Florida Rally Series and Beyond - B13 Sentra Content

So, here we go again. Another start of a project/journey with a FWD Nissan. Who would have thought!?! I must have a problem because these things keep following me home. 

Rally has always been in my system. It takes my days of MotoX, my love of racing cars, and my passion for Overlanding and wraps it all up into one addictive bundle. The Florida International Rally and Motorsports park in North Central Flordia has long run a rallycross series of their own. It's much more like a rally sprint than your typical rallyX in a field with a bunch of cones. Don't get me wrong, grasscross is a blast and you learn a ton as a driver BUT true stage rally is what I'm looking for. I'm not there yet and may never be, so the opportunity to drive true NASA Rally Sprint stages for a fraction of the cost and vehicle investment. 

A few years ago my buddy and I ran a pretty much stock Impreza that was gutted, 4 point roll cage, seat, harness, better clutch and lightweight flywheel. 

And man oh man did we have fun. We ran TONS of events with this car and it took it like a champ. 

We even had some fun with the fellas at GRM. 

But then The Firm decided to cancel the series for a myriad of reasons. SCCA RallyX has a great following here in Florida and but they run most of their events about 3 hours away from us while The Firm is about 45min... with other projects and time commitments we decided the cost/ reward we decided to sell the Subaru. 

Fast forward to a few months ago and The Firm has brought back their series and its better than ever. Cash prizes, contingency options and some cool prizes from some cool sponsoring companies. Same incredible stage rally sections on the 400+ acres of land and for only $200. The firm's commitment to this 4 race series meant that we had to go get a car. 

So in comes our new  1991 Nissan B13 Sentra SE-R. Snagged it for $2k from a buddy of mine who has tons of them and parts them out etc. 

With the SR20DE, Independent rear suspension and the factory LSD we were elated. 

It's a totally stock car and there would be little to no time to make any modifications to the car before the first rally event. My buddy gutted the car before he sold it to us to since we wouldn't need most of the interior parts. This both lowered the cost of the car for us and ensured that those parts could live more life on another car in the future. 

After confirming that unfortunately my 35's wouldn't fit ;) I moved on to the next best option. Snow tires. Tires and some mud flaps would be the only additions made to the car before the event. I sourced some free snow tires for upfront and left the economy street tires on the back. The firm's courses tend to be a mixture of every surface possible and I felt that the streets would hold up better on the tarmac and help the car rotate better on the dirt with left foot braking. 

This would just be the beginning of a long journey of modifications, rally events and other automotive-related chaos. Maybe one day we too can fly through the air in this little econo-box like other b13 rally greats. 

Waiting on some pictures from the event... Will post again soon with an update on how our first race went. 

I need to go to an event or two at the Firm, it sounds like a blast.

Makes me so happy seeing another B13 get at it in the gravel. Can't wait to see more!

The first event was a huge success. There were so many cool cars there and a bunch of UTV's. I gotta say... Those UTV's sound so cool and they are super fast. But -if I has 20K or so spend on something like that I'd probably just buy a real stage rally car... I think. The cool part is the flexibility of being able to go to offroad parks and rip around. But it sounds like NASA is going to start (or already has) letting these bad boys run. So Idk. What do you think? Would you pick a SXS? 

Andy aka Lof8 on the forum took first in class and I believe first overall. He was FLYING in his SXS. 

Some HUGE air coming over the main jump on course. 

Yes, that is a totally stock Chevy Cavalier

Here is just a photo dump of some of the other cars out there.

The event itself was a pretty cool idea. The format for this event was made up of 2 stages. Each class would run the stage WRC style doing 3 laps and we had to take the "joker" one of the laps. Each stage was just shy of 2 miles long. Transponders provided by the firm kept track of each of the 3 laps. It was a total blast but definitely was harder on the turbo cars. Our next event setup sounds like it will be setup back the way it was before - more of a rally sprint style event. 

