Suddard, his staff and his readers tend to fall into two categories: Auto enthusiasts who like nice, fast cars but can't afford new ones, and auto enthusiasts who can afford new cars, but would rather build one themselves.

Plenty of Suddard's readers — and Suddard himself, for that matter — used to fall into the first category, but as they got older and wealthier, they migrated into the second category. Old habits are hard to break. Shake hands with Suddard and you can tell that this publishing executive still spends more than his share of time in his workshop.

Ten years ago, Suddard thought it would be fun to challenge his readers to a friendly competition: See what kind of vehicle you can build on the cheap. The competition would be held in Florida once a year, and competitors would have to build a vehicle that could compete in three areas: Drag racing, autocross (racing around a course laid out with orange pylons), and a concours, which is a beauty contest that would be judged by four mildly qualified enthusiasts, one of them being me.

The total budget for each team to build a car: Whatever year it is. For the 2009 Kuhmo Tires Grassroots Motorsports Challenge, held recently at the Gainesville Raceway drag strip, the budget was $2,009. There is a little fine print: Labor costs don't count, and you are allowed to make up some of the expense by selling parts — say you bought a wrecked car for $1,000 just to get the engine, and you sold off $500 worth of parts, then your expense was $500 toward your $2,009 budget.

Each year, we're surprised by the quality and creativity. Well, mostly: Some competitors show up just to have a good time, like the Colonel Sanders look-alike who arrived in a Saturn disguised as a chicken.

And each year, there is a separate award for the worst bribes for the judges. Nothing this year rivaled the authentic homemade prison tattoo machine from a couple of years ago — all the judges declined the offer to get tattooed then and there — but we did get lots of beer, including fresh from a keg mounted in the rear of the car; a dozen roses; autographed photos of professional wrestlers we never heard of (the "Hardy Boys"?), fresh grilled bratwursts from a rolling grill that accompanied the car, a complete set of "Hello Kitty" stickers, but my favorite: A quart of authentic moonshine, in a Ball canning jar. Anyone know how to get the enamel back on my teeth?

Invariably, one of the entries we look forward to most comes from Andy Nelson and his family, from York, Pa. This year, Nelson showed up with a pristine V-8-powered yellow hot rod, with a narrowed Volkswagen Beetle body sitting on a homemade frame. How does he do it for less than $2,009? Well, the floor, for instance, used to be a Maytag dryer. The accelerator pedal was made from an old file. Nelson even dismantles the trophies he wins to see what usable parts might be inside.

This year's overall winner, though — second in the concours, third on the autocross and third on the drag strip (11.84 seconds at 120 mph) — was Team Gutty's 1988 Honda Civic CRX, built by a group of friends from Grand Rapids, Mich. Astounding attention to detail and beautiful paint complemented the fact that it was screaming fast — the little four-cylinder engine was turbocharged with a turbo from a Ford Thunderbird found in a junkyard. The exhaust header came from a trash bin at a race track.

Team Gutty managed to drop the weight of the already-light car from 1,812 pounds to 1,698 pounds by shedding parts and, for example, swapping the bigger car battery for a small, used motorcycle battery.

Too bad there isn't room to tell you about the hybrid Pontiac Fiero from Oregon — regular V-6 engine in the rear, electric powertrain from a wrecked Chevrolet S-10 up front, powered by Toyota Prius batteries found in a junkyard. Or the 1959 Zamboni ice scraper that sat on a Mazda Miata platform, with a Ford V-8 engine. Or the 1958 Fiat, the Mazda Miata with the Lexus V-8 engine, or the 1974 Ford Maverick that blew up in dramatic fashion.