Group A Tribute
Posted by M4XVLTG3
Jason B Davis Godlike Moderator Location: Alamogordo NM Join Date: 08/02/2011 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 20 Rally Car: 1986 Toyota Corolla |
Steve Leitch Infallible Moderator Location: Ocean Shores, Washington Join Date: 01/25/2009 Posts: 280 Rally Car: Can't decide which to use... |
Jason B Davis Godlike Moderator Location: Alamogordo NM Join Date: 08/02/2011 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 20 Rally Car: 1986 Toyota Corolla |
Albert Kun Mega Moderator Location: SF Ca. Join Date: 01/07/2008 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 1,732 Rally Car: volvo 242 |
A.J. Johnson Super Moderator Location: Pendleton OR Join Date: 01/07/2011 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 1,381 Rally Car: 88 Audi 80 |
John Vanlandingham Professional Moderator Location: Ford Asylum, Sleezattle, WA Join Date: 12/20/2005 Age: Fossilized Posts: 14,152 Rally Car: Saab 96 V4 |
OK, you do understand how horribly restrictive GPA rules were, dotcha?
Aside from my crusty ol friend Gene McCullough---who had a virtually stockish Fiesta MkI---nobody here with near certainty built a GpA car in that period...'except me! 
The rules allowed alternate material for the crank: steel vs the OEM iron, flywheel , again steel vs cast iron, pistons forged aluminum vs cast and valve springs but mandated; stock intake and exhaust manifolds, stock valve sizes, port dimensions no larger than whatever Toyota decided to lie and fill out on the homolgation form ie +1.8mm or -0,8mm stock fuel/ingition management system (ie The basic Bosch L-jet made by Hitachi or ND or whoever) and until 1 Jan 1986 they mandated stock valve lift...after 1 Jan 86 lift was free. All suspension links had to attach within +- 15mm of original. Alternate gearsets, 2-3 were allowed Alternate final drives were allowed...if the simply filled in the form---they didn't even have to make the gearsets... Brakes were free---if homologated---that is a piccie and a photo and dimensions. Stitch welding of the shell was allowed in GpA---not in GPN in those days. It is a horribly limited rules set and everybody at the time considered it a very cynical deal because you HAD TO use the exact HOMOLOGATED PARTS available from usually 1 source..... So a brake bell---or hat which maybe was dimensionally identical to another was useless if there wasn't etched in a little TRD or Ford Motorsport or Saab Sport and rally PN, and people were protested and excluded on shit like that. SO! None of the things that would make a Corolla a decent car are any longer available since almost nobody outside Japan built them as Group A cars. Thus we arrive at the inevitable basic question: why saddle yourself with an impossible goal of a GpA spec car that was never popular as GpA car (some people hoping to cherry pick may have entered their basically stockish GTS in evens as GpA, but........  they weren't GpN)
The heavy duty axles are rarer than hen's teeth and cost nearly a grand, the T50 gearsets may be at this point gone forever and were in any case very expensive---thousands!!!! and very fragile. On and on.. I'm sorta suggesting you can have loads of fun with the car as a US Gp2 car It'll look the same, and you can make it go good, just with easily available parts... In a way you're doomed from the outset unless you do the fenders, grilles, headlights etc of the "rest of the world" model, since those are what was Homologated. Without those appearance parts, you won't even look like a GpA car... So whaddya trying to do? Build a replica to stare at or have a lot of fun beating on a fun car? John V Group A Saab 96 (yeah I even bought the blinkers and lights). 1986 And I had long discussions in the Old Country with guys who were compelled to build and run GpA cars. Lots of swearing. John Vanlandingham Sleezattle, WA, USA Vive le Prole-le-ralliat www.rallyrace.net/jvab CALL +1 206 431-9696 Remember! Pacific Standard Time is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time. |
John Vanlandingham Professional Moderator Location: Ford Asylum, Sleezattle, WA Join Date: 12/20/2005 Age: Fossilized Posts: 14,152 Rally Car: Saab 96 V4 |
Steve Leitch Infallible Moderator Location: Ocean Shores, Washington Join Date: 01/25/2009 Posts: 280 Rally Car: Can't decide which to use... |
John Vanlandingham Professional Moderator Location: Ford Asylum, Sleezattle, WA Join Date: 12/20/2005 Age: Fossilized Posts: 14,152 Rally Car: Saab 96 V4 |
