XR4Ti - Rally Car?

Morten people's priorities change.... Things happen.... Rallying is a WANT.

When anything else has to happen the rallycar will be (if lucky) parked in the garage; not abused in the woods.... In particular if something happened to it last time out.

How does it happen that so many projects seem to get started with end of the world everything that too often are not finished? Certain people push for end of the world everything absolutely having to be in the car or....... So stuff gets purchased.... Time goes by... She may get pregnant... The the project ends up sold for what seems like theft.

You are looking at XR4Ti now...... In Canada wouldn't a GP-5 car have you stuck with a soda-straw or did those writing rules come to their senses?

If you're shopping.... Find someone's car that is done and ready to go or very close to it.

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JohnLane

Overkill is consistently more fun

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DaveK

McLeery ran the 2.3L up until recently. And yeah, he doesn't exactly light the world on fire either.
Nelson's DNF was due to dual mass flywheel or something like that.

The Merkur when I was able to run full boost was much faster. Of course, I had problems keeping it from overheating and had to run 1/2 boost most of the time, partly due to the huge skid plate. The final drive blew though and it ran out of steam.

It was a Windsor at LSPR in '08, so not that recent.

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"Talk about drugs. Driving a car like that, going that fast, it’s like all the drugs at once." - Tommy Byrne

"Now, Pinky, if by any chance you are captured during this mission, remember you are Gunther Heindriksen from Appenzell. You moved to Grindelwald to drive the cog train to Murren. Can you repeat that?" - The Brain

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NoCoast

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DaveK
That's a pretty bold claim coming from a guy who got scared into re-prepping said merkur at the thought of a Compact getting built.

Actually it was a desire to do events and Rally Colorado being dropped meant at least 1000 mile tows and I didn't trust the things I hadn't touched with a $3000+ weekend.

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DaveK
Not saying you don't have some pretty rad parts for the Merkur, but comparing a chump car build to what you've done with the Merkur is hardly fair. Take that same $25k spent wisely* and you'd have a BMW that could stomp your Merkur and you'd be able to replace a front fender with a few bolts instead of an afternoon with a spot weld drill bit.

I'm not comparing it to a Chumpcar build. We can compare it to any of them. Derik's, Hintz's, Bradenburg's, Jari's, Gardemeister's, etc. Colin McLeery's XR4ti has something like 35 events and 2 mechanical DNFs. Derik and Hintz both had DNFs last year, both due to weaknesses in the BMW package. Though both are things you have done differently with the Compact so it may be that you'll be okay.

Colin had something like 50+ events on his. 1 DNF was the 145k stock gearbox he NEVER checked the oil in....
And he did consistantly pretty good like into top 10 OA..
Course that's in the mid-west, home of "take the door cards out and call it Group 2" VW Golves.

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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.

My XR is finally close to completion thanks to tons of $$ and Robert Gobrights skills. Won't see stage for a while due to me being in HI.
The car is nice from the factory. The way to do it is to get on stage with a close to stock car and progressively modify. My motor needed to come apart due to internal rust, so I figured good time to do a bunch of mods. Unfortunately most of those have a cascading effect of unforeseen issues that require real fabrication skills, the right tools, and TIME.
End result if you're an average mechanic with limited funds is that you're in over your head and the money to get it right isn't there. I wouldn't do it again. That being said, mine will have some of the best parts around including a square beam!

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frumby
That being said, mine will have some of the best parts around including a square beam!

A what?

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Kirk Coughlin
Woodbury, MN and River Falls, WI

Quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est.

Fabricated square beam rear sub frame.

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Robert.

"You are way too normal to be on Rally Anarchy." Eddie Fiorelli.

Here is a JVAB/TSS square rear suspension beam, this one went in Dave Clark's car.


Here is the stock rear beam, shaped like a horse collar.


The square beam is stronger, makes rear suspension easier to service, and allows the exhaust to go over the top of the beam. Down side is I could not pull the one piece driveshaft without removing the diff. But that only takes 5-8 minutes anyway.

That is undeniably cool. It makes me wish I knew more about fabricating stuff.

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Kirk Coughlin
Woodbury, MN and River Falls, WI

Quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est.

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JohnLane
Morten people's priorities change.... Things happen.... Rallying is a WANT.

You are looking at XR4Ti now...... In Canada wouldn't a GP-5 car have you stuck with a soda-straw or did those writing rules come to their senses?