I loaded up the B13 on a little tow dolly (one of the benefits of a FWD car) and headed to the track. It was a really beautiful day. The kind of day that just makes you that much more grateful to live in Florida. One of the things I love about Motorsports - especially these types of events - is the variety of people, racecars and economic statuses. I parked my little setup next to a 100K car hauler with AC. Motorsport is special like that I think. Similar to team sports, where for the most part everyone, no matter their story or status just has a great time together. 

The B13 ran really well. I was absolutely blown away by how well the car rotated with left foot braking. My goal for the first stage was to simply take it easy. I had not done any testing with the car beyond driving it down a few dirt roads near my house. My main concern was that I didn't have a skid plate and I was unsure how the stock suspension and worn our bump stops would handle the very bumpy terrain AND the 2 jumps. I drove the car at about 70% the first two laps and making sure to take it very slow over the jumps - zero air from me - At the very beginning of the third lap the car lost power. I was very worried and pulled out of the way assuming that I had hurt the engine. Luckily, it was only the stupid throttle cable that popped out. Based on the rules that lap counted as a DNF. DNF's were handled by taking the slowest finished lap and adding ten seconds to it. That put me in LAST PLACE in our class. I was able to fix the issue and complete the second 3 laps of stage 2 later in the day. Unfortunately the flying caviler broke putting me in second to last place in our class.  I was able to pick up a good bit of time on the final stage of the day because I felt so much more comfortable pushing the car harder putting me about mid-pack out of the 35ish cars for the day. 

It was an incredible event and I can't wait for the next one. There were photographers through the stages that went through the woods and two guys flying drones all day. All of that should be coming out soon and I can't wait to see it. 

We have a few things to do before our next race but I'm just happy that the car made it through nearly 30min of stages with ZERO damage. 

Things to do: 

1. Replace the bump stops - super dry rotted

2. Install the bolt in cage

3. Fabricate a proper skid plate. 

Thanks for following along so far. 

Time for a little protection. >>> I need a skid plate. 

The current plan is to follow a similar design to that of what this fellow did in this video. 

Skid plate Build on a V6 swapped Rally Civic

This seems to be the easiest way to mount the skid plate: 

- Hang 5mm steel tabs from the existing bolts on the front of the lower control arms and weld a bar between the two tabs. 

- I want to run an aluminum skid plate. 3/16" seems to be what most plates are made out of. 

- The main thing Im trying to think through is the front end of the car and how to build something strong. I have seen some folks just weld a simple piece of steel from the front crossmember to the side of the "frame" and adding some weldnuts. In fact, my buddy and fellow GRM'er  "Bubs" has a similar design and it seems to have held up for him. BUT he is a better driver than I am and probably has less bad luck too. I'm really hoping to build something "bash proof" 

The main thing I have noticed with a lot of these rally cars is that they mount the plate to the front end are where the lower radiator support is. Over time I have seen these take a bit of a beating.  In fact, a guy at our last rally event was discussing how we was going to have to replace his whole front radiator support for this very reason. 

I really like this design. This is a picture of an old NX2000 (very similar to b13) - I have always preferred the skid plate to come up past the front bumper. 

I'm not a fabricator... heck, I wouldn't even really consider myself much of a mechanic. So i really am looking for advice here. All the welding and fabrication will be done by a buddy of mine who I trust. He is a rally guy too. 

I'm thinking I'd like to build a support that will be welded to the inner frame horns and hands a little lower than the front radiator support. You can see my thoughts here with a super fancy cad drawing. LOL  Add some weldnuts and bend the skid plate as needed.  (please excuse my mess... we just bought our first house and we are still unpacking/ organizing the garage.) 

The frame horns (pretty sure that's what they are called) should have plenty of room to weld a lateral support on each side?? 

Anyways... Rally folks...Fab people... What do you think? What would you do? 

In other news.

