How About A . . .

Tiburon? I had my eye on a Lancer for rallyX but time and distance. However . . . 

There is (or may be) an 08 Tiburon available.

Any impressions on them? Has anyone rallyX'd one?

I always thought they looked good but I dont know much about them, besides someone told me the 4 cylinder is the better motor to have because boost.

I think someone built a challenge car out of one recently. Bobzilla? Hopefully he will chime in

Chassis was pretty weak back in 2008. Add almost 20 years of use/abuse and it'll be pretty bad. Most of that is  due to the roof panel being the only thing tying the top of the chassis together from the firewall to the rear body panel and it's only about 30" long.

With that said.... If you were to say add a cage that would fix most of those problems especially if its tied to the a-pillars. You might be able to add enough bracing o make it work. Suspension wise it's just a 4-wheel macsrut car so it's pretty simple. Stock spring rates are pretty soft in comparison to modern cars. 

Engines.... if you're adding boost the 2.0L Beta II is hard to beat. Cast iron block, alum heads it'll take some abuse and theres a lot of room to work on it. The 2.7 in stock form isn't great. lower intake is really restrictive and the mani-cats and crossover piper are undersized. Putting headers, crossover and cat back on and porting the lower intake really wakes that motor up. I never got it onto the dyno, but a newer stock BRZ and a stock RX-8 could not pull on me on the straights at putnam... so it was likely putting down 160+whp by that point. 

If I was going to choose a car for rallyx I'd look at the 2001-2006 Elantra or the 2005-2009 Spectra (same car/chassis). They are a lot more rigid, have long-ish travel stock suspension. 

In reply to Opti :

My spidey senses were tingling.... I knew someone was looking for Korean car advice. 

In reply to bobzilla :

For reference I am sticking to a 4 cylinder car as mentioned in a prior post

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/help-me-pick-my/240364/page1/

The Beta engine is what I expect to be working with. But it will be in Stock or possibly Prepared so no boost.

That chassis info is good to know. I do intend to put a roll bar or cage into whatever I get. I also intend to tie it into the chassis at points where it will stiffen the chassis. But I have questions on the SCCA RallyX rules which I will post up separately.

Your info is appreciated.

The beta and 5-spd are capable. The engine is torquey, it loved to live in that 2000-4000 range all day. It does get wheezy up too and the tib was a bit heavier than the elantra/spectra chassis iirc, probably all that glass and rear hatch. 
 

mine was done when sitting in Jack stands and the car was sagging enough in both ends that the doors wouldn't open/close. Butnit had 230k miles, was wearing really stiff coilovers, 245's and really large brakes. 

One thing I forgot to mention.... not sure how tall you are but these are short cars. More for someone in the 5'3"-5'6" range and the sunroof takes even more headroom. Non sunroof car would be the one to snag if at all an option. 

bobzilla said:

One thing I forgot to mention.... not sure how tall you are but these are short cars. More for someone in the 5'3"-5'6" range and the sunroof takes even more headroom. Non sunroof car would be the one to snag if at all an option. 

Good to know. I'm 6ft. I also have to factor in a roll bar/cage. Maybe a Tiburon isn't the answer.

It wouldn't be my first choice in the fwd department.  There isn't really anything redeeming about them.

In reply to camopaint0707 :

There are a lot of things but it's not a honduh so people rag on it. 

They had interference engines in them. So keep track of the timing belt. If it breaks at speed, the engine is done. 

drock25too said:

They had interference engines in them. So keep track of the timing belt. If it breaks at speed, the engine is done. 

Most/all timing chain engines are interference, and timing belts do not depend on having oil pressure, whereas timing chains very much do.

Very important when most of the oil is in the cylinder head because you have been banging the rev limiter in 1st because there is not enough time to shift to 2nd and back down.  You're going to suck air and lose oil pressure sometimes.  With a timing chain this is oftentimes immediately fatal.  With a belt, you might hurt the rod bearings but not much else.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

nice thing with the Beta you really don't care to be banging off the rev limiter as the power was long gone before you got there. 

In reply to bobzilla :

But that is exactly where you want to be when the tires regain traction, so the engine gets pulled down into the meat of the powerband.

Speaking of front wheel drive if the engine stops making power at 5 then I'd want to be able to rev to 7.  The fastest front drive drivers I've rode with used the rev limiter as cruise control instead of wasting time upshifting then putting the engine well below its powerband.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

6700 is the rev limiter. It's a soft limiter so it just kinda sits there. Power is pretty much done by 5500 or so iirc. I'm used to pavement not dirt. 

Thanks for sharing the Hyundai info, Bob. 

David S. Wallens said:

Thanks for sharing the Hyundai info, Bob. 

I mean... it's what I do right?

"using the rev limiter for cruise control..."

That's awesome.