Best way to make the Phoenix Rise Again

[JAL racing]

2019 base GT with small handling mods. I was T-boned by a drunk on my way to an event (no one injured).
My car is totaled, drivetrain is fine.
My question is:
"What's the best way to go about getting back to the track?"
1- get a similar car and put my mods back on.
2- get the cheapest 2018+ ecoboost I can find, buy back my scrap GT, and swap the drivetrain + BBK into the ecoboost. I would get a shop to do that.
3-pay more and get a base 2024 GT and sort out the brakes, wheels and suspension.
4- something else?

I don't know if #2 is a viable solution or whether savings vs #1 would be negligible.

 

[Mad Hatter]

Oh boy,, option 2 sounds expensive. Maybe find a a S550 with a blown engine? And swap your gen3 in.. I guess it depends on what your goals are.

 

[mavisky]

Is this a track rat only or is this going to be a car where registration and insurance and resale value will all need to be factored in?

#1 and #3 are the easiest for sure
#2 has the potential to be cheaper, but may actually cost more if you truly assign a dollar value to the amount of time you have to put into it and you will run into some issues with resale and insurance if another incident happens down the road
#4 - buying a blown engine car and swapping parts over may be possible, but it's time intensive and may be more expensive than #1 and #3 as you'd have to have the space and time to sell off your old parts from your old shell that you didn't need in order to recoup some costs.

 

[JAL racing]

Is this a track rat only or is this going to be a car where registration and insurance and resale value will all need to be factored in?

.

It will be the same as my car that was wrecked: a car mostly used for lapping and AX, with the occasional street mileage. A car that drives to and from events and is reliable.
Thanks for taking the time to answer me. In light of your and Mad Hatter's answers I now see that finding a replacement S550 or a new S650 is my best course of action.
Thanks!

 

[RES_22]

Buy back your salvage car and sell it....then buy Bill Pemberton's Mach 1.

Right, @Bill Pemberton ?

 

[TMSBOSS]

We bought back our Focus RS for almost nothing, $1900. Insurance valued car at $38.5.

Look into the option RES-22 mentioned.

Bill bought the Mach 1 from George at MGW. The car has to be sorted after those two attention to detail guys had their hands on it!! It’s a track pac manual, hard to find.

 

[PaddyPrix]

I went with #2, ended up with a GT only because I was thinking that I'd be able to part much of it and get to about the same point, plus I wasn't so sure of my driveline parts, and having spares is kinda nice. Given that your driveline is fine, definitely go the cheapest eco or v6 you can get your hands on.

I had also done #1 the first time around, taking my mostly stock base 19GT parts off and putting them onto a salvaged base 18GT. It's so much easier working on a car that you don't need to get you to work, and knowing that the car is already paid for and not worth that much makes you feel a lot better when you're going to places that aren't within your skill or comfort zone. I mean what's the worst that'll happen? You break it and it still doesn't work?

#1 and #2 are both are good choices, just have to do your research of what's available, and play some games of fees, taxes, shipping costs, etc. Another thing to factor in that for you is somewhat preventative is #2 you're going to pay labor, which could be $100-150/hr. If you have the space, time to start seeing who lives nearby and likes beer and pizza, and bring in the pros for the big stuff, or definitely the safety stuff.

 

[302BOB]

start seeing who lives nearby and likes beer and pizza

Those are the folks who can help you the most!......The down to Earth guys that have been there.................I, on the other hand would just get another car to enjoy.............I've been down that rebuild road long ago and I don't think much has changed since then...double wink!!!!!!!!!

 

[blacksheep-1]

Having to pay someone to do the labor is definately going to severely impact your bottom line.
Since the wrecked car does not have a lot of mods on it, is it really worth buying back?
I still think the S197 is the gold standard for cheap thrills as they are very simple, well sorted and lots of parts are available for them, that is prolly the cheap way out.
I definately agree with PaddyPix #2 paragraph, this is why I always track beaters

 

[Dave_W]

If you go the #2 route with an ecoboost or V6 car, I'd worry about getting all the computers to work with the Coyote drivetrain. You may need to swap a bunch of black boxes & harnesses between the cars, and still chase down the odd fault code.

If it were a track-only stripped-interior car that wasn't street-driven (much), the #2 route might make sense if you started with something like a fire-damaged car and used it only for the bodyshell, swapping everything over from your car. Strip down the donor car to the bare shell, weld in a cage while it's open, give it a cheap paint job, then start installing all the parts.

But if you want something to drive the backroads on nice weekends, I think option #1 is going to be less work, cheaper if you're not doing all/most of the work for option #2, and get you back into a Mustang much quicker. For the needs you've outlined, I think option #1 makes the most sense.

 

[steeda5]

I have a SN 95 race car that your drivetrain will bolt into. Its got a cage and fire system. MM suspension and Griggs. Sla front by Paul Brown. 9k takes it . Im in Az
Brian

 

[blacksheep-1]

So with the above body shell, and all the electronics and engine from your car, I see track ready for about $15K.. that's right up there with Superbeater. If you din't use the IRS, that would be money in the bank.

 

[PaddyPrix]

If you go the #2 route with an ecoboost or V6 car, I'd worry about getting all the computers to work with the Coyote drivetrain. You may need to swap a bunch of black boxes & harnesses between the cars, and still chase down the odd fault code.

I don't believe that's entirely the case from the shop manual I've got, and Ford being equal parts cheap and lazy. Much of the s550 configuration comes from the AsBuilt data manifests. Pretty light on SKUs, at least in the s550, with the major differences in most cases being the hardware itself, for instance, they only have one ABS, and the configuration/limits are driven by if you're an EcoBoost, Base GT, PP2, or GT350r.