- I have a mandrel bent exhaust coming for the car which I am excited about. My dad started a small exhaust company back in the day and grew it as far as he could take it with 4 kids and full-time gig. He gave the business to a close friend of ours years ago and he is partially sponsoring the car with an almost free very nice (probable the best exhaust made for this car)  the factory exhaust is in decent shape. Basically, zero rust (yay Florida car) but I'm fairly certain the factory cat from 91 is clogged up pretty bad. Its all nissan stuff but hopefully more stuff to come. Got a car that doesnt have a good off the shelf exhaust option? Let us know. brmexhaust.com/

- I'm in the process of replacing all the bump stops on the car, upgrading to NX2000 front brakes and just cleaning up some minor interior things. 

- The used 4 point cage made by autopower industries is getting dropped off at the end of this week. This is not required for what we are currently doing but it's great peace of mind item. One day.... I'll bring out the big guns and have the cage Wizzard Adam Brock From 9hio come and put a stage cage in her.... One day.

Making good progress. Thanks for following along. 

B13Birk said:

Yes, that is a totally stock Chevy Cavalier

Does anyone else hear Waylon Jennings performing a voiceover right now?

Also, glad to see another '91 Sentra being taken care of - I had one for a few years, they are fun little cars.

Mr_Asa said:

I need to go to an event or two at the Firm, it sounds like a blast.

You sure do! Are you in Florida? Let me know if you go. Would love to meet up with another GRM'er 

Bubs said:

Makes me so happy seeing another B13 get at it in the gravel. Can't wait to see more!

You have long been an inspiration behind my rally b13 adventures. The first one AND this one. Thanks for all the advice and help over the years. One of these days our paths will actually cross in person. In fact, I'm hoping to do an overland trip up your way next year... that may just be the time. 

In reply to RandolphCarter :

I'm not 100% sure I'm "taking care" of it haha. But yes, there are a bunch of us trying to keep these cars on the road. In fact, the SR20 national convention celebrating these little cars has been hosted in FL the past few years by a few of my friends and I. Hundreds of FWD SR20's running around. It's a great time. 

One of the things that has kept me from making progress over the years on my various automotive projects has been not having a place to work on my stuff out of the Florida heat and rain OR a place to store tools etc. My wife is super chill about all the car and overland stuff. We just bought our first home recently which has been an incredible blessing to us in so many ways. We have lived in a 900 square foot condo for the past five years while my wife finished her masters and we slowly saved CASH to buy a home. This new spot has a great 2 car garage and plenty of parking for my duck boat, extra vehicles and land to build a shop/mother-in-law suite at some point. I have so many plans for the garage and the property. - I really just need a to get my crap together and get the sentra out of the garage so I can build my storage shelving etc etc. 

ANYWAYS> I have learned that i need to be ok with small investments of time in the projects spread out over time. A little here a little there. Any progress on the vehicle is better than none. I think MazdaDuece said something about this at one point. 

And its true. So tonight I got a bunch of measurements done on the strut. I'm trying to confirm that the springs from the N14 Pulsar will fit on these stock struts. From everything I have read they will but before i pay crazy shipping from Australia... Id like to be more sure than I am now that they will work. Also, yes... camo crocs do come standard issue when you are a Florida man. 

Not to bad all in. I guess... 

I also removed all the A/C components from the car. This removed nearly 20lbs of weight. I can remove more weight by cutting down the huge ac/alternator bracket but that will have to weight for another night. Doesn't seem like much but just getting the condenser out of the way felt good. It also helped that my neighbors were having their bi-weekly band practice down the road and I could hear them grooving in the cool night air. 

In other news... a true GTiR Rally car popped up for sale in Atlanta Ga. Super Cool. I have driven one (not a rally car) on track a few times and man oh man are they incredible little cars. They truly are "Baby Godzillas" Dreaming about owning this little time capsule and thinking about all the cool livery's Nismo had over the years got me thinking about a potential livery for the Sentra. 

