OK John, I'll take your advice... how bout one of these?

http://bellingham.craigslist.org/cto/2526374431.html

Just think if you got a nice $400 Xratty.
You'd have $1400 left in your pocket to start spending on suspension, or a cage.

Now I think those Le-gassys are nice---about the same size as Xratty and Gaylant, and we know its easy to mix-n-match stuff like late 90s brakes,


But, seriously what's with this awd deal?

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

John, don't you know, AWD makes your car stay glued to the road and adds +5 to your driving ability, not to mention all the sponsors that will line up at your door. Wow, I'm starting to sound like a real rally anarchy snob, maybe I need a break from here....

No offence meant there, John, I'm just giving AWD in general a hard time. RWD is where the real fun is, that I can promise you.

i must say, ive never driven a RWD car hard AND fast before. but i do know that the first time i drove an AWD car i was instantly in love. and the thing is, i want a car that my friends can ride in and be comfortable in. im either buying a subaru or an audi, then a rally car later, or a rally car now, then a subie or an audi. the latter would obviously be the most logical decision, but if i see that the 323 is an amazing deal im probably going to take it.

theres also this coupe quattro i was looking at. could it be worth it to fix it up?
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/2508635439.html



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/2011 04:22PM by WRCWRXSTI.

As a straight daily driver road car, that Le-gassy is a deal---I even say quit fucking around for another month and get the damn thing..
Subaru=LEGO as I said, the brakes aren't as big as later but with all the poof-hipster boys that NEED!!! 18 inch wheels, a half alert guy ought to be able to score some 98 or later brakes which are OK brakes.

But as a rally car project the less complication, the less fragile shit like those generation gearboxes which are made from freeze dried dog-shit and were ka-ka new, the better.

Yeah AWD makes it SOOOOOPER EASY to drive with a little more vigor when you have not a clue what you're doing----shit, that explains their popularity in USA. NOWHERE in the world are people so crazy as to fill entry fields with slightly warmed over AWD cars....only USA and to a lesser degree a bit, Canada..

I saw the figures for "How many individual cars were entered in an event last year?" in Finland a coupla years ago, it was like 280 Escorts, 120 Corollas, 89 Starlets, 75 Opels, 40 Volvos, 39 BMWs, 35 fwd Opels, 30 Hondas, 39 various Evos and in the whole year 5 or 7 total different Subies....


That ought to generate serious questions like "aw sheet those guys are fast and they know what's up----why are the vast majority of the cars rwd cars?" to which somebody would probably answer
"Cause they can make 'em bitchin-er when its rwd and just one box, diff, propshaft, and they can keep them going...year in and year out..."
(not waste all their money on some lame warmed over street car with a cage, blow all the drive train shit, bend the stupid "forged alloy arms", and run outta money--and drop out after 1 year."

Rememeber, I have a AWD Cosworth thing sitting right over <---------there.
Fortunately I can convert it back to 2wd and it is just as fast---if not better (no restrictor)...

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

the guy told me id have to wait for him to get the title in the mail. he says its clean though, and the car looks like its in excellent condition. i would fly over to bellingham rite now if he had the damn thing.

Quote
WRCWRXSTI
the guy told me id have to wait for him to get the title in the mail. he says its clean though, and the car looks like its in excellent condition. i would fly over to bellingham rite now if he had the damn thing.

Well do something so it doesn't slip away....get over there and look at it, negotiate.....

Oddly enough I just got a note from an Australian fellow living in UK what has one and was asking about better brakes, that means we can look into it and see if there's any surprises in trying to use 99 brakes...not instantly but "opportunity buy" like when you stumble across some of the good ones grab 'em and then when its time for brakes, THEN in they go....

Now listen, if you keep your head on right the Le-gassy can be a good fun daily driver with no real vices except the frozen dog turd gears---so just don't slam changes like a idiot.

But there's always the temptation to get this then that.

If you are going to have a rally car in this lifetime, then you gotta think of a simple strong car, and man spending money on TWO CARS is a recipe for catastrophe and both being half assed pieces of crap...
It takes discipline that MOST guys in their 20s and early 30s don't have.

My friend Derek Bottles was talking about this, and how all his age group were all making crazy ass money and were tapped out. Glitzy cars, absurd cell phones, flat screen TVs, fancy clothes, fancy vacations to go ski in whereever, 3-5k mountain bikes, eating out 20 times a week, money going thru them like shit thru a goose.

He had a GTX----sold it and we found him a simpler Golf--but put a solid motor and real gearbox/diff/final drive, good solid suspenstion---and we should take note was significantly faster---and drove BETTER in the Golf....but his friends were asking "man, a race car!!! How do you afford it?"

They could imagine not having every cooked up new gee-gaw bullshit thing that came along the consumer electronics world...All fluff, all nonsense crap they bought without a single thought in their heads...


So, you really want to do a rally car?

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

yes i do. i just texted the guy. told him i would like to fly over there tomorrow and take a look at it, maybe work out a deal ahead of time. ill focus on getting the daily driver first. then buy a rally car in the near future. what do you think would be a better plan... build my own good and strong rally car, or buy one for way cheaper that isnt so good and strong... i mean for the next few years i would only be doing 1-2 events a year. would it really be worth it to spend so much money on a tank of a rally car? i figure that in 4 years, ill either be working for the US military, or ill be working as an engineer. there is no other option for me. i was basically thinking that id like to go to a few stage rallies here and there until that happens. there is nothing that would make my life happier than that.

Get the Legacy for a nice daily driver is my opinion. If you are bent on a subie for rally, get a cheap impreza.

