Mods are hands down, the only division that makes any sense anymore. Cars are cheap enough, motors arent terribly priced, tires and wheels are cheaper than sprints.

Chassis companies, Shaw, Rocket by Ruhlman (gonna be pricey but worth it), Lightning, Impressive, Diamond are all good cars.

Just remember, a Dry Slick track is a 4 bar playground.

Basically in a nutshell here is your breakdowns of "suspensions"

4-bar, both trailing arms go towards the front of the car, probably the most radical of the suspensions and heard that is tough for a driver to get used to, but its gonna hook up best in the slick, or somewhere that you need alot of forward.

Z-link is where the lower trailing arm comes back from the the front of the rear end to the bottom of the axle. The upper arm goes ontop of the axle on your birdcage and runs towards the back of the car. Spring is ontop, forward or behind the rear end.

Swingarm, same theroy as z-link, but the spring is mounted on the front trailing arm. Very good stuff to have in the heavy track conditions. (Rayburn late models)

600 horse I dont think is going to cut it. Hell the Super Streets are getting close to that number with 4 barrels. If you want a good option on some cheap horsepower, look at Mullins Race Engines. 23 degree head stuff (dont let that scare you), they run upfront all the time, and I believe are the winning-est motor building company in modifieds in the United States. I have a friend that runs at Limaland and he has a 383 Mullins, and is not down in the horsepower department. I believe a new motor is like 12-14k?

I cant say for modifieds how long tires last, we used 7 tires this year, and got about 13 races in for our stock car. I know guys that put new RR's on every night.

Just my thoughts.

PS: Panhard bar will consist of the "shorty bar", which runs from the left side of the frame to the left side of the axle on a bracket on the rear end gear (if 9 inch rear end). Rediculously reactive. "J-bar" is a bar that goes from the left side of the frame, overtop the driveshaft and bolts to the right side of the pinion also attached to a bracket on the gear. (Not sure how a quick change works, never dealt with one). There is also a very rarely used Long panhard bar. Ours was behind the rear end, bolted from the left side of the chassis, to a bracket on the right axle tube on almost the far side of the housing. Not very reactive, and slows all the motions way down. I would say the most commonly Ive seen used is the shorty bar.

I know alot of guys that run quick changes, gears are cheaper. However, I do know alot of guys that run the standard 9 inch floaters, as they are lighter, but your gear selection is much more expensive and limited.

Hope this helps!