Subaru rear crossmember for RWD conversions

John, I found the XR4TI in Richmond and sent them a few emails, but apparently they don't want to sell or are incapable of responding to emails.

I am working to get a few 'odd jobs' hanging around the house done so the locality will allow me to bring another car to the driveway. Amongst other things I have to put a new set of speedo gears in an Auto Le-gassy for the neighbors.

Meanwhile I am certainly shopping for XRs... I really like my Fords.

Tell me, has anyone campaigned a non-turbo'd XR for learning purposes and then returned the turbo mill after "getting the hang of things"?

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tbolt64
John, I found the XR4TI in Richmond and sent them a few emails, but apparently they don't want to sell or are incapable of responding to emails.

I am working to get a few 'odd jobs' hanging around the house done so the locality will allow me to bring another car to the driveway. Amongst other things I have to put a new set of speedo gears in an Auto Le-gassy for the neighbors.

Meanwhile I am certainly shopping for XRs... I really like my Fords.

Tell me, has anyone campaigned a non-turbo'd XR for learning purposes and then returned the turbo mill after "getting the hang of things"?

Yeah, though they din't learn enough to do it right and done did 'em wrong..More on a phone call if you want--you ever send your numbah?

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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.

I would enjoy discussing an XR build sometime. I would like to talk to someone who has done it before so I know what to expect and where to spend money and where to save money.


I will shoot you a PM with my contact information.

I work a swing shift where I am on-call on night shifts. I have time to post on a forum or write email, but I am not guaranteed time for a good phone conversation where notes can be taken.

Thanks,
Drew

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john vanlandingham

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tdrrally

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john vanlandingham
Richmond VA
1985 Mercury Merkur XR4Ti - $1500 (Richmond)


http://richmond.craigslist.org/cto/5376860507.html

where do these cars rust? floors, frame rails, rear suspension mounts?

Pinch weld at bottom of sills.
Floor to sill junction..
And I don't know what "frame rails" are

Some at bottom of doors---easy replacements are available for inner and outer door skins, and outer sill..

this is a rust hole on the top of the front frame rail of a fox chassis, behind the front strut and at the location where the k member bolts on


this is a rear frame rail on the same fox chassis rust out


it did not take me long to find a better chassis to build

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I would rather drive a slow car fast as a fast car slow!
first rule of cars: get what makes you happy, your the one paying for it!

That Mustang looks like a good one to part out... Is the car a V8 car with an 8.8 and world class T5?

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tbolt64
That Mustang looks like a good one to part out... Is the car a V8 car with an 8.8 and world class T5?

parted it out long ago, it was a v8 with a aod and an 8.8

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I would rather drive a slow car fast as a fast car slow!
first rule of cars: get what makes you happy, your the one paying for it!

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tbolt64

Tell me, has anyone campaigned a non-turbo'd XR for learning purposes and then returned the turbo mill after "getting the hang of things"?

What races are you expecting to attend? NASA will let you race with the turbo and there isn't much learning to be gained without it. Unless you are heart set on Rally America (what is the closest race? The one in PA?) I would put all of your money, effort, heads (you have to mill the head to get a higher compression ratio), exhaust fab, and engine management options into other things rather than de-turboing an XR.

Do you want to race or do you want to build a car? If you want to race, seriously consider buying a used car race ready or close to it. You can ship a car across the country for a reasonable amount of money. You will put way more effort into building one than that $1000 shipping cost. If you want to build a car then have at. Just know you will usually spend more to build it yourself than to buy someone else's pride and joy that they are usually selling at a loss. To build a stage ready car it will probably cost you $7,000 to 10,000 or more and hundreds of man hours. You know this right? You can lower that $ number but that means doing everything....everything....

John is right about the rust. The plastic sill covers collect and store moisture. You have to take them off to get a really good look but that will usually be the worst spot. They can be fixed if they are not horrible but that would require some elbow grease.

Where should you spend money? Besides the cage, seats, belts, and tires? Brakes, suspension, and reliability??? The little things add up quick, quicker than you could ever imagine, so spend every penny only to get closer to being on stage. No fancy crap. You can always upgrade later when you have the time and money.

Ask specific questions and they will usually get answered. Not always the way you want.

Are you having fun yet???

I've got a fancy carb, intake manifold and long header kit sitting at shop for anyone needing to go NA for a bit on a Ford 2.3.
James Bass just ran a gutted turbo until he got enough coefficients to go Group 5.
I should just send all those parts up to John come to think of it.

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Grant Hughes

Mark, I am hoping to buy my first car, but I do not see anything that is what I'm looking for (RWD) on the market at this moment. I have built race cars in the past for circle track racing, and if I have to buy one and build, I will. I am aware of the costs and time required of car building and I know buying is cheaper than building.

I will most likely be looking to compete in NASA's Atlantic races, if only one or two a year. My time table would be trying to have something together by mid-2017. That gives me a good while to buy someone else's build or find something and start from scratch.

On stage in 1.5 years? The odds are not with you but I wish you the best of luck and would like to see it happen.

Buy john lanes Volvo. Its down to like $10,000 and you could probably get it lower.

What is your budget anyway?

I drank Vanlandinham's coolaid and still don't regret it. I built a Merkur and was on stage in around 2 years. I've raced in 4 rallies. Took a year off to build a house and get married. I bought Grant's Merkur for a spares so now I have two log booked shells and am probably going to make at least 2 races this year and some drift events. I can help you greatly if you want to go down the Merkur dark hole. I can give you realistic cost analysis of the things you may need or think you need. And all without trying to sell you anything for what that is worth.....

Merkurs are not bad. Definitely not too much power with the turbo. Spend $30,000 and you would have a hell of a car. Spend $10,000 and you can have a hell of a lot of fun.