Confirmed the bolt in cage Fits. I found this one through a friend for really cheap. BUT it was for a b14 Sentra not a b13. I know that they are almost exactly the same in many ways but I was worried it may be off just enough inside in some goofy way that this wouldn't work. He ordered this one from autopower years ago and they sent him the wrong one (this one). He needed the sunroof height and this was non sunroof. They just told him to keep this one and they would send him a new one and as a result... I got a dirt cheap cage. 

After a ton of banging and clanking around, I got her to fit. I'm definitely going to have to remove some sound-deadening material and move the GoPro mount on the roof. But other than that I should be able to get this suck bolted in by the end of the weekend. 

I'm going to head to the parts store later today and bring the stock strut with me. The bump stops are trash and Id like to find new ones that are maybe a little longer and softer.... or even better "progressive"... Or maybe 2 I can stack. I don't know. Just using an old circle track racing trick to try and keep full wheel travel but also "add some spring rate" in the form of rubbers. We will see what happens. Anyways! Thanks for following along. Would love to hear some input still on a few of the topics I mentioned above. Especially the skid plate.

Little update. 

• BRM Exhaust was delivered today. Looks amazing. They have been making exhausts for Nissan's since the early 2000's this is my 4th one and they are just a good today as ever. Highly recommend this setup and the price is right at around $300 for a mandrel-bent with high-quality resonator and muffler. 
• Finally got the suspension parts in i had been waiting on. These Koni bump stops are the real deal and they wiil replace the toasty bump stops that are on there now. 
• Going to be doing the heater hose trick to get a little extra spring rate out of it. Just trying to clean everything up and get the suspension better prepared. 
• Additionally, one of the nuts was stuck and stripping on the steering knuckle/strut bolt. I got a really great tool off amazon a buddy recommended that is definitely much better than my old nut buster kit from back in the day. This setup worked really great. 

Keep up the good work. I just started a RallyX project. I live less than 10 minutes from FIRM so I'm sure we will cross paths there.

I realized I never posted an update after our last event. 

Man oh man did the suspension refresh make a huge difference. The car handled much better - specifically the way that it handled the huge bumps and jumps through the wooded sections. I took 4th place and my buddy took 5th. We weren't too far off 2nd and third place at the end of the day. We really need to get the skid plate finished and installed and upgrade to some real Gravel tires to be competitive in our class. We are having to slow down in a bunch of sections to avoid ripping the oil pan a new one. Additionally, the car just lacks traction in the deeper sections of the stage, especially this event as we were running after the SXS class. We learned a ton and we are now looking ahead to the December event. 

I have some goodies on the way for the car that will surely improve the car! 

In reply to T_S_racing :

Sounds awesome! Get it out there! You will have an amazing time I assure you! 

We kicked off the 2022 Rally season with a HUGE opportunity to run the Nitro RallyX Circut that was recently built at The Florida International Rally and Motorsports Park.  The primary reason we got a rally again was the firm started their series again. It's our home track if you will... So to get out and run the NRX course was pretty epic.  Life has been crazy busy over the holidays since our last event in every way imaginable so I once again wasn't able to get much of the stuff done on the car that I wanted to. 

I was however able to get what we felt were the most important things before the rally.

1. Loads of zip ties to hold together our disintegrating plastic radiator fan shroud

2. New fluids through

3. Install the new seat with sliders and harness. (This would prove to be very important.)

The new seat and harness got us to where we wanted to be safety-wise with the car. Our last Subaru had the same setup (4pt cage, proper seat, and harness) and now our little Sentra did too. We now Felt safe and we looked more pro-er ish... I think that's a thing? 

The Layout of the Course for this event was about 50/50 Tarmac to Clay/dirt/lime rock/sand 

I had hoped we could track down some 14in Falkens in time for the event but funds and timing just didn't play out that way. We ran the event with our usual setup: Snows upfront and Walmarts on the rear. The snow tires were on their last leg anyway so the abuse they were about to take didn't concern us must. 

