the bag. That makes them slick on the inside and helps limit suspensing binding.

Plus all is portable enough to take to the track too.

The plastic bag trick is very cool Joe. great idea!!! Seems a little expensive though

Strings? You can find lasers for a couple of bucks nowadays. Find a couple that shoot a line and use them instead of strings. Now you can do your work without fear of bumping the strings! No extra tools needed other than a tape measure for setting toe.

Hey Al, since I have never used lasers please post on how to set that up and provide pics if you got any. I am interested in trying that.
Specifically how to set up the laser and square to the car.
The string set up I use is attached to the car and has slots so bumping is not an issue.