Hi everyone,

Just to confirm, in Canada CARS has made MAJOR changes to the 2wd class structure for the national championship. In the new "Open 2wd" class, 2000 cc is the max displacement for turbo cars and these MUST now run a 32 mm restrictor. 3000 cc is the max displacement for NA engined cars in open 2wd but you are also limited to "a maximum of five cylinders" (!!!). Find the CARS rulebook here:

http://carsrally.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=106%3A2013-cars-rule-book&catid=15%3Arules-a-regulations&Itemid=24&lang=en

Group 5 will continue in the Canadian Western Region Championship for the foreseeable future without turbo restrictors even though CARS national will not include it in the national series after 2014. I expect more news about this in the coming weeks.

Regards,
Tony

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2015 Subaru WRX
Traded the Audi for the above
Sold the 1993 Honda Civic EG w/B16A Conversion to the Raw Racing boys
6 bicycles because, you know, global warming and all

I don't think it has anything to do with Merkurs (or any car) specifically.

The amount of time and money it takes to even rally cheaply is expensive. It's as simple as that. In fact, for me, it's actually time. The amount of time to prep a car, prepare for an event, and the reprep/fixing of crap is a LOT of time that you HAVE to dedicate. I don't have the luxury of a garage attached to my residence, that would make a big difference.

Road racing is cheaper, and typically the track is closer and you aren't gone as long. Doesn't quite provide the same fix though. Look at what I went through just to get rallying.

At the age of 24, if you've gone and got an education, who has the disposable income to buy a rally car (typically $10k if already built, more if you build it), a truck to haul it with (if we are trying to be remotely sane about it), minimum $2k up here, a trailer minimum $2k up here, plus typically $1500 per event regionally or $3k nationally. I am NOT a fabricator. I'd go so far as to say I hate fabricating, but that is with the caveat that I don't have the proper tools. In order to completely prep a car MYSELF, would require me to learn skills I don't have and buy additional (expensive) tools I don't have. It took me two months of constant work to reprep the Talon, and I didn't have a girlfriend or wife/kids at home. I'm not superhuman like some individuals I know. I love rally. I also like being able to do other none car related stuff sometimes like a normal human being.

I spent more on rally last year than some people spend in 5 years on their playtime hobbies. I volunteered a bit of my time (and not even close to the insanity our organizers go through). It all adds up. When I'm lying on my cold garage floor at 2 in the morning while my friends are out having a good time, makes you wonder if it's all worth it. Then you pull off a stage like the 1st stage of RMR last year, or how well Cochrane went, and it IS all worth it (even rolling the car off the road).

It's hard to stay committed for years on end to something that is fun that requires such dedication. Which is why I am probably shifting my priorities this year to earning more money so I can have extra time to play and less of my spare time devoted to making the playtime happen. Wrenching on cars constantly to get to go racing has taken the wind out of my sales. Partly my fault for crashing, but crashing DOES happen in rally (if you want to go fast). I'm also trying to get into a condo this year, which means my current debt must go down.

I'm quite sure it's not the XR's that lead people down the road of a project that doesn't get finished. Like others have said.. Lots of unfinished project dream cars. For me, building the talon as a single guy with some extra money was one thing. I bought the Merkur just weeks before my first child. Now we have three kids. My wife deals with them all day, so when I come home it's my turn to at least help out. By the time they are on bed its some time with my wife, and then too tired to do much. Before you know it months have passed with little getting done. That's got nothing to do with car brand, it's about life changing.

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NoCoast
[ Derik and Hintz both had DNFs last year, both due to weaknesses in the BMW package.

Correction, Hintz had one DNF on day 2 of Oregon Trail due to a broken throttle cable. Still made it back to service using Rick's bootlace. At Olympus they finished despite the shock mount shearing off due to a rear spring coil binding. They threw a chunk of wood back there and finished 17 miles of Nawahtzel and dead last in the rally.

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HiTempguy
At the age of 24 ....

I spent more on rally last year than some people spend in 5 years on their playtime hobbies. ....

When I'm lying on my cold garage floor at 2 in the morning while my friends are out having a good time, makes you wonder if it's all worth it. Then you pull off a stage like the 1st stage of RMR last year, or how well Cochrane went, and it IS all worth it (even rolling the car off the road).

It's interesting.... as a young person (high school) most people can only concieve of projects (homework) that takes a week to do. You get to college, and eventually you are working on projects that take 3 months to complete. ("What! A WHOLE semester!???"

