If you want a RACE CAR and want to win you only buy what wins.

Miata
E30 BMW
E36 BMW
Neon ACR
EF Civic/CRX
Mazda Protege
RX-7

You can't just BUILD a race car and race it. You have to figure what class, build those rules, get a licence, etc. It's MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH cheaper to buy a car already built.

E30s are cheaper than Hondas for the most part they also NEVER break. I had 450+k on the original motor and still had perfect compression and great power/torque.

Unless you want a $50k road race car I can't think of many classes of cars that would offer super fast times and the homostrip.