I know miata's aren't allowed in rally, which is very lame, but I want to get a team started and wondered if anyone had any suggestions. We have an RS imprezza but we could start with something else, we haven't caged it or gutted it yet. We want to start with open light class and work our way up from there.

 

Rally tires on my 92 so I could get around last winter.

 

The impreza would make a good starting platform from my limited knowledge...

 

hmm check the organization rules for new entries, maybe limited to N\A 2wd class till later.

 

I don't believe you need prior experience in Open Light. Scoobies are the way to go if you don't feel like starting in a VW Golf.

 

I guess we are stuck with an Imprezza, just kinda hoping to be more creative.

 

I keep hearing people say this. If you are 'creative' and 'original' you will end up with a car that nobody has parts for, and that nobody knows how to work on. A couple friends bought a rallycar and wanted to be different a few years ago. They bought a Turbo SAAB.

Nobody knows anything about the damn thing 'cept for a few old gurus that live in caves at the top of mountains. This means that when something goes wrong at a rally, and you open the hood, all the helpful mechanics look in, go "WTF?" and slowly back away. You can't find spare parts in junk yards, the windshield has been out of production for years, etc....

Stick with something standard and proven so that you can concentrate on racing.

If I had a dollar for everytime I had to help start a hot ******* rotary at a rally....I'd have $3, but you get my point.

 

Yeah, I have some friends that run a 89-ish civic HB... they go through suspension parts at every event(bushings, control arms, front subframe)... it takes a while before you can move up from na 2wd. Its still expensive, even though they do all the work and pull parts from the junk yard. They bought the whole car for less than the cage is worth.

 

From page 18 of the current rulebook:

"All initial Rally Driver License applicants will be issued a Novice Drivers License.....Any driver with significant previous automobile racing experience
may, at this point, apply for an unrestricted rally license by attaching a complete race experience resume to the license application. The application will require the endorsement of a steward and the approval of Rally America.......A Novice Drivers License will restrict a driver to compete only in a Group 2, Production or Open Light Class car."

Open Light is a new class to help people with AWD cars that don't want to buy another or beg for an unlimited license.

 

Another great platform to start out with is a B13/14/15 Sentra.

 

Bullocks! I used to rally a RS200 before I switched to road racing. It's much more civilized.

 

I just finished building an Open Light Impreza with my girlfriend. She drove it to a devestating class win at 100 Acre Wood Rally. There's a half asses build threaon Rally Anarchy. I'l answer more details when I'm in front of a real keyboard.

 

Wait a minute, are you Jason? You crewed for the Huebbe bros once? I know you! My wife and I are the two that ran into you at Pikes Peak. We went to get away from the regular crowd and ran into Ron and Caswell, then it turned out there were all kinds of people we knew there, LOL. I went by Brianne's car at service to say hi but didn't see you.

 

Yes, that's me. Look for the beard. I'll be at the Roxton-Paris rally this weekend competing with the '63 SAAB. Brianne will be out there too.

 

I've also been wanting to get into rally for a long time. I have friends that rally hondas. Their website is here: http://fatboyraceworks.com/ Some neat articles on there.

My biggest problem is that i'm not wealthy enough to compete. They are spending an average of 2k per event when you add everything up. I could afford to build a car and then never be able to afford to drive it at an event. Rally cars aren't really useful for much other than rallying, they aren't set up to autox or do track days necessarily but I guess you could if you wanted to.

Now rallyx, that is starting to sound like a lot of fun to me now that I have a GTX

 

Completed the Roxton Rallye de Paris last weekend. The SAAB held together with only some minor tuning issues holding us back.

Watch 850cc of three cylinder, two-stroke SAAB fury!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O88wAMY1wb4



The girlfriend was competing too. She lost her clutch slave cylinder and fork at the morning event, but rigged it and had an overall win in the afternoon event with no clutch actuation, alternator or gauges.

 

And just in case any of you guys ever make it out to a rally, or Pikes Peak, and see me - introduce yourselves. I'm easy to recognize. Real tall and real hairy.