Volvo- Lots of prep to make them go fast. Not so much prep and you can have fun anyway.

Mr2- Its hard to argue with greg McMahan's results at Black river stages last year. He's had his fair shares of DNFs and you have to be small enough to fit in the car but that little thing moves.

There are definitely other options out there. One thing to consider is once you pick a car and go with it, it becomes quite difficult to sell off and go to another car. Possible but difficult. So pick the right car the first time around and you will be thankful you did. Its not easy to sell a rally car for the $$$ you want. Don't make everything one off. If you crash into a tree is it going to end your rally career because of all the custom stuff you built? Making a FWD or AWD a custom RWD doesn't really seem worth it to me at all. Unless you have literally nothing better to do with your life and money.

The hardest part isn't building the car. Its having enough patience to finish the build and make it on stage without life shutting you down. Don't go crazy in the build because a lot of people never make it when that happens. Have you looked at NASA rally sport's rally university pages?

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MarkHille
The hardest part isn't building the car. Its having enough patience to finish the build and make it on stage without life shutting you down. Don't go crazy in the build because a lot of people never make it when that happens. Have you looked at NASA rally sport's rally university pages?

You get to a point where it seems like it's just another few hundred needed, then it's another few hundred, then another, and before long you have to put off that next few hundred but there's not much worth doing until you can get that next item and before long six months have passed, maybe a year, maybe two, you might have gotten married, had a kid, bought a house, gotten a divorce, changed jobs, been deployed, got arrested, ran for city council, or any of the other things life throws your way.
My advice has progressed over the years. When I started building the Merkur, I wanted a car that could win 2WD and the only holdback would be my driving. It is one of the few cars that with the right driver and setup properly can probably do that.
Now, I want something that I can build affordably in a few months and get out to a race. That is what I suggest to all people. Just get out and drive. Get that hook started before life casts more flies your way.
Thus, I tend to suggest BMWs or Open Light Impreza to most people. We started a new build for my new rally car at the beginning of this year. We plan to compete at the end of April with it. I'll have approximately $6-7k into the car to get it to the first race including $2500 for cage.
Last year I did two hill climbs with our BMW Chumpcar that we previously did 28 hours of racing over 3 enduros with. New engine from a $500 donor car, swapped stock springs, skid plate, and gravel tires on to go rallying. That car, including the new engine, had less than $5k into it but it was a cheaper shell (325i vs. 318ti for new rally car). It's doing double duty again this year with NASA track racing, Chumpcar at COTA in August, and at least 4 gravel hill climbs. The new car I am letting a friend drive at hill climbs in exchange for labor.

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Grant Hughes

Sorry about keeping the thread alive... I have certainly abandoned the goofiness of a custom RWD conversion for now. Originally I had asked because I had read where some dude in New Zealand had used Subaru stuff to convert a MK2 to IRS and added an S2000 engine.

Mk2 Escort - A little bit sideways

I wondered if anyone else had gotten creative and given such a conversion a shot.

There's also this dude I know who got a custom rear subframe and made a RWD WRX for drifting goofiness. I also remember circle track racing against a guy who had re-skinned his old 1st gen small-frame Pinto with an Escort EXP, which made a good looking race car.

Mark, I have read through NASA's Rally University. I really do hope I can run down someone's RWD build in the not-to-distant future just to get out there and give it a shot, thus my shorter time frame.

Realistically, while I do care about performing well, I don't see myself winning anything without more dedication than my job will allow. My wife is hugely supportive of my car "problem", so that isn't really an issue. I've played the "gotta race every weekend" game, and I cannot realistically make that happen.

As far as money goes, I am hoping to be on-stage at around $10,000 if I buy something, not including personal safety stuff (the dates on my circle track racing helmet and fire suit has expired). I have a good job, no kids and few bills.

Check out Dustins Corolla he's got for sale. Pretty much ready to rock for $7k. I was interested in it(and actually need to shoot him another email..) after abandoning my overly complex Audi build in favor of exactly what Grant just outlined. Simplicity. Im actually moving towards a Subaru now due to cost and the fact that they're effing Lego sets and parts are everywhere for them. 10 year(almost) span on 1 chassis generation to as where everything just bolts together. My mind was blown after spending the past couple weeks actually learning about them more. When I replied previously about cutting floor pans out and what not for AWD, I was stupid and should have just kept my mouth shut haha! I had no clue that it all just bolts in on a subaru!

Good luck to ya whichever way you go man!

Well no updates for some time but there is also tssfab's rwd Focus project:


http://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,45563

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deaner
Check out Dustins Corolla he's got for sale. Pretty much ready to rock for $7k. I was interested in it(and actually need to shoot him another email..) after abandoning my overly complex Audi build in favor of exactly what Grant just outlined. Simplicity. Im actually moving towards a Subaru now due to cost and the fact that they're effing Lego sets and parts are everywhere for them. 10 year(almost) span on 1 chassis generation to as where everything just bolts together. My mind was blown after spending the past couple weeks actually learning about them more. When I replied previously about cutting floor pans out and what not for AWD, I was stupid and should have just kept my mouth shut haha! I had no clue that it all just bolts in on a subaru!

Good luck to ya whichever way you go man!

Look at the Subie crankshaft...Better be able to Lego something together cause they are toys.
Seriously. Go find one in person and compare it to the glorified 5 cylinder Rabbit thing you are used to..The 5 cylinder rabbit motor's crank is comparatively STOUT...
Then look at the block and the crankcases and then the frail little rods.

Long life span? Try 1974 thru 1993.....2.7 million +

Even simpler, even easier to Lego together and only one ring and pinion and one diff to dump money into.

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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.