You get out of college and into work, and you get involved in projects that take a little over a year to complete. (some engineering task)

Then there's stuff that goes well beyond that. Rally can be one of them (and I'm not talking about 'build a car'). To move toward my rally goals, I'm using contacts and experiences I had over a decade ago. It's pretty wacky.

There's your dose of philosophy for the morning.

Anders

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Grassroots rally. It's what I think about.

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frumby
Unfortunately most of those have a cascading effect of unforeseen issues that require real fabrication skills, the right tools, and TIME.

You nailed it - at least in my case... My XR4Ti is FINALLY almost ready - a windshield and a logbook is all it really needs at this point, besides some dumb shit (intercom wire, etc.). ...but, it has been a long time coming, and ended up taking a lot longer than I had expected, mainly due to job snafus, but also because of that cascade effect and dependency hell (which also, I'll add "money" to your list there)...

On my car, I also had shit-tons of mission-creep... When I stripped it, I checked out the engine, of course the head was cracked... Well, can't have that - so replace. ...but while I'm there, might as well do this that and the other. Every time, the 'cascade effect' took hold. Oh, I should probably replace that piston too - eh - might as well get a new set. ...and why use the old con-rods, since I'm here... ...and.... ...and... ... ... (ad infinitum)

Most of my mission-creep might also be because I wanted the car to be as reliable as it can reasonably be. I'd rather be bitching about my driving, and improving it, than fucking with some stupid assed 'bailing wire and duct tape' "fix", or some stupid spun bearing because I didn't think I needed to replace it, etc... Granted, those 'bailing wire and duct tape fixes' ARE important - when time is of the essence during an event, but after the event - that shit needs to be fixed properly - or BEFORE the event. I've seen too many people DNF for STUPID assed reasons that could have been avoided... Eh, well - I have a nice reliable car now, so when I roll it, at least I'll roll it with STYLE ha. If something breaks - it broke because of nature or my idiocity, not because of me skipping over something for the sake of 'git-r-dun'.

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AnthonyLatham

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JohnLane
Morten people's priorities change.... Things happen.... Rallying is a WANT.

You are looking at XR4Ti now...... In Canada wouldn't a GP-5 car have you stuck with a soda-straw or did those writing rules come to their senses?

Hi everyone,

Just to confirm, in Canada CARS has made MAJOR changes to the 2wd class structure for the national championship. In the new "Open 2wd" class, 2000 cc is the max displacement for turbo cars and these MUST now run a 32 mm restrictor. 3000 cc is the max displacement for NA engined cars in open 2wd but you are also limited to "a maximum of five cylinders" (!!!). Find the CARS rulebook here:

http://carsrally.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=106%3A2013-cars-rule-book&catid=15%3Arules-a-regulations&Itemid=24&lang=en

Group 5 will continue in the Canadian Western Region Championship for the foreseeable future without turbo restrictors even though CARS national will not include it in the national series after 2014. I expect more news about this in the coming weeks.

Regards,
Tony

In before fawkin Morison comes and rants at length how they took 3 years to fuck up their rules and how it is a logical response to the stated problems of increase costs and speed in OPEN class and declining entries to limit "OPEN" 2wd with a 32mm restrictor and then allow "OPEN 4WD" have a bigger 34mm restrictor.

Idiots. Incomprehensible idiots... and intentional idiots too.
You know, you could see a total un-aware, no nothing about anything mechanical putz like Morison being able to be talked into some stupid ideas by some idiot tech guy who admitted openly he is just a hobby geek kinda interested"..
But,
a person's a priori failing or ignorance does not have to be an insurmountable problem......unless they are truly, unredeemably , thouroughly stupid...
Or dishonest

Or both.

No single thing since there was a SS.forum had more posts, huge amount here, huge amount on Ontario forum..

Stonewall.

Many of you guys say Moroison "is a real nice guy"... I don't know anything but his whiney, miss-the-point-entirely-and-rant-about-bagatelles droning writying style, but I'll concede maybe he is.

But you all have to admit his extensive "support" and "defence" of this idiotic
and PONTLESS and EXPENSIVE whim of a little gang of idiots means he is gets painted with the same brush as we paint those who,
FOR WHATEVER BULLSHIT "REASON"

cooked up, and pushed thru this scheme.



We all have stupid ideas, I get lots of stupid ideas daily..

The difference is I listen to wiser--clear voices.
Result: happiness.

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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.