Street Rally Car

In reply to TIGMOTORSPORTS:

I love the Impala/Caprice idea! You can definitely lump me in with the car-based, low buck, "PreRunner-ish" fullsize crowd.

Slap a slight lift on this car and bingo!:

This one seems pretty close to where I'd want it:

Srugs.

I may be biased here

Trouble with the mildly lifted B body, going off of OPs goals, is it's going to get crappy fuel economy short of swapping a small truck engine (5 cyl Colorado?) and stick in it. It's really too heavy for a 4, at least a naturally aspirated one.

I will say I do see such rigs running around Detroit sometimes, slightly lifted box caprice on slightly larger than stock tires and 15 inch wheels. So it must work ok if you don't mind 16mpg.

Ls and a good tune. Decent gears and overdrive. Should be able to motivate it well and get 20ish.

Id still prefer an older small suv for this use. I put more miles on my rodeo then anything else ive owned. Stock aside from rear locker and 31-10.50 swampers.

Would something like a Jeep Cherokee fit? No lift, or maybe just 1" for tire clearance. Have more rubber for cushion, its 4x4, so so mpg. Kinda tank like.

I have no idea how the suspension is though, too soft? hard? no travel?

This is what you are looking for:

<a href="">baja

petegossett wrote:

ebonyandivory wrote: Not-so-easy button: [URL=http://s265.photobucket.com/user/derekrichardson/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image_41.jpg.html][/URL] But easy button is Ford Ranger with bigger tires and decent shocks.

If you want to recreate this, this LTD donk might be a good start...might even be cheap without the wheels.

ive looked into making old 'donk' cars into pre-runner type cars and the way they lift those cars is not something i would want to use one any kind of rough terrain...

even the 'lift kits' are not great, they dont add any suspension travel and more then likely ruin your suspension geometry. they pretty much just move everything down

CarKid1989 wrote: Would something like a Jeep Cherokee fit? No lift, or maybe just 1" for tire clearance. Have more rubber for cushion, its 4x4, so so mpg. Kinda tank like. I have no idea how the suspension is though, too soft? hard? no travel?

Should fit more than enough tire at stock ride height - 235/75r15 is no problem from what I hear. If anything, you might consider dropping it for lower center of mass. MPGs are decent with the 5 speed too - I've been averaging 22-23 in mine.

It really rides like a truck though, so I'm not sure this would fit with the OP's purpose. I, for one, would love to see something like the Challenge XJ-R done up in rally guise though.

Every GRM'r needs to read these books

In Europe 'banger rally's' (think BABE etc.) are huge, so is road rallying. Think quasi legal high speed TSD's run at night on tarmac roads that would make most people in this country E36 M3 their pants. Tight twisty narrow roads with two way traffic with high berms/fences/walls/hedges etc. Like TSD's the average speed has to be legal for the stretch of road, but the UK has some mind bendingly twisty roads. There is a lot of good advice on in the first book on what you need to change and how to do it for reasonable $$$'s (well £££'s actually :) ) The second book is just fun to read, more about the journey and the experience than the car, but they do cover building the car in the first chapter and cover repairing and keeping in going in the middle of nowhere on rout from Southern England to Ulan Bator nearly 6,000miles away.

Going back to the OP's first post, he specifically mentions city streets and broken pavement. I really don't think full size cars are ideal for the nip and tuck of high density city streets, think smaller and more maneuverable to start with, forget the quasi desert racers and think tarmac rally car.

pointofdeparture wrote:

NickD wrote: Everyone is mentioning newer Subarus, how about the venerable EA82 chassis. I've owned one of these (Would love another) and they are easy to work on and pretty cheap. Also extremely tough and have genuine 4WD, not AWD. Later cars had fuel injection, the '85-'88s had twin-range transfer cases, there are plenty of lift kits available and guys have made some DIY suspension setups. There are also kits to put in EJ enignes in place of the old EA series engines.

Ha, that red one belongs to my friend Tom. It is quite rusty underneath. The EA82 is a great platform if you live in a dry non-rust belt climate. In the mid-2000's they were already getting scarce here and now they are virtually nonexistent. I love them and cut my teeth working on them, but there are just none left in decent shape outside of the PNW it seems. (Also, they are totally gutless and struggle to do 70MPH or get 18MPG under even the best circumstances)

Yeah, I bought mine in NY 3 years ago and have yet to see another. And the NY winters dissolved the body like Orange Tang. Mine has the 3-speed auto, so 55mph is all mine will do and it gets about 20mpg

In reply to edizzle89:

Yeah, the lack of quality and/or engineering there really doesn't surprise me.

David S. Wallens wrote:

Aspen wrote:

TAParker wrote: Love this!!!!

The wheels are pretty, but for this application some 15" Compomotives would serve better.

Those wheels were takeoffs from a previous Subaru project car. Seriously, that wagon was great for normal use. It was roomy, comfortable, reliable and quick enough. You could also park it anywhere. Plus, since it wasn't a WRX, it wasn't total theft-bait. No, it wasn't as radical as some of the other cars in this thread, but it just worked. I hated to sell it, but needed to free up some driveway space.

No need to sell me on it. I bought one new in 1997 and still have it. Of course I went and ruined it by sticking in a JDM drivetrain and messying with the suspension.