New from St Louis

Hello everybody. My name's Jon and I'm 18. I got a 240sx when I was 16 and did that whole drifting thing... It was coolish, I got into some trouble and had to sell the 240sx to a friend for "other expenses". I just recently bought a 1999 civic. It's a really good daily driver. I hope to rally cross and auto cross it this summer.
I worked at a family owned auto shop for awhile and now I work at a bicycle shop. My cousin is the one who owns the auto shop I worked at comes from a racing background. He's done an assortment of things; karts, autox, rallyx, motox, bmx, alcohol dragsters, etc. When I worked there he often talked about building up an old escort gt into a rally cross and maybe even a stage rally car. I thought it was an awesome Idea but it never happened.
Now a friend and I are planing, well more like hoping, to get a rally build going. We both are on extremely tight budgets. We both have an odd love for volvo 240's, primarily volvo 240 wagon's. I know this is not a very practical car to use for rally and would be much faster in a fwd car, but we don't care. I hope it happens. We really just want to have as much fun as possible, get basic driving skills down, and slide around turns in a car that may have once belonged to your grandma.
Thoughts?

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WhiteZenki
We both are on extremely tight budgets. Thoughts?

Go to school and make more money; rally costs a lot.

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-Tom
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Howdy Jon,

First off, I'd reccomend reading the sticky about adding your real name and location to your handle.

Second, I help organize the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood and live in O'Fallon

Third, you've come to the right place for Volvo's. Wagons though? If you can accept the weight penalty, you're good.

Fourth, the conversation can be quite adult over here, so be prepared to have some of your dearest held beliefs mocked and questioned.

Welcome to Rally Anarchy

Tom is just afraid of the growing tide of 240 rally cars.
He knows they have way better balance, way stronger, and with a much larger motor make more torque and cost only a hundred and fifty buck to change final drive, so he's worried that out of the platoons of new guys wisely chosing 240s as their cars, and worried there might be a few that will stick with things and come out and kick his ass...

Of course since I know Tom well, a) he's right, and

b) he'd say bring it on!

Find a $200 240 and get to work. Don't worry fwd vs rwd, the spec of the car is more important that which end drives, especially at medium speeds and up drive is far less important, just that the thing is quick, and affordable to make it so.

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Vorpal_Rally
Howdy Jon,

First off, I'd reccomend reading the sticky about adding your real name and location to your handle.

Second, I help organize the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood and live in O'Fallon

Third, you've come to the right place for Volvo's. Wagons though? If you can accept the weight penalty, you're good.

Fourth, the conversation can be quite adult over here, so be prepared to have some of your dearest held beliefs mocked and questioned.

Welcome to Rally Anarchy

Sweet. Great job this year! I'm planing on being a volunteering next year for sure.

I'm not worried about weight. I know it's going to cost a ridiculous amount of money. I'm going to be a poor college student the next few years but I'm going to try getting a build going asap. There's lots of stuff I can do for next to nothing, striping, seam welding, that sort of stuff, right? I also have been going to a tech school program for auto body the last two years, so I know how to do that stuff.

I forgot to mention.

Talk to Rob Wright, he's the local R-A tech guy and can help you with cage stuff

Also, talk to Scott at Izzy's Custom Cages. He's local and does all kinds of cages.

You are on track to have a bunch of fun. If you have access to a shop and friends to help you are well on your way. A wagon will work just fine, and you will be fan favorites. For RallyAmerica events you have to start in group 2, so save the turbo motor for later. Its actually a super practical car for rally, mainly because of the toughness. Its mind bending how much punnishment a rally dishes out. Also factor in easy to find cheap spares. I like the cars from 1986-88, they seem lighter, and the bosch lh2.2 fuel system is the simplest and best.

Get me started and I'll talk your ear off about how to do it cheeeeeeep.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2011 03:56PM by alkun.

I thought newbs could rally g5?

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Dazed_Driver
I thought newbs could rally g5?

Nope

Send me $600 per month for the next 12 months (including March) and I will deliver you a ready to go starter rally car at 100 Acre Woods next February.

Do It!! Rally wagon would be epic, just like something I would do.......

Many years ago my business partner built a 510 wagon as a daily driver. He was primarily an autoX specialist with a 510 sedan. So one day he entered the wagon in a fast TSD rally that ran behind a normal rally...ask JVL...Tim then decimated the rally field. I think he was top 5 against the rally cars. He had co-driven for me but never rallied before.

Jamie Thomas has beaten all the boys with her Sube wagon and an old Fairmont wagon currently dominates the 2wd cars at the new RallyX events.

Other than the extra window pillars there isn't really much more metal in a wagon than a similar sedan. Metal is just in a different place.

Behold the power of wagons.. <object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="

&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed

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Vorpal_Rally
I forgot to mention.

Talk to Rob Wright, he's the local R-A tech guy and can help you with cage stuff

Also, talk to Scott at Izzy's Custom Cages. He's local and does all kinds of cages.

I actually live right down the street from Scott.


Isnt building a car yourself is half the fun

Its fun till you get to that point when you just want to be done. You will reach that point. I did..

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WhiteZenki

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Vorpal_Rally
I forgot to mention.

Talk to Rob Wright, he's the local R-A tech guy and can help you with cage stuff

Also, talk to Scott at Izzy's Custom Cages. He's local and does all kinds of cages.

I actually live right down the street from Scott.


Isnt building a car yourself is half the fun

I know that people derive satisfaction from successful completion of something. Ok, but do you have tube benders? A welder and the skill to use it successfully? Can you develop that skill? I know Scott is starting on a rally build here soon. Go look at it and talk to him about it.

I'd also contact Rob at rgwright@squirrelsociety.org. Again, not to pick on you, but he can help you avoid costly mistakes.