ProDarwin wrote: Our SpecV has been nothing but trouble
So the spec-v is pretty trouble prone? Ive thought pretty hard that one of those would be a nice daily. Decent power, six speed, posi, four doors with real back seats, and decent mileage. I know the self destructing engines are an easy fix, what other troubles are you having?
VWMS was a marketing exercise, and a poor one at that, especially seeing that the TDI wasn't even available in a golf until late 1999 model year. There have been more privateers in North America to run TDI motors in stage rally since the introduction of the mkiv and all chassis since in stage rally using the golf chassis. Heck some have swapped tdis into their mkii cars.
I agree with your assesment in a way. It actually has a lot of things I've been looking for in a DD - 4 seats, 4 doors, decent power, LSD, not huge. But its oddly one of those cars that feels less than the sum of its parts. Also, you get what you pay for... where I'm sure you can get into a decent Neon for $1000, the SpecV you find will be a piece of E36 M3. And the Neon will still walk it in a straight line :(
Ours has been a special breed of suck. At some point in its life its had the engine replaced and whoever did that took some super shady shortcuts with securing the wiring harness and vacuum lines. This is what caused us to almost throw in the towel at the first event (saved by a zip tie!) and to limp the car home at the second event.
Its kind of an unsupported bastard car. You'll run across replacement parts you simply can't buy. Or you can buy them direct from Nissan for some absurd amount of money. everything in the engine bay is different than the vanilla B15s and finding a Spec V in the junkyard is rare. Basically any one of them you see on the road now is breaking federal emissions laws. There is no way to keep the emissions system intact and the engine alive. Hell, I can't even find a secondary cat for ours - we are going to have to make a custom (armored) midpipe.
In stock form the car sits plenty high, yet the exhaust and oil pan are the closest things to the ground.
Its mildly sucky to work on. The rear suspension sucks. That might not be a huge issue in the dirt, but I do suspect we are getting a fair amount of bind in ours, and there really isn't much of a way to correct that short of welding in a custom panhard bar.
That said, when its operational, it is pretty fun. Hopefully we have more luck with it this season.
And I keep thinking of Jon O.'s SpecV swapped B13, and the sounds that engine made!!!
...after the flywheel bolts all sheared while he was on course.
MAN that engine revved like a F1 mill, with no flywheel.
Knurled wrote: And I keep thinking of Jon O.'s SpecV swapped B13, and the sounds that engine made!!! ...after the flywheel bolts all sheared while he was on course. MAN that engine revved like a F1 mill, with no flywheel.
An F1 engine that redlines at 6100rpm lol.
MotoIQ has dedicated a few articles on how E36 M3ty the QR25DE and B15 Suspension are if you want some fun reading 
http://www.motoiq.com/Projects/Nissan/SentraSpecV.aspx
How about a more recent gen. Celica?
In reply to Katya4me:
Celicas, especially the ones from the 90s with the round headlights, look SO GOOD dressed up like a race car. They made my list based on aesthetics alone.
I tried to learn more about BG escorts, now google thinks im shopping for prostitutes in Bowling Green. These things are getting hard to find. The car i mean.
In reply to gearheadmb:
Protege lx from 90-94 are the same chassis with the 1.8L dohc BP motor. The have the bonus of mazda contingency money over the escort variation as well.
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