i'd really like advice that doesnt require a serious acid trip to think up....

LOL
rebuild, port, megasquirt... all good ideas

Okay, here's your serious advice.

Start with a heavily street ported, turbo'd engine. Use ebay to hack together a volvo intercooler (or something of the like), and source some TII injectors, or larger if you find them affordably. Do all the throttlebody ports, and polish your intake manifold if you have the ablity. Do not put anything back onto the engine, unless it's absolutely necessary to run it. Take everything non-essential to the engine out of the engine bay. Sell it where possible.

Remove all of the interior that you can, and sell what you can get rid of. Do ALL weight reduction you can manage, if you don't plan on daily driving this car, get crazy, and try to weld in some support to stiffen up the chassis. Bolt a seat back in, carpet is for the weak. :)

If you don't plan on daily driving this car, this step should include removing the dash, and taking out all unnecessary heater accessories and whatnot. Blowers and things make a great "$50" sale item. If you want to get really ambitious, yank out all of the factory wiring from the seats forward.

Hook up a megasquirt to control fuel. Try to find a used wideband 02 (spend the money) A megasquirt with a wideband will cost you less than 400 if you can solder yourself. It isn't that hard. The megasquirt will allow you to tune your car for maximum power/drivability.

The suspension is going to be up to you, as you already know what you need to replace, shocks, springs, bushings all need replaced if in budget. Swaybar and endlinks and DTSS should be taken care of, account allowing. Just go with the best you can afford.
TIRES. TIRES. TIRES. TIRES. 'nuff said.

Assuming the driveline is in good shape, a NA driveline should hold up to that for the two days required. Don't plan on pushing it much longer, though :)

Get out and enjoy the race.

the car has already been gutted and i'm gonna start selling off the interior parts when i get is in the new garage (under construction). i have a freind who is a welder and i'm gonna seam weld the entire car and remove all sound deadening tar and material. i'm gonna slap in a 4pt. cage (mainly a rollbar) and paint the interior hammered aluminium. the dash will be reconstructed out of just enough aluminum to hold the gauges i need to get the job done.

given the budget, i'm gonna try to keep this n/a if at all possible. i figure i can port the rotor housings and hit the intake mainfold with a port and polish as well. i thought about a webber carb setup for fuel and air delivery so i wouldnt have to mess with the engine management but that's only if i can find one within budget.

i'm gonna replace the back and side glass with plexiglass to cave some weight and put a sheet of plexiglass over the sunroof and seal it off. i think i'm gonna go with a matte black or matte red for the final color of the entire car.

the suspension will be a full energy bushing kit. ground control coilover sleeves with tokico adjustables or konis (if i can find some used ones). used sway bars and maybe a strut tower bar here and there.

that's the plan anyway....

hey, my NA driveline isnt that bad man, ive pushed my car wuite a bit on a few moutain runs and its still works just as it did when i bought it. I will be changing to a T2 driveline when i get a chance of course, but my na driveline isnt as bad as ppl make it out to be, when its maintained well.

well, i have two so maybe i'll get one to hold up :)