It depends on many things, your budget being the big one to start with You have a goal set now, do you have a budget in mind? How soon do you want to go racing? How much of the needed work to get this car the way you want it can you do? Many factors involved in the decision making process, no easy answers other than being able to find your dream car turn key at the price you want to pay to go racing as fast as possible I've built more than one race car from scratch, also several street and strip cars. I salvage a decent 6 cylinder CA Duster and turned it into a high 9 second street and strip pump gas car through the mufflers with a lot of work, effort and money spent, it was right at 5 year project due to body shops dragging thier feet for 18 monthson getting the paint and body work done. I enjoyed building( I did the motor, wiring and plumbing, farmed out the trans, converter,chassis, suspension and wheel wells paint and interior) it but it was not easy and it was not cheap I suggest to set your goals and then look at the budget and time frame you want to achieve, shop around on the work you can't do and see what time frames are involved on those parts and then make your decision on what to do BTW, once you go 12s your going to want to go low 11s and then down(quicker and faster) the track from thier Speed and power are addictive