pmason,
Thanks for the insight. Yeah, my immediate goal is just to have fun. Nothing give me a greater sense of satisfaction than setting a goal and achieving it, and then seeing myself progress toward the next one. Especially in something like track driving, where I was so off-the-charts horrible my first handful of times out. I'm not terribly competitive when it comes to comparing myself to other people, so just being on the track at the same time with other, often ostensibly faster cars, and keeping up with them, gives me enough of a thrill to satisfy my competitive urges for now.
Lim,
Do you have the strut tower brace and lower chassis (aka castor block) brace? I don't understand how the bumper could add any structural rigidity to the front end.