The most unlikely cars you've seen at a rallycross

This weekend we had some pretty unusual stuff that showed up for our 2-day event at Summit Point (89 total entries!). Thought some of them might amuse you guys....

Normally, a Miata at a rallycross would not be unusual. But how about a turbo'd Miata with a Paco lift and some big-ass tires? Note: It came for one day only and finished dead last out of the 65 or so cars that finished the day. It was pretty insane, but didn't look like much fun going fast on bumpy surfaces, honestly. I was kind of expecting a wheel to go flying off or some snapped axles, but the driver was clearly just taking it easy and trying not to break stuff....certainly not going for any competitiveness. 

The car that finished in 2nd to last, 10 seconds faster than the Paco Miata.......yeah, an S320 Benz on some cheap all-seasons. It was making a lot of strange noises by the end of the weekend, but it did finish both days and had some monster powerslides (all of which took out cones....)

You can also see some kind of Oldsmobile in the background, which managed to finish both days with dual drivers and didn't appear to break anything

Not to be outdone, an S500 showed up as well, on day 2, and was pushing it hard

But, the smaller Benz was the fastest

Volvo XC90, which on day one had one guy driving super-slow and on day 2 another guy was tossing it sideways into corners and laying down times only about 1 second off a couple of the stock-class Miatas....go figure.

And, a 4-banger Camry wagon (survived both days with 2 drivers). Not pictured: A Corolla wagon, which did not survive even the first day with 3 drivers...

So this one isn't all that "unlikely" to rallycross, but more just totally unusual to actually see one running - and running for the entire event. AWD+Turbo+4-wheel steering+Mitsubishi. What could possibly go wrong? In any case, 10 years of doing this and I've never seen a Galant VR4 on course, so that was pretty cool.

So, what are your best ones?

Lancia Delta Integrale.  In Ohio, in 2006.

Skyline GT-R (R32), and a Pulsar GTi-R, in Michigan in 2009.  (Say didja know that Canada is like RIGHT THERE??)

Via aristocrat class! 

2006, Edmonton .  A Ford Escort Cosworth WRC car.  Apparently one of Colin McRae's practice cars. 

Bone stock rental Kia Optima in 2007. It had been rented in Vegas, driven to Palmdale and was being used for driver training for the California Rally School. The course was basically flooded to prevent dust and the low-noise, 1000 TW stock tires couldn't get any sort of traction at all. 

It was mine. Only rallycross I've ever done. It was not thrilling. Kinda like driving a slot car, it couldn't climb out of the ruts so it just trundled around in first gear with massive wheelspin. I had to wash mud off the roof.

Keith Tanner said:

Bone stock rental Kia Optima in 2007. It had been rented in Vegas, driven to Palmdale and was being used for driver training for the California Rally School. The course was basically flooded to prevent dust and the low-noise, 1000 TW stock tires couldn't get any sort of traction at all. 

It was mine. Only rallycross I've ever done. It was not thrilling. Kinda like driving a slot car, it couldn't climb out of the ruts so it just trundled around in first gear with massive wheelspin. I had to wash mud off the roof.

Brian Battocchi (who usually drives his stage rally Impreza at rallycross), has been known on about a half dozen occasions to show up in some random rental car when his rally car is down for work. He is definitely showed up with a couple rental fiestas as well as a rental Mustang once among other things!

Oh, I forgot my favorite.  A brand new Opel something or other, small hatchback thing, with Michigan manufacturer's plates on it and about three server farms' worth of computer equipment bolted inside.  This was a little ways after Saturn stopped existing.

It was not competing, but it was in the parking area.  Still mad I didn't get pics, but I have a feeling that if I did get pics, someone's job might be in peril.

irish44j (Forum Supporter) said:

Keith Tanner said:

Bone stock rental Kia Optima in 2007. It had been rented in Vegas, driven to Palmdale and was being used for driver training for the California Rally School. The course was basically flooded to prevent dust and the low-noise, 1000 TW stock tires couldn't get any sort of traction at all. 

It was mine. Only rallycross I've ever done. It was not thrilling. Kinda like driving a slot car, it couldn't climb out of the ruts so it just trundled around in first gear with massive wheelspin. I had to wash mud off the roof.

Brian Battocchi (who usually drives his stage rally Impreza at rallycross), has been known on about a half dozen occasions to show up in some random rental car when his rally car is down for work. He is definitely showed up with a couple rental fiestas as well as a rental Mustang once among other things!

It might have been fun if the field wasn't turned into complete goo by the dust mitigation. As it was, it was just miserable.

Don't ever buy an ex-rental, folks. We once peeled the tire off the rim by lapping Pahrump four-up in a little compact something that I don't think was ever sold to the public. I don't think I've ever seen another one. Probably some rebadged Tawainese import.

Keith Tanner said:

Bone stock rental Kia Optima in 2007. It had been rented in Vegas, driven to Palmdale and was being used for driver training for the California Rally School. The course was basically flooded to prevent dust and the low-noise, 1000 TW stock tires couldn't get any sort of traction at all. 