The car did GREAT! For being 100% stock it's really wild that it's able to do what it does with 145K on the clock. I love how many people flip out when they realize it's an SE-R. Everyone has a story about someone they knew with an SE-R and how cool they were back in the day... and now. The factory LSD makes such a big difference over the Open diff cars. 

Shout out to the amazing Photographers that made it out to the event. 

The day was setup for us to all do four sessions composed of 2 laps around the NRX circuit (Minus the YUGE jump) I was pretty consistent on my times. My buddy Graham who I co-own the car with was off of my times about 2 seconds each lap but we were both consistent. Graham is an incredible circuit driver with way more experience than me door to door. For whatever reason.. I'm faster on the dirt... he is faster on the track. 

Here is my best run from the day: 

Youtube Video of Session 2

Session three was a little rougher for both of us. This tends to be the case when we break for lunch... we get all hyped about catching the guy ahead of us in time and then we try to drive to fast and make a mess of our hands. 

Graham went out for his last session of the day. And then.... 

When I was 8 years old one of my dad's childhood friends came to visit us down in Florida with his motorcoach. We all went outside to check out this HUGE motorhome sitting outside our house. When I walked around the rig I noticed a bumper sticker directly above what I later learned was the hookup for the waste. The sticker said "Sh!t happens" I didn't know what that word was so I asked my dad and he explained it to me. I thought it was hilarious and never forgot the expression. 

Well as they say... yeah, it happens. 

To be clear. The Firm has done an absolutely incredible job of prioritizing safety for the 5 years I have been there. Their team did an amazing job of responding to the incident and the medic team made sure my buddy was ok. He was 100% fine. The safety gear worked exactly as it should and frankly I have seen rollovers happen at way slower speeds at SCCA events. It just... happens. 

GoPro From Inside the Car During the Rollover

The truth is... We had a problem. We rolled the car over and towed it back to the trailer. When I got it home, I let the oil settle and the car started up just fine. Just a little bit of oil to burn off and she ran like a top. 

Unfortunately after inspecting the damage it just wasn't cost-effective to fix it. The A Pilars got a good beating and so did the roof life. Every panel on the car was damaged. It just didn't make sense to put money into it. Which was just a real bummer.  If I'm honest I get pretty sentimental and attached to cars. I felt bad for rallying the car from the beginning since it had almost ZERO rust. In some ways, the car was a nice survivor that could have been restored to some type of glory. So to see the car the way it is, bums me out. But that's how these things go... like the bumper sticker over the poop shoot said... It happens. 

On the plus side the car will be parted out down to every nut and bolt by my buddy in south Florida who owns a company that parts these cars out to keep the others on the road. 

In even better news. We immediately began shopping for the replacement and found some really great options. But after a crazy series of events, we found THE car. A car that I couldn't be more excited to tell you all about. The story and history of this car is awesome and the car itself is even awesome.. er-er? I leave first thing in the morning tomorrow to drive to north Georgia to get the car. So until then.

Thanks for following along. 

Sorry to see that the car flipped.  Glad everyone was ok.

Did both rear quarter windows survive intact?  I need some with decent rubber for mine, if you are looking to part with them.

In reply to pimpm3 (Forum Supporter) :

They sure did. They are decent. Roger is coming to get the car and start parting it out for me Thursday. I know he has some already pulled and that he will be pulling ours here shortly.  

I drive by the firm often.  I need to get a car together and do this before I'm too old to have fun anymore. 

In reply to Nick Comstock :

You 100% need to. You can show up in just about anything and have an absolute blast. Two of my buddies have finally gotten it together and went out and bought Sub 2k civics they are getting ready for our next event. 

Here is a little teaser...

From Gainesville, Florida to North GA and back this Friday to snag our new car. Full write-up on this soon. 

But in the meantime. Here is the upgrade. 

The red car is parked up next to the black car and the new harness/seat and FSTB. My buddy will be by tomorrow to get the black car. 

So here goes my attempt at telling the story of the little red car...

