Would you rallycross your daily driver?

Note: a back up daily is available it just gets 16mpg at best.

I'm trying to decide whether or not to have 3 cars or 4. I would prefer to have 3 but selling one is something I don't really want to deal with right now.

Unless you all think rallycrossing a rust free stock 105k mile 95 M edition NA is a better idea.

Looking at maybe a new yaris(Mazda 2 sedan) or an older hatchback 2. 

If you have a hard top, the NA is a pretty hot ticket in SR in most regions, so there's that. 

In reply to RevRico :

Would have to find a stock seat to foamectomy to fit with a helmet on. Also yes it has a OEM hardtop.

Yes I would and have. I don't know if I would if it was a Mazda 2 though. 

I know a few people who DD their Rally X car. I see no reason not to. 

I rallycrossed the Jeep quite a few times while it was my daily.  And a few others in the region DD the same car they rallycross.  There were a couple times where the idea of driving 100 miles to a rallycross (on a Sunday), beating on my 200k+ mile DD all day, driving 100 miles home and then having to drive it work the next day made me a little nervous, but it never failed to do the job. 

Honestly, it seemed like the more a given car got driven outside of rallycross, the less likely it was to break during an event.  The trailer queens break far more than the cars that were driven to the event and definitely more than the DDs.  I feel like the need to drive the car home and especially to work the next day keeps the standard of maintenance, etc. higher and slightly alters what risks you'll take during the event.  

I guess I'll be the dissenting voice here. Rallycrossing a DD: once or twice? Probably. Full time/long term? Absolutely not. Though I suppose if the car in question is a NA miata you probably wouldn't be able to hear the interior falling apart over the road noise anyway so maybe it would be okay. On the other hand if the choices were occasionally rallycrossing my DD miata and full time running a Mazda2 (or really anything FWD) I'd pick the miata hands down because I have zero interest in FWD rallycross.

I would like to run something rwd, I just can't find anything local that would be suitable other than newer mustang's. The rwd manual that can fit a decent tire but doesn't need a hardtop seems to just be frs/brz/86 or a regular cab short bed manual Tacoma. And I don't want a brz.

In reply to MrChaos :

P71 are fun and cheap, but not super fast. The ranger is also fairly fun, yet slow. 

I have daily driven both of those, and use them for rally cross with no problems. It's actually pretty useful for finding problems in the suspension.

You mentioned you have another vehicle as back-up, so I wouldn't say "no."  Personally I have a policy that the vehicle which takes me to work does not get modified beyond wheels/tires. 

Years ago a friend took a beautiful daily driven STi and started rallycrossing it.  The car's condition deteriorated quickly once that started, but it still served well as a DD.

I also watched a guy rallycross a leased civic.  He didn't seem worried about it even when the fender liners came out on course.

The one thing that made me comfortable with taking my daily Mustang to a rallycross is the fact that you can't throw a rock in the Midwest without hitting a pile of Mustang parts. With entire engines in the $200 range, I wasn't really worried about breaking it. It didn't break, though. I still see it driving around sometimes, 3 years after I sold it.

I'm in the same boat.

My daily is a MK4 GTI and my backup is a 2500 Silverado. I raced the GTI a few times and loved it, but at the last event I had to drive a friends car in the afternoon because my suspension was on its way out. I've since bought an E30 for rallycross duties. With that being said, I never held back because it was my daily. I beat on the car pretty hard. 

As long as you have free towing on your insurance and a backup car to drive, I say go for it. 

Not a chance would I RallyX my DD. But we have three kids, a house and elderly parents to care for so I can’t afford to kill my daily driver. If you have the money for a “disposable” daily driver, then this conversation changes 180 degrees.

No. Not only no, but hell no. 

Not necessarily from fear of breaking it, but because the sheer amount of dust that gets in every nook and cranny is unbelievable. Every compartment gets covered. Even the glove box fills up. On average, a cleanup takes a couple of hours, or you just get dirty every time you go to work. 

If it's not the dust, you get home and have to deal with this. 

And depending on the competition, these aren't necessarily slow. This was the season championship car in MR for 2017.

If I had any sort of backup car, yes.

I wouldn't rallyx a newish vehicle though.

The dust is a problem.  You really need to run with the windows up and vents off, even in 100deg heat.  And even then you need to open windows strategically back in grid so the dust from other cars doesn't fill yours up.

MrChaos said:

I would like to run something rwd, I just can't find anything local that would be suitable other than newer mustang's. The rwd manual that can fit a decent tire but doesn't need a hardtop seems to just be frs/brz/86 or a regular cab short bed manual Tacoma. And I don't want a brz.

