Potential Rally-X Car - 03 Sentra SE-R Spec V

Weighing the idea of using an 03 SE-R for a rally-X car.

Yes, I know about the butterfly valves and the pre-cat issues. The car in question appears to have an aftermarket header (checking with owner) and I could likely fix the butterfly valves myself.

Upsides:
- Limited slip
- Big 4 torque
- reasonable curb weight

Questions:
- Can't find any data on wheel travel
- Will a 15' wheel fit over the front brakes (11" dia. rotors)? - Ground clearance shows as 4.5" - not bad. The area that I would be running ruts up bad!!! Anybody know of a spring combo to get more clearance or would it be on to spacers?

I will let you know on the 15s . I have a set of wheels from my 93 240 with race tires on them. I hope they fit for the 04 ser challenge car.

Yes 15" will clear front non brembo brakes.

Brembos, you might be able to squeeze 16's on if they are exactly the right wheel. 15's I'd say no way. They also need a great deal of room behind the spokes.

Other than that, it would be an excellent rallycrosser, I'd say.

probably easier to find 16" rally tires these days on the used market anyhow, I'd bet. Whether or not it will be good will proabably depend a lot on what kind of course it is . Did the 03 have the rear beam axle? I forget...

In reply to irish44j:

False. Otherwise you would have seen me in a rx8 rallycross car

fidelity101 wrote: In reply to irish44j: False. Otherwise you would have seen me in a rx8 rallycross car

interesting. Every time they come up on our local rally message board they seem to be 16s, which none of the local RWD guys have wheels to fit, lol. But maybe I'm just not paying attention since I use 14s anyhow, so neither work for me :)

Brembo's didn't start until the 2004 SE-R according to the sites that I have been checking for specs.

I remember seeing a guy using a Spec V for rallycross a while back. Was running springs from one of the base model sentras for extra ground clearance.

DanielCut wrote: I remember seeing a guy using a Spec V for rallycross a while back. Was running springs from one of the base model sentras for extra ground clearance.

wasn't that the guy who wrote the article in last month's Sportscar magazine who pushed the argument that lighter cars are slower for rallycross? I seem to recall that he had a Spec V. Threw out that lousy mag though, so can't check for sure.

In reply to irish44j:

I really don't know. I saw this years back on a SpecV forum. I only remember that it was yellow and he was using the base model suspension bits.

Here you go. His build thread for his '91, but also talks about his '03 Spec V:

http://www.sccabb.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=11810&title=buildmod-fnt-1991-nissan-sentra-jon-olschewski

my brother runs 300zx 4 pots on his with 15 inch 240sx wheels he needed to runs some sort of spacer to make it work tho.

I used to run 240SX wheels on my 02 with my snow tires. You should be fine there. Just a note, as for the LSD, it really is a gem, but I believe it only comes in the Spec V model, not the base SE-R. If it has a 6 speed, its got the LSD. 5 speed, I don't believe so.

The good news is there are plenty of Spec V's with grenaded engines, so a trans swap should be readily available. Oh, wait, maybe that isn't good news.