Things I'm annoyed with on my Legacy turbo rally car:
calipers have very little choice of pads.

that 5spd will SHIT EVERYWHERE if you drive it like a rally car. I went to a six speed after breaking TWO transmission (2nd gear)in my DD turbo legacy.

it's ineligible for subaru contingency money.

the fucking fenders aren't fat enough to hold the tires I want to run.

it has a sunroof hole

the rear suspension lateral links mount with different size bolts at the subframe(doesn't sound annoying, but it's really fucking annoying when you have a pile of spare Impreza links that wont bolt in.)

it's the worst choice for Open Light. Well maybe not, I guess a 2001 Legacy wagon would be actually. But who the hell would rally that.

oh what else,

it's old. all the bushings will be shit.

the good?

I pretend I'm a young colin McRae.

I paid -100 for mine. (after parting)

I don't give a damn about it. I wish I could just roll it already and build an impreza.

I can make it RWD and drift it. Or max attack it if I feel like I could make the diff and transfer gears live through a rally. 40% chance in my eyes.

---

Brap Brap.

Quote
WRCWRXSTI


theres also this coupe quattro i was looking at. could it be worth it to fix it up?
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/2508635439.html

Those coupes are great fun as a daily driver. They are also a tinkerers car. I have yet to be stranded by an audi, I also have yet to make an entire month without tracking down a vacuum leak, or some other simple issue.

Please get something rwd you will be happier in the long run. Yehaw factor to dollars will be higher.
Just don't get anything you can't fix cheaply.

Quote
SteelSolutions
Please get something rwd you will be happier in the long run. Yehaw factor to dollars will be higher.
Just don't get anything you can't fix cheaply.

well the gtx has 2 spare trannies, a spare engine, and spare suspension. and i have plenty of time, so fixing that cheaply wouldnt be much of a problem, unless i break one of those control arms that is unique to the gtx... i would LOVE to BUY a RWD rally car, but i haven't seen 1 for sale in the past year that is within my price range. i would also love to build one, but everyone has been telling me to buy my first one. rite now i just want a car that is really fun to drive. im tired of driving honda crv's, ford taurus station wagons, and ford aerostar vans. i have to say though, i had a LOT of fun in my FWD 95 subaru impreza! is there a way i could build a RWD impreza rally car?

Quote
WRCWRXSTI

Quote
SteelSolutions
Please get something rwd you will be happier in the long run. Yehaw factor to dollars will be higher.
Just don't get anything you can't fix cheaply.

well the gtx has 2 spare trannies, a spare engine, and spare suspension. and i have plenty of time, so fixing that cheaply wouldnt be much of a problem, unless i break one of those control arms that is unique to the gtx... i would LOVE to BUY a RWD rally car, but i haven't seen 1 for sale in the past year that is within my price range. i would also love to build one, but everyone has been telling me to buy my first one. rite now i just want a car that is really fun to drive. im tired of driving honda crv's, ford taurus station wagons, and ford aerostar vans. i have to say though, i had a LOT of fun in my FWD 95 subaru impreza! is there a way i could build a RWD impreza rally car?

The dynamics of the little shitboxes is shitty--94" wheelbase is oh about 9-10" shorter than seems to work on the blinding fast roads we use here...

The wheelbearings are pure shit, the turbos are a obscene joke which take hours to change in a shop with lift and light.
The ONLY reason people ever used them was they were for a time the only game in town for those who wanted to buy an advantage---and they were just barely an advantage---as we've stressed, Derek Bottles was instantly much faster in his Golf. And of course they were cheap---

Howdya know the trannies are worth bothering to drag home? Dya have X-ray eyes? I don't sop i have to split trannies open to check 'em...
And 2 spare could mean you get three times out with the car before yopu have zero trannies then you are fuxxored...

And not everybody ghas been saying buy buy buy...

Not at all. I even said go get the Le-gassy as a daily driver.

Kid, you cannot have everything.... I personally don't believe we will ever see you on stage unless you move off the island...


But whatever you do, choose a car for the ADVANTAGES the car posseses, not merely because it's cheap.

And cheap, delicate, and obscure is a recipe for big tears.

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

im moving off the island as soon as i get a car, another computer, and a few grand in the bank. ill be moving to burien.

but im sure you know best.... i realize that im letting my inexperience and impulsiveness affect my decisions. although realistically, if i could get 2 or 3 rallies out of it, some knowledge, and some experience(not just driving), i would be pretty happy with it. what about the open classs talon for 3500? it looks a little beat up on the inside but it sounds like a good solid car? maybe buy a cheap shitty rally car and a volvo 240 as a daily? i dont see why living on an island means i cant get on stage... my friend is buying a nice truck to tow the car with. i have friends who will crew for me. i can come up with the money to go to a rally that is within range of here. im guessing about 2 grand without the cost of broken parts. i believe everything you are telling me, although some of it might be a tiny bit exaggerated. and ill be totally honest here... if i rallied the car one time and rolled the shit out of it on the second stage i would still go home with a smile on my face, no joke. obviously i dont have to do what you say, but it would probably be better if i did. what course of action would you suggest i take besides not buying a rally car for 4 years, building my own 240 or xratty, and buying a used rwd rally car? again, im buying the subaru if the guy will sell it to me, but he sounds like hes flaking out on me.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/2011 09:14PM by WRCWRXSTI.

holy shit! an xr4ti like 20 miles away from me!
http://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/cto/2545864504.html

wonder if i can have the guy put the transmission in for extra? or maybe have it towed to a shop and have the tranny put in? how much would that cost?