Is It Worth It?
The important part to me about the 200sx is its weight. But if it's a 97, it's probably heavy (safety requirements go up, weight goes up).
With that said, and a few years of racing small displacement cars, I honestly feel that an 88-90 Honda CRX or Civic SI is the best way to go. You can pick up a car for a couple grand, then spend another grand on suspension and a grand on NA mods or a couple grand for a turbo, and you will have a 1600-1800 lb car with dynamic camber and over 130 hp and torque. It is truly one of the fastest cars in autocross, often beating turbo AWD cars hands down.
If you really don't want to get a Honda, Toyotas have some awesome choices (80s Celica, MR2), Nissans/Datsuns (Sentry, 240Z or 280Z), 1st gen DSM (Eclipse, Talon), even a Pontiac Fiero, are all in your budget. As a general rule, the late 80s to early 90s make the best platforms for economic tuning. Honestly, after many years I have noticed that Mitsubishi is extremely week in the tuning department. Most of their cars suffer from something (3000GT is too heavy, Lancer is underpowered) and other than the 1st gen Eclipse, there is an extremely small market for aftermarket mods. For that reason, the best budget racers come from Honda, Toyota, and Nissan.
With that said, and a few years of racing small displacement cars, I honestly feel that an 88-90 Honda CRX or Civic SI is the best way to go. You can pick up a car for a couple grand, then spend another grand on suspension and a grand on NA mods or a couple grand for a turbo, and you will have a 1600-1800 lb car with dynamic camber and over 130 hp and torque. It is truly one of the fastest cars in autocross, often beating turbo AWD cars hands down.
If you really don't want to get a Honda, Toyotas have some awesome choices (80s Celica, MR2), Nissans/Datsuns (Sentry, 240Z or 280Z), 1st gen DSM (Eclipse, Talon), even a Pontiac Fiero, are all in your budget. As a general rule, the late 80s to early 90s make the best platforms for economic tuning. Honestly, after many years I have noticed that Mitsubishi is extremely week in the tuning department. Most of their cars suffer from something (3000GT is too heavy, Lancer is underpowered) and other than the 1st gen Eclipse, there is an extremely small market for aftermarket mods. For that reason, the best budget racers come from Honda, Toyota, and Nissan.
