Starts with "S" and ends with "ion" winter driver / Rallycross car

I recently decided my FRS was too nice to continue rallycrossing (at least for another year or two), especially if I was trying to run the whole season. Based on this, I set out on a mission to find something in expensive, with parts a plentiful, and reliable enough to drive in the winter. Bonus FRS Rallycross photos (photo by Scott Banes):

I found myself searching craigslist daily with the filters "Transmission: Manual" and "Price Max: $1200". It's amazing the amount of things that come up that make you go, "Oh man, I could do this and that if I buy this" then I'd snap back to reality and realize well if I'm going to sell the idea of buying even a cheap car while planning a wedding to SWMBO I'll have to sell it as a dual purpose car. So I settled on what you probably guessed alread is a 2004 Saturn Ion Quad Coupe.

The goal for the car is to let me park the FRS while the white stuff falls, saving it from salt and mileage, and to drive the Ion for that and rally purposes.

Sad part was my 1.5 hour drive to get it home from Waterfordmans house was more comfortable than the FRS!

As of now it really only needs brakes all the way around and a parking brake cable for those panty dropping hand brake turns.

I'll get more photos later but I'm sure you all know what one of these looks like.

I thought it might be a Starion. But I'm all for the cheap rallycross beater, I'm trying to convince my wife to go for that plan too!

My wifes daily for the last ten years has been an 04 ion. At 145k miles its just starting too burn oil but has always had synthetic in it. If the timing chain isnt making a bunch of noise already the motor should live happily with good oil in it.

I came here hoping for a 1stgen Scion xB.

In reply to dropstep:

All sounds well with the motor. Its a one owner car with 200k on it. It was well maintained and the price was right. I was honestly surprised when I started driving it how good everything felt for the mileage.

In reply to Jerry:

I live to disappoint!

MrLittle wrote: In reply to dropstep: All sounds well with the motor. Its a one owner car with 200k on it. It was well maintained and the price was right. I was honestly surprised when I started driving it how good everything felt for the mileage.

Other then oil changes,brakes and tires the only thing hers wears out is sway bar endlinks. Eats a set about every 50k

I've been doing a lot of reading and it seems like I can upgrade suspension to just about anything made for Ion Redlines or Colbalt SS's.

But routine maintenance items prevail right now. Ordered new front pads and rotors and a parking brake cable from Rock Auto yesterday.

I'm thinking I'm going to make my number plate for Rallycross be a resin code symbol to embrace the plastic body panels.

I have a feeling that this will eventually get the stage rally treatment.

G_Body_Man wrote: I have a feeling that this will eventually get the stage rally treatment.

I do to haha. By how cheap everything is for this car it seems like it would be a good beginner car for it. Plus every pick and pull lot I've browsed has several of them so even used parts are plentiful.

So in my hunting I've read that 2004 Ion Redline FE3 suspension bits will work to replace my 2004 Quad Coupe FE1 suspension bits. It looks like Rockauto has the parts I need but my FE1 parts are still perfectly fine so I'm not going to jump the gun. But I'd like to pick the brain of the smarter folks here.

If I piece meal this, starting with the rear end, will having the squishy front end struts and the more stiff rear shocks induce more lift off over steer? My thought process is, soft in the front would make it easier for weight to transfer forward thus allowing the stiffer more stable rear to rotate.

This is all speculation as I don't know how the car is going to handle out of the box on dirt but breaking up my slave to the man office job by thinking about car stuff makes me happy.

Thoughts, opinions, concerns, beer?

Damn, not a Starion... Booooooo Hisssssss.

Just kidding. If this is anything like it's older brother SL2, you can pretty much just fill it with gas, abuse the everloving poo out of it, and never need to worry. No oil? Doesn't matter- still runs like a top. Coolant light on? That's just merely a suggestion.

golfduke wrote: Damn, not a Starion... Booooooo Hisssssss. Just kidding. If this is anything like it's older brother SL2, you can pretty much just fill it with gas, abuse the everloving poo out of it, and never need to worry. No oil? Doesn't matter- still runs like a top. Coolant light on? That's just merely a suggestion.

If you run the ecotec low on oil your going to need a new engine. The hydrualic timing chain tensioner doesnt like low oil or thick oil.

This weekend I planned on parking the FRS and switching to the Ion for winter. As most car guys can relate to, what I planned on doing didn't exactly happen.

Friday night I had a pumpkin carving party with the lady's family. Sharp knives, big pumpkins, and booze is a perfect recipe for fun or at the very least one phallic shaped design.

Switch to Saturday morning. I woke up early to head to my folks house where the car is and get things ready to move to a friends shop to do the brakes (indoors and organized tools beats a driveway any day). Car starts up right away, I let it run for a bit since it hasn't moved in awhile, then hop in to drive 3 miles to my friends house.

The first two miles go really well and I'm still shocked at how well the car drives and how tight everything feels for the car having 200k. As I turn on to the home stretch I gave her a little gas and wanted to run through the gears. When I shifted into second I hear a clunk followed by "WAHHH!!!". The exhaust right before the Cat rusted through and fell down so I was cruising with open headers. Besides having 4 less cylinders, having a super loud car and the windows down so I didn't get too high from exhaust fumes, the whole thing felt very road kill.

Was going to just replace a chunk and weld it in but the rest of the piece was pretty rusty and probably not far from breaking further down. Called a muffler shop and they want $650 to replace the part, stating $650 is the part and they wouldn't charge for labor.... to rockauto I went, bought the part for $170 ($220 less $50 rebate), gaskets, and an O2 sensor. Back under the car I go next weekend!

Edit: as a positive I did get the brakes done.

I came here for the Ronn Scorpion content.

I somehow missed this thread when it was new, and its probably too late to add my .02, but SWMBO owned a nice leather clad, purchased-new example of the Ion once upon a time (08?). Was a decent, comfy, if not bland interior, that was perfectly mediocre for commuting. It did not excite a single one of the senses however, and I thought the steering was irritatingly numb and completely non-responsive. Operating one in the snow was...interesting, but not in a fun way. The lack of feedback made correcting for push in the snow nearly unpossible.

That said, a sub $2k example that I didnt mind tossing about wouldnt be a bad thing. And it had a surprising amount of humph under the hood, so a 3 pedal specimen will probably change the whole "fun to drive" part. Id imagine adding some stiffer redline underpinnings would add to that fun factor as well.

Wow has it been a long time! 

Fun was put on hold for the last year because I was getting married and needed to focus all of my finances on that. But as of weeks ago the wedding is over and I can have fun again!

That being said, the rally Saturn is getting it's first run this weekend. Hopefully all goes well. Will report back regardless. 

I used to rallycross these cars a lot.  Well... I worked detail at a saturn dealer and would use the vacant field next to the dealer as a "shortcut" to the fueling station when I thought the boss wasn't looking.... Never could figure out why that guy trusted me driving anything I wasn't liable for but anyway. 

My experience on and off pavement led me to the conclusion that these cars need to be abused offroad as often as possible, if for no other reason than to get them out of their boring eco-mmuter lives. 

Huckleberry said:

I came here for the Ronn Scorpion content.

I was set for some Scion content and got teased by the first photo. I suspect I'll live.

Rally is so much fun in any car. its a total blast. Enjoy! Excited to follow the build.