Me and my mates have already started a similar project, but no gas.

Low budget motor, decent tyres, welded rear shocks and major weight loss program.

Depends what budget your doing it on, Ive luckily got loads of bits laying around and as stated above you need to pay attention to suspension. Thats a lot easier and cheaper if its not a road car (like we're doing).

Managment also take a major chunk of budget as we found out!