Shortly after the black car met it's demise I took to FB marketplace looking for a replacement. A few decent candidates but nothing that stood out. So I went to the North American Rally FS facebook group. I made a quick post looking for tired, weary, and expired rally cars. And the second comment caught my eye. "I have a 93 SER caged rally car. Shoot me a PM" So I did. David, the seller, was in North GA only a 6 hour drive from me. He was a former SCCA stage rally guy from back in the day and shared that this little red car was mine if I wanted it. I asked for photos of the car and he sent them over. I couldn't believe it. I had seen photos of this car many times over the years on forums and basic google searches.  I was stoked! 

We spoke on the phone and he was able to give me a brief history of what he knew about the car during the time he had it and who he had purchased it from. The coolest bit of history that he gave me was that a SE Rallycross great Leon Drake won first place at Scca Nationals in Constructors 2WD in 2018... the last known time the car competed. David and His buddy John knew Leon well and when his car wasn't ready for nationals they gladly offered up the Sentra. 

I was elated to find this incredible deal. I spoke with my buddy Graham and we agreed to buy the car. During the process of getting the deal done I couldn't help but share some of the pictures I had of the car with my OG SR20 buddies that I have in a group chat. My friend Hank said "Hey isn't that John Schellenberg's car" there was some discussion around the car and John throughout the day but by the end of the day it was confirmed... 

I found the original post I remembered seeing years ago of the little red Sentra for sale on a Facebook page for a rally team based out of Florida I followed. So I messaged some guys I knew who knew the black flag guys. I sent out a few messages and found my answer. "Yep, Johns's car" 

I reached out to John and we immediately hit it off. We knew many of the same people both in the SR20 scene and the Florida Rally scene. John was a part of bringing RallyCross to central Florida. He bought the car in 97 out of the newspaper ads and he became the second own with under 50k miles on the odometer... he drove it all over the country to volunteer at rallies and did tons of rallyX himself. He would end up driving this little car to over 200K miles before deciding it was time to really build it into a stage rally car. While I'm probably getting the details wrong exactly the project took many years as they often do. John sourced some truly incredible parts, built a motor for it, tracked down a sweet close ratio transmission, installed a proper cage and was ready to rally. But as these things go... life happens... The rally scene really seemed to dwindle and stage rallies not only became fewer but also more expensive. John eventually posted the car for sale. No buyers... So he pulled a lot of the fancy stuff off. Different parts went to other SER rally guys and others were added to his other sr20 cars. He put in a mostly stock SR20De and transmission and then, after a lot of trying, he sold the car to the black flag racing guy. Who sold it to a young guy who ended up parking it for a while before selling it to David who sold the car to me. I'm so glad to have it. John and I have been in touch often and it's been really neat to speak with him get all the info on the car and some pro tips. Along with loads of info about the early days of rally here in Florida.  John and I will be meeting up at the rally at The Firm in may. Get this, today he still rallys a Sentra. 

The trip to GA and back went great. I rented a Ram 2500 Cummins and man do I want one now. I got 19mpg the whole way up and back doing roughly 80 the whole time. 6 hours up and back with 2 stops at Buccees in a single day and the little red Sentra was back in Florida again. 

I found a really cool spot along the way that I look forward to going back to. Old Car City USA If you ever get the chance you will absolutely have to go check it out. Apparently, Old Car City started as a small general store in 1931 and is still family-owned and operated. They stopped putting cars in there in 78 so you know they have only the good stuff. The property is over 34 acres and over 4000 American-made cars. 

So that's how my weekend went. New rally car - new friends. My first event in the car will be Feb 26th for a scca rallyX event. I couldn't be more excited to carry on the legacy of this special little car... and maybe, one day getting this car into a stage rally and in some way fulfilling John's dream for the little red car he bought back in 97. 

Thanks for following along. Now, go get busy living. 

That cage looks like it's probably only a few tweaks away from being stage rally legal.  Did it come with a logbook?

Great backstory on the car!  and Old Car City looks pretty awesome!  I'll have to try and check that out.