Need help deciding on project car....

[N3wGuy]

Alright so I'll just post what I've been talking to my buddies about... I'm new to this entire process, but I've got enough exposure to cars/motorcycles and whatnot to HOPEFULLY not get flamed. What I'm really looking for is for someone to tell me straight up what they think a technically inclined new guy could pull of with some of his friends as a shade tree mechanic with... occasional access to a machine shop (for boring cylinders, tuning with a dyno etc) and a local garage for other work (dropping in parts and stripping out others). I'm going to be on the sooner racing team this upcoming year so I MIGHT be able to use their shop too and their expertise... but I'm fishing for ideas for right now. Here are my thoughts on cars... no Idea what is out there for right now, post more on that later for which ones are available and in my price range as a project car (which keep in mind can be from 1k-12k depending on what kind of motorcycle i'll be buying when i get back home).

Alright so here are my thoughts:

43 PM
lancer, z28, civic, rx7, mustang, firebird
5:43 PM
here are the pro's and cons
5:44 PM
lancer + civic = light weight, but shitty stock engine that'll require tuning and tearing apart maybe even replaced with custom parts on it... essentially heavier attention to the engine
5:45 PM
mustang = easy 12 second car, but cliche
5:45 PM
engine probably doesn't need much tuning either
5:45 PM
heavy body though
5:46 PM
z28 + firebird + mustang = can either go muscle OR street... and i really want to lean to street, but i know that muscle will be tempting midway through the project
5:46 PM
z28 + firebird + mustang = high torque engines with higher stock HP... so it's easily 12 second car with hardly any tuning or mods... problem is, mods will be a bitch to install due to the engine taking up most of the room under the hood
5:47 PM
rx7 = completely unique motor... i don't really know anything about it atm but it could be a unique experience to learn... + its engine is unique because you can redline the fuck out of it and not hurt the engine, which is a good thing


Am I right or wrong? And which one do you recommend to a guy who is new to modding a car and tuning? I've really only done minor stuff, but... I'm serious when I say I can pull this off. The idea is to make a 12 second car, I know its a big goal, but I've got a year or two to do it... maybe even longer, I just want to learn, and I figure this is the best way (aside from working at the shop I currently work at).

Thanks... Hope to be a valuable addition to this forum.

[N3wGuy]

Oh yeah... and the budget for the car... isn't really 1k-12k... that's just the budget on the car purchase, not including mods. I work so I can afford more than that in mods. Thoughts?

[gearheadpartsstore]

at this day with all the emissions and fun stuff, id go a pre smog era datson Z and put a ls1-ls7 in it, and be all motor running low numbers or possibly single digits on spray.
and for cheap.

[B.M.Dub]

Have you thought about a corvette? Maybe one from the 90's? You can get it with a 6-speed transmission and it has a V8, but it isn't really a typical muscle car. It isn't limited to only going fast in a straight line - it can make a turn. I guess you could call it tuner muscle.

The only problems are that it's unsafe in a crash (fiberglass body), and that I can't think of anything you could really do to it. Sure you could mod the engine some and tune it, but it already has some 500 hp (or something around there), so doing that seems to be sort of overkill...