suggest to me a grassroots rallycross car

irish44j wrote: although that stylus is looking more attractive now. If a Geo Metro can rock it, why not a stylus SX...

Definitely an Isuzu or Geo Storm. And it is XS not SX.

I'd be worried about rear suspension on a Saturn. There are a lot of weak stamped pieces back there. The rear longitudinal arms are long and thin u sections. Replace those with some tubular arms and beef up the sway bar brackets and you'd probably be okay. Saturns also don't have a lot of ground clearance, but they can fit taller tires.

The Suzuki Swift rear suspension actually looks pretty interesting. I've heard that the rest of the chassis is pretty much a wet noodle though.

HStockSolo wrote: I've heard that the rest of the chassis is pretty much a wet noodle though.

Pre 95 car. Later ones are much better. Thrashed one hard for 2 years without any problems, tweaks, or cracked windshields.

+

DO IT

Second gen RX-7

90's Nissan Altima aka Altimate can be quite quick and durable.

90's Ford Escort of any variety is okay.

I personally would stay away from old AWD cars. Stuff will eventually break and it probably won't be easy or cheap to fix. Late 90's naturally aspirated Subarus can be the exception. Following that thought, I'm leaning towards RWD for my next dedicated RallyCross machine. P71, small pickups, Jeep XJ, FC RX7, Miata, Camaro, Mustang, etc.

Really, almost anything can make a good (scca-type) RallyCross car. If you want to be competitive and/or enjoy more grip simply add snow tires.

Neon ZX2-EGT SER old Volvo's And on and on.

Availability of used parts and BTDT info makes this the easy choice:

Audi 4KQ is probably a good bet. I had a retired 4KQ rally car and it absolutely kicked ass as a rallycross car. Even older FWD Audis have a LOT of weight over those front tires w/ the engine so far forward, so they have no trouble digging in on nasty surfaces. Tough as nails, too. Maybe a coupe GT if they haven't all rusted away?

For some reason I'd really love to do a 924/944 on a slightly taller suspension. I think it'd look particularly badass, and parts on the 924 at least are relatively cheap.

Volvos, obviously. The older the better. And yeah, hard to argue with Mk2 VWs.

Old Volvo like this. And this one may be for sale. A friend bought this with a ton of spares a year ago. He has it running now but is in the divorce process and wanted to sell the last time I talked to him.

I'm building a 1995 Golf to be my RallyX car. I went with a MKIII over an earlier model because any worth buying has doubled in price over the past year in my area.

Seriously, a good MkII GTI is running around $2500 in these parts and a really nice one will be pushing $5k- and they are selling. The MKIIIs get no love, have a fairly good aftermarket and are available in the sub $1000 range from private parties. I got mine way cheap because it required a heater core, and any shop is going to charge you over $1k to do the work. For a DIY minded person, it's an aggravating and long but simple repair.

I'm going to supercharge it, just for giggles since we don't have stock/modified classes here.

The Escort GT is also a good idea.

The Neon was covered in the magazine. I have one of those too, but I was going to develop it into an autocross toy.

How about a Mazda 323 with a turbo 1.6? Kinda like a FWD 323GTX.

EvanB wrote: How about a Mazda 323 with a turbo 1.6? Kinda like a FWD 323GTX.

For a 90-94 323, doing a turbo BP (1.8) would actually be easier. There were factory fwd 1.6 turbo 323s of the BF late 80's variety.

I wish my ZX2 was a 323.

Can't you just turbo the ZX2?

Not as cheap, easy, or strong as turbo'ing the 1.8 in the Protege LX/Escort GT/Escort LX-E/Tracer LT-S/90-94 323.

What Mr. Celica said.

That and the fact that it has enough power (for rallycross) as is with just an intake and under-drive pulley for "power" mods. I still haven't run it yet with the limited slip

An excess of power, while fun, is not required to be fast in the dirt.

Maroon92 wrote: Stock or Prepared Front - Saturn SL2 or Dodge Neon Stock or Prepared Rear - Toyota MR2 Stock or Prepared All - Any cheap Scoobaru. A decent driver should be able to trophy nationally in any of these picks. That is what I love about Rallycross.

I vote no on the Saturn. I rallycrossed a 95 SL2 one time. I bent one of the front suspension arms. If you look at them, they appear to be pretty weak. Also, the chaissis is pretty flexy, so be prepared to have dirt and grime get under the doors.

What about a RWD Celica?

Just throwing that out there.

Brett_Murphy wrote: I'm building a 1995 Golf to be my RallyX car. I went with a MKIII over an earlier model because any worth buying has doubled in price over the past year in my area. Seriously, a good MkII GTI is running around $2500 in these parts and a *really* nice one will be pushing $5k- and they are selling. The MKIIIs get no love, have a fairly good aftermarket and are available in the sub $1000 range from private parties.

Killer tip there. Never new they were so cheap. Now I do.

Not mine:

1995 vw golf iii - $1200 (CT) Date: 2011-08-30, 7:33PM EDT Reply to: sale-pv7qr-2574296166@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?] I have a 95 golf iii sport (2 door), 2.0, black with black interior, checkered sport seats (rareish), 208k, 5 speed, newish tires, lowered on cup kit, jetta front end swap (JTI), cat back magnaflow exhaust

Car is pretty clean over all, interior is nice couple small holes in seats, headliner dirty should be replaced soon tho, clear pealing on roof an hood, rear ds quarter was painted by previous owner looks dumb can try and fix if you want doesn't bother me, rear ds body molding missing and missing rocker covers all around

Runs and drives great no CEL, shifts good

Has new plugs, wires, k&n filter, distributor, rear wheel bearings, pads, rotors, ds caliper, ps caliper bracket, fresh oil changes every 3-4k fully synthetic mobil 1

Great car just looking to get into a vr again

Don't email I won't reply just txt at Eight60-3zero2-563nine

scca RallyCross or RallyCar Rallycross?

Woody, that one is way nicer than the one I got, but it kind of shows what I'm talking about.

Side note: tartan sport seats rock.

cghstang wrote: What Mr. Celica said. That and the fact that it has enough power (for rallycross) as is with just an intake and under-drive pulley for "power" mods. I still haven't run it yet with the limited slip An excess of power, while fun, is not required to be fast in the dirt.

You can easily get 140 whp out of a stock-internal Zetec--chip it, and open up the exhaust...I would think that that on R/C, its not so much the absolute power, but rather being able to get what you have down. Try the MFactory LSD--bet it changes the whole demenor of the car.

Do people run a welded diff in rallyX?

ST_ZX2 wrote: You can easily get 140 whp out of a stock-internal Zetec--chip it, and open up the exhaust...I would think that that on R/C, its not so much the absolute power, but rather being able to get what you have down. Try the MFactory LSD--bet it changes the whole demenor of the car.

That is the LSD that he has.

Oh hey, me too!