[Angelo DiTocco]

Its been said many times.... I think the best way to get into class racing (especially if your goal is simply to "run decent" as you as say), is to shop around for an existing car that will meet your needs. It goes against the wanting to "do it yourself" feeling, but in the long run, it will save you a lot of time and money.
The problem with building a "decent running" class car as opposed to a killer car is that it is still "very" expensive. Building a killer car is just "crazy expensive". If you were to buy an existing turn-key car, I bet it would still be less money than just the cost of the parts to do a car from scratch.