I would not consider anything with structural-looking rust, especially for coming seasons.
I would not consider anything with structural-looking rust, especially for coming seasons.
Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:Is the Lumina too big for rallycross?
No. You will wish it was smaller, but that's the case with anything. And while rallyx is harder on a car than street driving, it won't beat it to death if the car is solid. The upside is it's a W body, gm sold 12 billion of those, so any wear items should be dirt cheap. The only thing that should cost anything would be snow tires, and you could be fine with only having those on the front.
Just another vote for literally any (almost) $500 car is a rallycross car.
gearheadmb said:Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:Is the Lumina too big for rallycross?
No. You will wish it was smaller, but that's the case with anything. And while rallyx is harder on a car than street driving, it won't beat it to death if the car is solid. The upside is it's a W body, gm sold 12 billion of those, so any wear items should be dirt cheap. The only thing that should cost anything would be snow tires, and you could be fine with only having those on the front.
The thing is that I know for a fact this car has been maintained since new. My father bought the car new. When he died Mom got it and I got the responsibility for maintaining it. When Mom went into the nursing home, I got the car. I know about every single oil change. With most $500 cars I don't even know if there is oil in it. I could get snow tires for it which would also mean that I could use it for runs up to Red River and Taos for skiing in the winter. Is there any other way I could raise the car other than taller tires? It has aluminum wheels now too. Should I get steel wheels for it?
There are cheap Focus out there.
Manual Focus for $400
In reply to Brett_Murphy (Ex-Patrón) :
Not sure I want to go halfway across the country to pick up a $400 car.
In my area there aren't any $500 cars that don't require being towed away from their current locations.
In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :
Concerning lifting it; dont. It's not necessary and will hurt the cars handling. Plus it would bump you to a higher race class. The course should be able to be ran on stock suspension.
Concerning the wheels; I've read that the aluminum wheels are less likely to break than steel, but I have never seen either wheel break in person, so I wouldn't get too concerned about that. I would consider getting a set of junkyard wheels for your snow tires and bringing at least one street tire along. Debeads do occasionally happen, so if you can't get it seated you can still run, or drive it home, or get it on the trailer.
The $500 Lexus LS400 market isn't dead, however the cars tend to end up being too nice to beat on. I've rally crossed mine but am too nervous to destroy it at a hooptie-X or gambler.
gearheadmb said:In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :
Concerning lifting it; dont. It's not necessary and will hurt the cars handling. Plus it would bump you to a higher race class. The course should be able to be ran on stock suspension.
Concerning the wheels; I've read that the aluminum wheels are less likely to break than steel, but I have never seen either wheel break in person, so I wouldn't get too concerned about that. I would consider getting a set of junkyard wheels for your snow tires and bringing at least one street tire along. Debeads do occasionally happen, so if you can't get it seated you can still run, or drive it home, or get it on the trailer.
Outside of cars with actually rally suspension parts, I've never seen a "lifted" car outperform the stock equivalent.
I'm not sure I've seen a steel wheel break, but I've definitely seen them bend. If you already have a set of steel wheels on hand and don't care about them, I'd probably give them a shot and keep an eye on them. But if you're buying wheels, find a set of cheap used Al wheels.
In reply to dps214 :
Steel wheels don't "break" per se, they just punch over the lug nuts and leave the car. Constantly changing wheels degrades the lug holes, too, and in some cases, including Subarus and certain Mopars, it is not uncommon for the lug holes to get so oversized that the lug nuts bottom out against the rotor/drum. Wheel failure happens much more rapidly once that occurs. (Miles, for one, caught that on one of his cars before it caused an issue. He stopped using steel wheels altogether after that)
As far as Luminas go... A car is a car, anything that gets you out there is good. It's a lot larger than can decently navigate some courses without having to drive frustratingly slow, but no car is perfect for all situations. You'll at least be able to see what seems to work locally and keep your eyes open.
Nothin' wrong with driving halfway across the country for a $400 car, if it's locally a $2500 car.
I mean, you just missed a free AWD 5-speed audi on this very forum classifieds. $500 would have just about got it shipped to your door is my guess.
Lightweight, manual transmission, fwd and an available limited slip differential for later in down the road, no rust.
Just have to look for a deal. Just 2 weeks ago I sold my 99 SR tuned zx2 on this site for $600
The Lumina runs and needs little other than maybe a new set of mud & snows. Did the free Audi run? How much would it cost to get it running? And how much time would it take?
The Lumina might be a better short term solution while I wait for something better to show up. I could always grab a cheap or free car later if something shows up nearby and stick it in the backyard. My experience with car shipping is they usually want about $800 to $1,000 to ship anywhere I can't get to in a weekend, and I'm not even sure I want to waste my few vacation days chasing a rustbucket when Mrs. Snowdoggie would really rather go to a resort. I may just have to wait for the right one to show up locally. What I really want is another NA Miata. I might go quite a distance for one of those. They are easy to work on and parts are everywhere.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:In reply to dps214 :
Steel wheels don't "break" per se, they just punch over the lug nuts and leave the car.
Oh, they break....that's the center of the wheel, still bolted to the hub. The rest of the wheel was about 500ft away.
In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :
Remember the bit where I said "Know someone..."?
If you start rallycrossing, you will meet a lot of people. You may find a sweet deal THERE.
And then you can resell the Lumina.
In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :
Yowch.
Did you see Evan's thread? At least one of his (aluminum) wheels had some scary looking cracks in it.
Everything's a wear item, you just need to stay vigilant.
I STILL need to get my spindles Magnafluxed.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Three of them have significant cracking. I'm sad to retire them since revolutions aren't really easy to find but i have plenty of oem wheels to replace them.
I've been hunting for a sub $2k manual Subaru and haven't been finding much available. Between the 20 year old Outbacks with head gasket issues, and Imprezas rusty rear shock towers that render the car a total loss most of the ones worth buying are gone.
Mid-Atlantic guys let me know if you have one for sale that I've missed!
My last good buy was a 00' Solara that had been totaled in a snow storm but was still perfectly driveable for rallycross. It wasn't worth fixing the bumper beam, air bags, and windshield but it was a low mile grand pa's car with no rust. If you don't mind some accident damage, you might be able to find something. If you don't have the option of towing the car to the event this might not work for you.
In reply to Nitroracer (Forum Supporter) :
Was the solara a V6 manual?
In reply to captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :
Unfortunately it was not. I was looking for something cheap I4/Manual, or V6 Auto that could be used for other cheap racing locally. If I found a V6/5spd I would have been shopping for an MR2 to drop it into.
In reply to Nitroracer (Forum Supporter) :
There's a windshield rule now, due to high demand.
Accident damage may need to be repaired, depending on how things shake out.
Automatics ARE NOT A LIABILITY. They're actually faster when you're talking GD WRX. Better gearing, better center diff. Not just WRXs, either, I was kind of a d-bag for a while driving an automatic Volvo in PF and dominating locally. Needed better tires and a better driver to do well at Nationals, I was just using my old RX-7 wheels/tires because they fit and rallycrossing anything you got is better than sitting at home.
In reply to Nitroracer (Forum Supporter) :
I literally asked as I can always use another E153 :)
Depending on pricepoint you'd consider on a v6 5 spd, I know of one for sale in NY state
I've looking for a Rallycross beater as well. My searching seems to land at about $1200 for a cheap compact car, Focus, Cavalier, etc. Their parts are cheap, parts yards loaded with spares, and you can be picky when shopping. Manuals are not so common but are available and don't draw the premium the way they do in a Miata or 350Z or mustang.
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