Rally Starlet?

Anyone here built a rally KP61 Starlet? I'm in the process of purchasing a pretty decent running Starlet and want to work towards a rally build with it.

Thoughts/setup advice?

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Jason Musgrave
Durham, NC


Laughter has no foreign accent

Well, I have a question.

Where are you going to find spare parts when you crash it?

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Ask for work.
If they don't give you work, ask for bread.
If they do not give you work or bread, then take bread.

- Emma Goldman

Talk to Garth at Trackside Motorsports in Portland Or. He currently rallies one, but it is far from stock.
You can find pictures of the car on their FB page and instagram.

Quote
musgravecycles
Anyone here built a rally KP61 Starlet? I'm in the process of purchasing a pretty decent running Starlet and want to work towards a rally build with it.

Thoughts/setup advice?

They are cool cars..Easy to upgrade--and you will need to but in a way they're an odd one..
They were typically used only in small class like 1300 or 1600 class..And we don't have engine capacity classes.
the real impressive ones were invariably re-engined with em-biggened 4AGE motors in the roughly 1800cc size plus...That combined with typically a Ford Type 9 gearbox with a Tran-X or maybe a Quaiffe VERY close ratio gearset and some axle a good step bigger than the tiny thing in 'em made for a light simple reliable car..and one which worked really well..

But you have to worry about what the guy Vince said...where you gonna find a simple fender, door, hood or windshield?? Let along a steering knuckle of bottom arm easily?

Yeah Garth has one but Garth is smarter than the average bear...and he's in Portland and plans.

He has been a hawk at tracking down Starlets and buying them to have spare wear items.
Like doors and fenders and hoods..and windshields..

You have any extra cars on the horizon?

Other than that they just get built just like any other RWD car..
Use all the information on building MkI/MkII Escorts to get ideas..

But I wouldn't even think of any car if I didn't have some extra essentials...like sheet metal.glass. etc

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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.

You would for sure want a few spare shells before going down the road of turning one into a rally car.
I think Garth ended up converting the starlet-o to corolla front suspension, and then eventually the Group 4 Escort front end.
It's a mash-up of Escort, Starlet, Corolla, and now it sports a Ford 9" rear end.

So the guy I am potentially buying from has 8 of them in various states of disrepair, mostly rollers/shells though. It comes with a spare 42k mile 4k engine and bunch of new OE Toyota parts (he is a Toyota technician). But things like fenders/hood/glass/etc I could pretty easily source from him.

I was thinking 4AGE with a Toyota T50 tranny but if I have a spare 4k I would probably start by digging into that. Yes to AE86 front suspension and likely a Toyota 8" rear.

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Jason Musgrave
Durham, NC


Laughter has no foreign accent

Will a BEAMS engine fit in a starlet without too much work? Plenty more power than a 4AGE, and you can buy them for $2k with a trans and ECU from various importers.

The narrow (straight axle) 8” Toyota diff should be ~55” flange to flange if I remember my measurements correctly.

Quote
culberro
Will a BEAMS engine fit in a starlet without too much work? Plenty more power than a 4AGE, and you can buy them for $2k with a trans and ECU from various importers.

The narrow (straight axle) 8” Toyota diff should be ~55” flange to flange if I remember my measurements correctly.

Yes I have seen KP61s with the BEAMS swap. Honestly I am more worried about getting suspension/brakes sorted and not so much a big motor until later...I am not an experienced competitive driver so I have a lot to learn before I go hunting more power.

Edit: I've always been a Toyota guy and loved the Starlets from seeing them when I was growing up over there and though this might make a good 40th B-day present for myself.

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Jason Musgrave
Durham, NC


Laughter has no foreign accent



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/2019 04:57PM by musgravecycles.

Quote
musgravecycles
So the guy I am potentially buying from has 8 of them in various states of disrepair, mostly rollers/shells though. It comes with a spare 42k mile 4k engine and bunch of new OE Toyota parts (he is a Toyota technician). But things like fenders/hood/glass/etc I could pretty easily source from him.

I was thinking 4AGE with a Toyota T50 tranny but if I have a spare 4k I would probably start by digging into that. Yes to AE86 front suspension and likely a Toyota 8" rear.

T50 trannies suck biggly I hear...rarer than rare to find a gearset, probaly not a stock part to be found any longer, and even with a gearkit, weak..There's solid reasons so many guys went to Ford Type 9. The problem with Type 9 is the opposite: wading thru all the dozens of options..
There were bellhousings for 4AGE to Type9 in years past in the British market..

Here's a done one:
‎

Quote

Pelle Wilén‎ to Allt Inom Motorsport Säljes-Bytes-Köpes
2 hrs ·
Grym Starlet. Ev byte rallybil Grim Starlet
Price>>>100,000 kr
Eskilstuna
Gatbil byggd som en Grp H. street car built to Group H spec

1522 5K Motor. JE kolvar, Verdistakar. Balancerad med lättat svänghjul
Sinterkoppling
Dubbla Dellorto 45or
Extraktor
Ställbara coilovers från Japtuning runt om med Sellholm toppmonteringar.
Sellholm rörbärarmar
Rakskuren "Finn" SF-växellåda
Lada bakaxel med lamelldiff. 5,0 utväxling. Bakaxeln är genomgången av Sellholm för 2år sen. Knappt körd efter det.
Breddad med Golf skärmkanter. Helsvetsade.
Äkta enkeifälgar 13"

Byggnadskostnad över 150 000kr
100 000 eller bytes emot rallybil.

Everything but the cage.

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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.

Mikakiracing used to have loooads of videos of their very fast Group F Starlet online.

They stopped running it and moved to an E36 M3.

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

Good info on the tranny - keep it coming. I'll start looking for some threads on the MKI/MKII Escort rear suspension geometry and I could run your JVABs with the AE86 front conversion.

That is a beauty, I am also pretty fond of what I found on Facebook with the BMV rally team:

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Jason Musgrave
Durham, NC


Laughter has no foreign accent

I never see them on Craigslist..But here is one on the west coast. Think it's been relisted a couple times.
Perhaps the asking price is the reason. Have no idea-I'm not a yoter guy.

https://inlandempire.craigslist.org/cto/d/pinon-hills-1983-toyota-starlet-kp61/7117200596.html

.

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