Not sure what you mean about "decent tire." What tires are you trying to run? For rallycross, the ticket is 15" wheels (or 14" on Miata/e30) with snow tires in stock class or gravels in upper classes (only available in 14-15").

The current easy button for cheap and competitve in stock form is any e36. They are really low in value right now, and will be lightyears better than a Mustang or Tacoma

Just a quick look at the Charlotte CL with a $2.5k top price/ RWD/ manual transmission reveals a few good candidates for cheap....

https://greenville.craigslist.org/cto/d/greer-bmw-328is/6790882677.html

https://charlotte.craigslist.org/cto/d/charlotte-1995-bmw/6793783001.html

https://charlotte.craigslist.org/cto/d/rock-hill-1986-mr2-aw11/6804787483.html

https://charlotte.craigslist.org/cto/d/2000-bmw-323i-5-spd-manual/6783150497.html

I'd do this, just for fun

https://charlotte.craigslist.org/cto/d/charlotte-1984-nissan-datsun-300zx-z31/6785440482.html

$600 e46 with minor damage it looks like....run it til it breaks, then scrap it?

https://charlotte.craigslist.org/cto/d/huntersville-99-bmw-323i/6807984963.html

won't be super fast, but will be unbreakable and still fun

https://greensboro.craigslist.org/cto/d/haw-river-1984-volvo-244-dl-fs-ft/6774571346.html

944's are good rallycrossers...

https://charlotte.craigslist.org/cto/d/inman-1985-porsche-944/6806707519.html

(sorry, not sure why all the links don't "link")

Also to answer your question: No, I woudln't rallycross a DD (though many people do, especially the subaru crowd). My DD was a WRX and it was never rallycrossed (I've been rallycrossing for 8 seasons now). Much better when you have a beater rallycross car that you can drive hard and not worry about (cleaning it, breaking it, not having a ride to work). Most people around here who rallycross their DDs eventually buy something cheap and semi-disposable in the stock classes. 

I am currently DDing one of my rallycross miatas.  But I have backup options if it breaks.

Yes and I won a National Championship in my DD with 390,000 miles on it.

My daily driver is a pegleg ram 1500. So not until it gets both wheels turning in the back.

moxnix said:

I am currently DDing one of my rallycross miatas.  But I have backup options if it breaks.

Like 7 of them hahah....

My DD's too low and a little too nice to rallycross. Now if I bought a $3k example with 225,000 km on the clock and stock suspension I'd totally throw a metal undertray on it and rallycross it. Some of the roads up here beat up cars way worse than your average rallycross course.

I've been wanting to rallycross my DD Ridgeline. I'm sure that it could do respectably well. But the concerns are legit, whether it be blowing out my shocks, adding to the rattles and squeaks, blowing up the transmission, or rolling the damn thing. I think that I'll do a single event, and see to what extent I'm sucked in.

I've done it. The wear and tear on the car will add up, that's a given, and it will happen much faster. Additionally, and worn components on the car when you start to rallycross can fail in an impressive manner.

Beyond that:

If you rallycross your daily, be advised that dirt will get into every nook and cranny of the car. Change a fuse? Give the block a quick vacuum first. Doing the oil? Wear some safety glasses to ensure hateful residual rallycross dirt doesn't drop in your eyes while you are getting to the drain plug. In fact, every time you go under the car after that, wear safety glasses, because dirt will fall out of of off of anything you happen to bump up against. Have to wear a suit to work? Vacuum it several times, and bust out a Little Green machine to be sure. Your air filter? Check it all the time, and plan on vacuuming the air box, too.

If you drive your car to the event, have a dedicated set of wheels and tires for events, regardless of what class you're running. If it is muddy, you'll find your wheels out of balance when you try to go home unless you have a way to wash them very well at the event. De-beading a tire can also result in having a wheel out of balance if you fail to clean out all of the crap whe you remount it.

 

Kreb said:

I've been wanting to rallycross my DD Ridgeline. I'm sure that it could do respectably well. But the concerns are legit, whether it be blowing out my shocks, adding to the rattles and squeaks, blowing up the transmission, or rolling the damn thing. I think that I'll do a single event, and see to what extent I'm sucked in.

you will get sucked in much more if you do it in something other than your Ridgeline. While you may have fun, it won't even be remotely competitive and it will not do respectably well. You'll have much more fun in something small. Rallycross isn't a baja race, and big vehicles are not competitive. Also a chance that they won't allow it to run in the first place (check height vs. track). I would suggest you borrow or rent a car (some competitors in our area have rental rallycross cars, and some guys have been known to show up in a Focus from Enterprise/Hertz ;)

Or, use the Ridgeline. But really, don't ;)