Build or Buy: Entry level rally car

Knurled. said:

EvanB said:

In reply to Knurled. :

It's blue, I thought about buying it once. 

That narrows it down to a Subaru and pretty much everything ever.

 

I'm assuming that it's Ed Lowry's car because I haven't seen him at a rallycross in forever.

Your right, I haven't seen Ed Lowry since National Trails. 

But this one is like a backwards Subaru, with less front wheel drive and less water. 

In reply to EvanB :

You're describing most of the Subarus after they blow the radiator and the transmission.

But I know now of what you speak, and I should have remembered it, because I competed against him and his son in that thing for years, and I remember you thinking about buying it...

EvanB said:

Knurled. said:

EvanB said:

In reply to Knurled. :

It's blue, I thought about buying it once. 

That narrows it down to a Subaru and pretty much everything ever.

 

I'm assuming that it's Ed Lowry's car because I haven't seen him at a rallycross in forever.

Your right, I haven't seen Ed Lowry since National Trails. 

But this one is like a backwards Subaru, with less front wheel drive and less water. 

Hmm...  rear engine, air cooled? That doesn't really leave many options.

In reply to Ian F :

It could also be a certain black Golf that would regularly blow out a transmission and head gasket!

But no.  Actually i have footage of it running at Smoke and Mirrors from 2006 or so (the mystery car, not ZB's Golf) but won't post it in case i am supposed to be mum on the subject.

Apropos of the thread, somehow I remember the car having SCCA ProRally livery on it.  I also remember it being flat towed to events on its Silverstone rally tires.

Knurled. said:

In reply to Ian F :

It could also be a certain black Golf that would regularly blow out a transmission and head gasket!

 

But no.  Actually i have footage of it running at Smoke and Mirrors from 2006 or so (the mystery car, not ZB's Golf) but won't post it in case i am supposed to be mum on the subject.

 

Apropos of the thread, somehow I remember the car having SCCA ProRally livery on it.  I also remember it being flat towed to events on its Silverstone rally tires.

Feel free to post the footage.  Build thread starts tonight or tomorrow:)

In reply to eastsideTim :

youtube.com slash izzmus, videos, switch to oldest first, fifth video:

Also note Bill/Ted(Ken)'s ZC-engined CRX, and damn-it's-been-forever's GTI.  And that guy in a busted-ass RX-7 on bald street tires, wonder what he's up to these days.

Well, Tim is heading towards Columbus with a transmission and some stoppy bits

In reply to Patrick :

Ah yes, all is happening according to plan.

That's so far today.  And we haven't even gotten the car yet!

Patrick said:

Well, Tim is heading towards Columbus with a transmission and some stoppy bits

In Columbus I helped them pull an engine at the junkyard in the hour before they closed and lifted it onto the trailer. 

EvanB said:

Patrick said:

Well, Tim is heading towards Columbus with a transmission and some stoppy bits

In Columbus I helped them pull an engine at the junkyard in the hour before they closed and lifted it onto the trailer. 

And many thanks for that!  We managed to unload it a lot more easily, since my radio flyer wagon is about the same height as the deck of Bill’s trailer

On our way to pick up the car now

Think it'll be ready by the 9th?

(You know it had to be asked)

Knurled. said:

Think it'll be ready by the 9th?

 

(You know it had to be asked)

If I blow off the whole week of work, maybe   It is tucked into the garage now, build thread should be started sometime tomorrow.  Too tired to download pics and write much tonight.

In reply to eastsideTim :

But the Internet says you can do an engine R&R in fifteen minutes, so you could probably bring the parts out to Bitzer's and have it running in less time than it takes for most people to swap tires!  And it's against the rules to exaggerate on the Internet.

In reply to Knurled. :

I don't know what took them so long to pull the engine. I figured they would have it out by the time I got back from pulling a trunk latch and headlight wiper from a s40.

In reply to EvanB :

You mean you're fixing the broken wiper and the trunk latch?  Hooray!

You probably should have grabbed the motor too, the left motor never worked in the whole time I had the car.  I was afraid of pulling the bumper off and finding out WHY the front bumper skin was pushed out an inch.  Ignorance is bliss!

There is always time later to fix more things. I am seeing them in junkyards more regularly now.

In reply to EvanB :

I have only seen two other S40s ever,  and one of them was the E36 M3 pre-2001 model.  But then Columbus is weird.  When I needed to find parts to fix he Subaru that I bought for my mom. which was an ultra rare GL and not an Impreza or Legacy, I went to the pick a part off of Sawmill and found a whole line of six or seven GLs in better shape than the car i was trying to fix.

irish44j said:

At Sandblast this year some guys came out in a big 'ol Benz that had previously been used for Chumpcar/LeMons. They were not fast, but they had a blast and were a crowd favorite (and more importantly, they finished the whole rally when half of the high-dollar cars blew up motors or transmissions or crashed). 

I know those guys. Like you said, the car was built to be safe and reliable, first and foremost.

Zombie thread, canoe deleted 

In reply to EastCoastMojo :

It's only kind of a zombie thread because Tim is still working on the Beetle.

Knurled. said:

In reply to EastCoastMojo :

It's only kind of a zombie thread because Tim is still working on the Beetle.

I’m a little slow at the whole “finish building a car” thing.

Well, this got canoe-bumped but seems like I should update since I've built a rally car since my last reply here.

Buy first car, buy another if you're not sure, then once you think you know all the stuff that makes a rally car a rally car, build.  It has been extremely rewarding to do so, but I would have made some really silly mistakes without driving a car or two for a few events first.

Oh wow...  I was getting 22mpg while towing?

wae said:

Oh wow...  I was getting 22mpg while towing?

Yeah, you should get another one of those.