If you missed the first part of this adventure, look here.
Here is a quick link to the car in question. t25torx is going to do the dirty work on this one and go llook at the car for me with trailer in tow. The ad and picts are fairly self explanatory but are there any SERIOUS troublespots on these cars that should be examined and be a deal breaker? The diamond plate on the floors means that the floors may have been replaced at some point. Meh, it's a race car. I'm much more concerned about rust in the rockers, strut towers, etc. that would be costly/time consuming to deal with. He's taking off first thing in the morning to go see this so limited time for feedback.
Those diamond plate things were aftermarket floor mats. They were all the rage in the early 90's for some ungodly reason.
The rabbit lacks the double layer strut towers that the pickup and convertibles had so strut tower rot is far less of an issue. The pickups were the worst, usually on the drivers side. Someone on the assembly line undercoated over a drain hole on 70% of those.
Usually I am more worried about the quality of the cage on cars like this.
Clean all the electrical connections for the CIS and charging system...
Rust.
I saw one have the strut towers fail and the struts dented the hood.
This is an old CFR or South FL SCCA car. I remember seeing it while I was still racing HP back in '04. The car supposedly has two boxes worth of paperwork with it and a STACK of logbooks. From the picts the towers look good (camber plates up front) and it seems to have a bunch of electronics including a cool shirt setup?? Hard to tell. The interesting thing I see is 2 coils. Was that standard on this motor?
The current owner bought it because he wanted the trailer it was on. He doesn't know much about the car other than at some point there was a potential buyer (from previous owner) and it was prepped to ship with no fluids in it. Current owner added oil and battery and it fired and ran. Don't think there is any tranny fluid in it so no test drive. Good chance the cage is Chump legal but not Lemons legal. I'm hoping to use it as an autocross and/or rallyecross platform and maybe even Chump it if it is solid enough.
amg_rx7 wrote:
Nice score at that price
Even better with another $50 off. t25torx did an awesome job of checking the car out and while the owner went to get paperwork we decided to give him the Mike Brewer treatment and go in really low. No dice but I still think it was a deal at $900. I won't be able to get the car for a week or so but t25torx will keep it snug in his shop until I do. In the pickup agreement was a commitment for a keg of Sam Adams. I'm trying to convince him to let me make good on that at the Challenge this year and that he needs to bring the Bimmer he is working on too.
Knurled
PowerDork
8/30/14 2:43 p.m.
When I bought mine, everyone told me that the windshield seal would leak and cause the engine computer (lambda controller) and fusebox to go bad.
No problem, said I. The aftermarket sunroof already did a good job of that.
There is far more information on clubgti.com than on any North American site, it seems. The people there are interested in go, and not show crap.
I have your car. muahahaha 
Dat STANCE Bro!
Looks ready for the track to me! 
Doesn't look like it has a fuel cell. Stock tank?
In reply to hobiercr:
Yep, you can see the stock tank in the second to last picture.
Never started a thread on this car. Got her running and driving and to the Challenge. New front calipers and pads, oil and filter change, new windshield, some misc parts and a good cleanup and she is close to being a solid track car. My buddies who were going to go in with me to make her a chump/lemons car totally flaked out so I sold her on last night to someone who is going to take her back to SCCA service, probably in HP. A little sorry to see her go but opens up some space in the shop and the $$$ will help pay off the holidays.
Getting new shoes:
New pads were in order:
How she looked at the Challenge.
This is crazy... I was watching this thread earlier and never put 2 + 2 together until today. Thats a nice car and even nicer paint job.
What does the Digatron thing do?
Wow, that car came a long way from its original condition. I wish every car I owned had an hourmeter.
Woody
MegaDork
1/24/15 6:55 p.m.
RoughandReady wrote:
What does the Digatron thing do?
http://www.preciolandia.com/ar/pirometro-digatron-83qrv0-a.html
In reply to mrwillie:
No paint job, I just spent hours cleaning off the old stickers and glue residue. That's the better better side. On the other side the stickers brought the paint up. 
But even with a front left camber issue (or non-camber) she placed 12th in the Challenge AutoX.
In reply to RoughandReady:
It is a thermo gauge. The sensor was on the #1 exhaust header tube really close to the head. I took the gauge apart, got the rusty ass battery out with some major work and got it working again. I sold it with the car but never knew what the "ideal" reading was as I received no info from seller and was never able to get in touch with the car builder.
In reply to ssswitch:
I learned that these cars have some serious wear points (esp front wheel bearings) which need replacement after 20 or so hours of hard use which is why many people upgrade to Mk2 or 3 hubs. An hour meter is great to have in a race car though.
Sad to see the plans for this car never came to fruition. But glad to see she wen't on to a new home and back to racing instead of the scrap heap that the kid who had it before was going to sent it to.
Hopefully the car will be at the SCCA races at Daytona in May Working on it as time allows with my fine six year old assistant asking 20 questions a minute , great time!
Audi Fox/VW Dasher hubs work well too but you have to make mods to the stock knuckle to fit the larger wheel bearings in them. Like bore them out and then weld a sleeve to the outside of the knuckle to re-enforce it due to the reduced thickness of the knuckle after boring it. I did this all on my lathe and it works! I get a bigger bearing and a thicker hub in a stock knuckle.
