Greetings all,

I've been toying with the idea of building a FWD mini stock for our 1/4 mile slightly banked paved oval. Here are the rules we have: http://www.meridianspeedwayonline.com/id28.html

We have about 25 Ford Mustangs out there right now, and that's it. One guy built a Dodge Neon, and was top five week in and week out, with several Main Event win's, but he can't afford to be out there this year. I hate seeing one manufacturer division. I was originally looking at building a RWD Nissan 240, but I really want to try a FWD car. I started looking into the Honda Civic's, , but my old man just offered me a 2.4 out of a late 90's Z24 he's been playing with to build his own car. He also has a 5sp with lots of gears that he can give me, as well.

I've spent the last week pouring over the internet for building a late 90's/early 2000 Cav Mini Stock, and this forum seems to be the most active, with the best information. I guess what I want to know first, in a field of competitive Fords, can the Cav compete, and what's more, win (assuming the nut behind the wheel can drive)?

Thank you in advance for all your knowledge and time!

-Dono

The 4 cylinder non turbo Mustangs are slow if they have to stay stock. I would say go for the 2.4, hell a 2.2 would probably be able to beat the Mustangs stock. Depends on how good the track really is at tech on the cars. You can buy a ton of aftermarket parts for the 2.3 ford. If you do the Cavy 2.4 look into doing the 2.3 oil pump swap. If they aren't very good at tech or don't care you can do alot of other things too. We race dirt against Cavys, Neons, Fords, Hondas but no Mustang. There was a guy running one at a different track and he had a hard time cracking the top ten. We currently run Saturns, but I wanna buid a 2.3/ 2.4 grand am for next year. good luck there is alot of info on this site, mostly drag and dirt but some do run autox and asphalt tracks. Seems you can tweak alot with suspension and different gear ratios. The 2.2 and 2.4 gears are interchangeable internally theres a post about that also.

reading the rules and its a mustang rule book... a cavalier can keep up but depends on waht ya wanan do... heck i have a rolling chassis for sale that would eb perfect for teh motor you have...

$2500 for the rolling chassis

Bob,

That is a beautiful car! Where are you located?

I'm normally pretty flexible in playing in the gray area's of the rule book, but the one FWD Neon got picked on quite a bit by the Ford guys. If I go out there, I want to make sure the obvious B&W areas are in the right side of the rules. Others... they can be played with. Besides that, I did work as a Safety Tech at the track a few years ago, I know they can be pretty lenient on most things.