Joe Newbie, 20 Builds a "Stocker"' in 2023

[Nick Heath]

Originally Posted by Steve Stasko

Not a Stocker...but, I'll leave this gem here from this morning. The original poster was recently spectating at Heartland Park, and got excited about potentially making his car fit in S/S. Not sure if the commenter even races a Stock/SS car? Sometimes, I think that some of you are your own worst enemy to sustainability though.

Props to Daren and Jeff Lee for trying to *actually* help this guy though...

This is a well-timed post. I remember a thread years ago where a guy was looking at building a 305 Camaro stocker. It devolved into "you need this, you need that, it's $30k for a competitive engine and you'll probably still be dead in a heads-up race against the Butchers, etc..." I'm guessing he never ended up building a stocker.

There's something to be said for ensuring Joe Newbie knows what he's getting into. But obsessing over the exorbitant costs of the tips and tricks that take a -0.50 stocker into a -1.20 stocker is ultimately detrimental. That's no knock on my heroes that relentlessly pursue those few extra hundredths - the point is simply that many Joe Newbies will certainly read overly-negative posts like that FB comment and decide "screw it, I'm just gonna buy the 88mm turbo LS setup that PozQB wrote about, that's a better idea and sounds like more fun!"