My first project! I need help!!

I want an Escort Cosworth. Someday. I've been lucky enough to get up close and personal with Mike Whitman's and that thing is awesome! I'd even settle for a shell with Merkur drivetrain and shit.

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Grant Hughes

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heymagic

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mekilljoydammit


I just sorta figured this thread has kinda turned into BSing or pie in the sky crap,

Pretty sure it started out that way....

I mean for the rest of us, not the OP.

I have this totally awesome 81 Toyota Starlet. It's got a lot of rust, like you could put your foot through the floor underneath the clutch pedal. I was thinking about just cutting the entire floor pan and firewall off of the car and just keeping the top part of the car. I was then thinking I'd find a cheap to free Subaru Impreza shell that I could do the same thing to, maybe shorten the pan to match up the wheel wells and then weld onto the Starlet top. 2.2L AWD Starlet Rallycross car. Keep weight as light as possible and run SCCA rallycross events for fun. Simple non-legal cage for CORE days with nieces and nephews to learn to drive stick shift and teach low traction driving skills.
Or, cut out the floor pan and try to make a new custom one from sheet metal. Then drop in a Toyota truck 22RE and 4X4 with low gear ratio and make some super long 4 links and use Sean's control arms from the Merkur but with some added length and a 4WD Cossie upright and 400 mm JVAB front struts to make a little rock racer Starlet.
The final option would be to push the car onto a trailer and take it with the title to the crusher down the street and be $300 richer.

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Grant Hughes

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NoCoast
I want an Escort Cosworth. Someday. I've been lucky enough to get up close and personal with Mike Whitman's and that thing is awesome! I'd even settle for a shell with Merkur drivetrain and shit.

That could be very yes arranged.

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Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

I have a friend who builds old Buick hotrods. he takes a 50s shell and cuts the body away at the edges. Then does the same with a 70s model car. Has old manual camper jacks for the lifting. Drops old shell on 'new' floor and frame and starts welding. Fills in where needed with sheet metal. Works amazingly well. Cool old car with modern power tarin and ride. Cars get lowered without sacrificing the ride, pretty neat. Be easy to do on a unibody car, especially if the wheelbases were similar.

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SgtRauksauff
^^^ each time I read about your great tribulations dealing with the E153 swap, it makes me kinda want to sell all the stuff i've got to do the swap, and just buy an EVO instead, lol!

I did just that and man did it open up a whole can of worms! Turns out engines are cheaper when you have a gearbox that's limiting how much power you can actually put to the ground.

Dave

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NoCoast
I want an Escort Cosworth. Someday. I've been lucky enough to get up close and personal with Mike Whitman's and that thing is awesome! I'd even settle for a shell with Merkur drivetrain and shit.

That's about as smart as 4x4ing a Focus with an Evobitchi drivetrain: a lot of work for a look.

Hint: its the powerplant and the parts that makes a Cossie 4x4 go good. 2.2" of wheelbase shorter is only an advantage on tight tight Continental type tarmac. Car is the same otherwise.

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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.

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heymagic
I have a friend who builds old Buick hotrods. he takes a 50s shell and cuts the body away at the edges. Then does the same with a 70s model car. Has old manual camper jacks for the lifting. Drops old shell on 'new' floor and frame and starts welding. Fills in where needed with sheet metal. Works amazingly well. Cool old car with modern power tarin and ride. Cars get lowered without sacrificing the ride, pretty neat. Be easy to do on a unibody car, especially if the wheelbases were similar.

I've always had a dream of a Cortina STI. Turbo AWD and macpherson with that cool style!

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Grant Hughes

I am going to be selling one of my escort rally cossy's soon, $23.5k, I might part with another shell I was building for the right price. They're both lhd and the real deal.

Oooh, dammit, don't I wish I could put together the cash for one of those. Except it would be a shame to have them here in the land of the tinworm.

Hmm. On the topic of pie in the sky shit (since I'm bored at work) how much is spirit vs intent of the rules enforced in RA or in practice does nobody much care as long as you meet safety tech? I mean, if you're allowed to do anything you want to the suspension, and the floorpan can be altered for fitment of alternate allowed components (suspension in this case) but otherwise is unregulated... why can't you just make an "alternate subframe" that happens to be welded into the roll cage for reinforcement's sake? Or to put it less euphemistically, assuming that the "floor pan" is one bit and the trunk floor is another bit (in other words, the "floor pan" stops at the rear seats or so) why can't you just cut out most everything structural in front of the firewall and behind the rear seats and have all the suspension shit carried in a tube chassis, with whatever design you want?

Not that I'm intending to bother, as event location makes everything seem like a lot more of a towing championship than I can get enthusiastic over, but...

Gets a bit complicated . Basically it has to do with scrutineers not having to be structural engineers . So many bad welds out there and poor designs on cages, I can only imagine what tube chassis would be like....

The world isn't full of Derriks, Daves or Tims (one M)....

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Chris Sanborn
I am going to be selling one of my escort rally cossy's soon, $23.5k, I might part with another shell I was building for the right price. They're both lhd and the real deal.

There is also a 'real ex-McRae Cosworth Escort (recce, but caged and logbooked) for sale in Alberta right now. I beleive another one for sale in Onterible.

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First Rally: 2001
Driver (7), Co-Driver (44)
Drivers (16)
Clerk (10), Official (7), Volunteer (4)
Cars Built (1), Engines Built (0) Cages Built (0)
Last Updated, January 4, 2015

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john vanlandingham
Blame is for idiots. losers.

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mekilljoydammit
Hmmm... in Wisconsin they'll give you hobbyist plates for stuff (pretty much anything) 20 years old or older...

I didn't realize that you were from this area (Wisconsin) for some reason. We should meet up sometime.

--Jorden

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---** To be in compliance with the Anarchy **---
Jorden R. Kleier
Baraboo, Wisconsin, USA
1990 Mazdog Protege 4WD
1973

Not exactly the same part of the state, but yeah. Mostly prepping for my dad's roadrace stuff lately; no cash for my own projects (or at least nothing too interesting) at the moment. Not sure what I'll feel like building when I do get around to it; it's just kind of disappointing how far any events are for rally stuff, y'know? Maybe short term I should just work on some of my crazier low-buck projects, like the intake manifold or head casting experiment idea.