It was mine. Only rallycross I've ever done. It was not thrilling. Kinda like driving a slot car, it couldn't climb out of the ruts so it just trundled around in first gear with massive wheelspin. I had to wash mud off the roof.

I forget the exact situation, but a few years ago some guys from Hawaii SCCA I think went on a tour of sorts of mainland regions to learn more about event operations or something like that. One of the places they showed up was a Detroit SCCA rallycross, with a rented Infiniti (don't remember what model but it was awd) with I think four total drivers (all wearing car themed hawaiian shirts, of course). They proceeded to chuck the thing into the woods multiple times, including once burying it deep enough that it needed to be towed out. ...And that's why you never buy used rental cars.

Also, it's disappointing to show up to rallycross in your porsche and it's not even the classiest car at the event:

I've never really liked the W140 but that S500 looks too good on dirt.

I like the Evo 0 more though!

We have a daily driven 01 XJR that regularly runs at our events (KWRC in Ontario), it's not fast but he definitely has fun.

We've also had a Crossfire come out to play.

Not rally cross but the first half! Those Benz's  brought back some memories from the 80's, New Zealand International Rally, IIRC #1 was Hannu Mikkola and #16 was Ingvar Carllson.

The best $325 I've ever spent.

I trolled Craigslist until I found a V6/Auto or I4/Manual car that ran and drove for under $500.  This one was a low mile grandpa's car that moved north and got wrecked in a snowstorm.  It had low miles, new tires, but the bent bumper beam and blown air bags made it not worth fixing.  The only problem I had with it was a blown fuel pump fuse after hours of continuous abuse.

I like this thread..

We had a Jag S-type and a Town Car. We ran rental neons once.

LS swapped, trucked, s10 blazer

Loving all the odd stuff sliding through the dirt. 

I've spectated at a handful of Detroit Region events and there are a couple of turbocharged RAV4s that show up and a 2nd gen Scion xB.   Copious amounts of Subies and Miatas are regulars.

Thanks for sharing the pics and some of the story from this weekend! I'm Jake, I'm the ringleader who brought all the big slow old cars to y'alls event and wanted to fill in more context here for those less aware. I run Out Motorsports, which is a community for LGBT+ car and motorsport enthusiasts. Last year, we got a group together and bought $1500 AWD vehicles to take off-roading.

This year's challenge was "$1500 cars your grandma would love" and we showed up with the white W140 S320, black 190E 2.3, gold Camry wagon, blue/white Corolla wagon, beige Oldsmobile LSS (3.8L Supercharged), and beige Volvo S70 T5M. The XC90 and black W140 S500 were friends of ours who didn't participate in the challenge but wanted to come rallycross anyway.

The Corolla had some VERY dead suspension before the event even started and was burning a ton of oil. It used a GALLON of oil driving up from Georgia. It died on Saturday night driving to our place after the day was done and had to be towed.

Our friend in the XC90 had fun Saturday but was nervous about pushing his car very much. I offered to drive it on Sunday for one run to show him what it could do, and he offered it up for the entire Sunday afternoon heat. So I parked the S70 and took the XC90. It was a HOOT to slide it around. It weighs about 5k lbs and apparently has a pretty low roll center, so it handled very well despite the weight. The Haldex AWD is relatively 50/50 most of the time and it would rotate on demand. It has the Yamaha V8 and is a fully loaded "Executive" package car. 

The white W140 was co-driven as was the black 190E and Olds LSS. Everyone was having such a fun time. I had the S70 and got comfortable beating up on it and it really loved the abuse. Much like the XC90, very eager to rotate despite being FWD.

We had 12 drivers register as part of our event, with 8 cars. Only two of us have ever rallycrossed before, and I am the only one who does motorsport stuff regularly (W2W with NASA). THANK YOU for the hospitality. Everyone who showed up is a car guy but performance driving is not on the agenda for most. "This is the dirtiest I've been, ever" is something I heard from a few people. And everyone loved the whole thing. Several asked me how often these were held and how much it'd cost per event because they're hooked. 

I plan on reaching out to Adam and the other WDCDR ringleaders as I have grander plans for next year but this was just the best weekend. I hadn't run with y'all in years and I plan on attending more frequently in the future. Thank you thank you thank you.

In reply to adam525i (Forum Supporter) :

I was looking for a pic of that car! I happenned to drive by the Febuary event and saw it waiting in line for it's run.

Love the Porscharu and I love this thread. 

I am definitely rallycross curious.

I am planning to build a rally raid style 2021 bronco and run it at a few rallycrosses.

We've had a few interesting entries out in Iowa.  Here's a few.

This S-10 had a turbocharged LS swapped into it.

volvoclearinghouse (Forum Supporter) said:

That's Summit Point back in the old days before we stopped running there (and now we're back). I remember you coming out in that thing! Ironically, same course we ran last weekend!