Check it out:


http://www.rally-america.com/news/875/

That almost makes it worth it for a Merkur to enter National. Since there's like zero other G5 national 2WD guys!
$2750 if you win R2 and (G2 or G5) per event!

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NoCoast
That almost makes it worth it for a Merkur to enter National. Since there's like zero other G5 national 2WD guys!
$2750 if you win R2 and (G2 or G5) per event!

I thought Van Way ran G5 at the first event, and I believe they're going to supercharge his Fiesta.

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NoCoast
That almost makes it worth it for a Merkur to enter National. Since there's like zero other G5 national 2WD guys!
$2750 if you win R2 and (G2 or G5) per event!

It's a bid odd, because in national events... there is only 2WD. There is no G2 or G5.

Still, NEFR could be a big prize package if you got 1st in MaxAttack!, 1st in 2WD for national which would give you first in the R2 race.

I just wish they would have announced the R2 program in 2009 when I was looking at building a new car. I probably would have sucked it up and drove a 120hp Fiesta with a diff and suspension instead of building my Honda.

Well, now that I think about it, technically there is only one National class, 2WD now isn't there? I guess I could go look in the 2011 rulebook that arrived in the mail today, but I think instead I'll go back to trying to derive the variance of this fucking hazard function. Taylor series, delta method, etc are killing my brain right now...

Question is, does a Merkur counts as a Ford?

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hoche
Question is, does a Merkur counts as a Ford?

Who do you think made it?

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NoCoast
That almost makes it worth it for a Merkur to enter National. Since there's like zero other G5 national 2WD guys!
$2750 if you win R2 and (G2 or G5) per event!

Not quite... the 'R2' money is for the R2 Fiesta Cup guys, not cumulative and the non-fiesta g2/5 money is only $500

My guess is that you'd have as much luck registering a merkur as you would a mazda for this contingency.

In a way, I wish that they would have announced this a year sooner. Or maybe I should have waited a year to build my new car...

Oh hindsight!

But really, I'm probably between 15-20k into the Civic. Granted it's just about as close to R2 spec in weight/power&displacement/gears with a lump behind on suspension (my hotbits to reigers). I could be at the same price with a stock Fiesta with an LSD and some Bilsteins and have a chance at getting extra contingency! I don't know what suspension Van Way was running at Sno*Drift, but that car was bone stock power/trans/brakes. *edit* just saw the Whiskers walk around, and Dilon was running Proflex dampers with a Quaife *edit*

But what Ford still lacks, that they have in the UK with their R2 program, is a discounted car price for those who want to race the car. They deliver the car at a heavily discounted price, you install and show proof of cage installed, they give you the title. It's something like a 4k GBP savings, which is a big help towards starting a zero mile race car.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/2011 11:39PM by BillyElliot.

Fortunately, you can just call it an 86 Ford Sierra.

Hmm, that's actually a real concern if they will count an merkur as a ford or not. It would make sense... but that doesn't always mean they will.

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BillyElliot
In a way, I wish that they would have announced this a year sooner. Or maybe I should have waited a year to build my new car...

Oh hindsight!

I wouldn't beat myself up over it, Billy. You have to win it to make it. Make your best plans and move forward.

And, I am sure nobody on this site would do it ......... but racers are notorious for spending $10,000 that they would not have spent otherwise to win $1,000.

Regards,
Mark B.

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starion887
And, I am sure nobody on this site would do it ......... but racers are notorious for spending $10,000 that they would not have spent otherwise to win a plastic cup.

Regards,
Mark B.

Fixed it for you Mark, otherwise Nail -> Head!!!

Two Fiesta events are also MA. That's $3500 for a winning R2. Not too shabby for 2wd.

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starion887

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BillyElliot
In a way, I wish that they would have announced this a year sooner. Or maybe I should have waited a year to build my new car...

Oh hindsight!

I wouldn't beat myself up over it, Billy. You have to win it to make it. Make your best plans and move forward.

And, I am sure nobody on this site would do it ......... but racers are notorious for spending $10,000 that they would not have spent otherwise to win $1,000.

Regards,
Mark B.

Well with some sort of marketing with a local dealership, I'm sure one could get a heavily discounted Fiesta as long as you park the car at their dealership for people to oogle over and slap the dealership's name all over it. Probably work something like a buy back of all unused OEM parts to the dealer as well. You could most likely get a car for $10k. Add in a base $10k package of cage/suspension and you have the new generation MK2 GTI that you can actually market towards sponsorships, aftermarket companies as a testbed for development parts, etc.

Sure, I'd be 40hp under the R2 without a fancy dogbox. But you you're getting diminishing returns performance of the Reigers compared to something like a HotBits kit. You solve the under HP issue by keeping the foot down.

But looking at total events... There's 7 "events" in the Fiesta Cup over 4 weekends. In these events you only need to place compared to other Fiestas. Wyatt is one of them in the R2, Van Way's will have a turbo so won't be R2 eligible (and I find it silly that he would go turbo to not be R2 eligible) There's the one guy in Canada building one, Broken wants to build one, I don't know any other currently competing rally folks who are looking to buy one (at least publicly). You have up to $14,000 in prize money available with $1750 if you get 5th every time. I know, don't count on the money, but the money is there... Also when you consider MaxAttack! money over 2 weekends...

I'm sure we'll see a lot of Stage 1 Fiestas in the R2 cup with a few full blown R2s mixed in there.