Steve Leitch Infallible Moderator Location: Ocean Shores, Washington Join Date: 01/25/2009 Posts: 280 Rally Car: Can't decide which to use... |
Maybe it won't then... SteveL This is the point in the killing spree when you really should turn the gun on yourself |
John Vanlandingham Professional Moderator Location: Ford Asylum, Sleezattle, WA Join Date: 12/20/2005 Age: Fossilized Posts: 14,152 Rally Car: Saab 96 V4 |
Beauty and perfection and sustained dedication to a mission is always inspiring. Those piccies should help motivate anybody who is not dead yet. John Vanlandingham Sleezattle, WA, USA Vive le Prole-le-ralliat www.rallyrace.net/jvab CALL +1 206 431-9696 Remember! Pacific Standard Time is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time. |
Jason B Davis Godlike Moderator Location: Alamogordo NM Join Date: 08/02/2011 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 20 Rally Car: 1986 Toyota Corolla |
I could have never imagined it was that strict. If you fart to hard in a GPA car it sounds like you could be DQ. Let me elaborate on how all this came to pass. As mentioned before I recently picked up this clean title corolla and took it over to a friend’s house were everyone wanted to take it around the block. Most of these guys are east coast domestic mechanics except for me who spent a four year stent in Germany which jumpstarted my love of cars and mechanics. I ended up volunteering at Landstuhl’s auto hobby shop for three years while my buddy and fellow Rotary mechanic Eric. Before I go on that tangent I’ll get back on track. My friends had fun blowing around the block to get a feel for the car and even took it on a dirt stretch on undeveloped land. They were surprised that the car felt so nimble and yet was RWD. After we had our fun we broke out the beers and chairs around our other project (Monte SS with GTO V8 swap). As I’m sure we all do we started talking about the blandness of most cars these days mainly brought on by the Beige era of Toyota themselves. Such a fall from grace.
The night went on and we started trading paint Ideas for the Monte which lead to us getting excited as the prospect of bringing it to a few base car shows in the future when my buddy Jason (Our ex-Sears manager and go) said we should put work in on the Corolla. I asked what the hell he was talking about (We were a few beers in by then) to which he responded that he saw corollas run back when GPB was around and screaming. We did search the next day and found that The older corollas were somewhat common in GPA. We were proposing building the car as a street register able tribute to what we considered a wild time in Rally. We want something we can take to the local shows and show to the kids and adults. At best we are hoping that doing this will be twofold. One It could drum up enough support to get local Rally sanctioned events going. Also we all remember cool cars when we were younger that tipped if over to the dark side of seeing cars as more than a meant of transportation. Seeing as how a GPA tribute is nigh impossible what do you recommend? We were hoping to build this car and capture the insanity and wonder of rally during those years. For what its worth we have acess to a very decent machine shop and a loyal buddy who used to have a bar in Kadena. It looks like you really know how to handle a impact gun John 
We hand a chance to do some work on a Cosworth Sierra shortly before I left Germany. Just hoses and belts but I'd be damned if that was a beautiful car. I think it was blue but it may have been silver. I dont remember. Everything is grey in Germany. TL;DR: Airforce Jerks want to make a badass form functional rally car out of a 80 corolla to inspire little kids. (Hardest working bot, Ever! Free Xbox anyone? Haha, Mabey you can help me get my Gajillion dollars out of Africa for a small investment? I’m a prince you know so that makes it legit…) Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/2011 04:37PM by M4XVLTG3. |
Banned Ultra Moderator Location: John and Skyes Magic Love liar Join Date: 08/24/2007 Posts: 2,154 |
Michel Hoche-Mong Godlike Moderator Location: Campbell, CA Join Date: 02/28/2006 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 1,156 Rally Car: Golf, Golf, RX-3 |
Jason B Davis Godlike Moderator Location: Alamogordo NM Join Date: 08/02/2011 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 20 Rally Car: 1986 Toyota Corolla |
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.