Thinking of subaru as rally project car

I want to get into a project car to make a rally car i can rip down dirt roads and off road places and have fun. a subura seems like an obvious choice. i cant find many other stick shift AWD cars thatd be good. im looking at a 2008 2.5 impreza hatch.

i know the engines have some issues with headgasket and other things apparently. the trannies seem to have second start to grind.

im planning on gutting the car and maybe a cage among other things. not sure if id need a ton of power 

i know i should do some more research but anybody well versed with these cars or more experience in general have any pointers or heads up for me?

thanks

In my local rallycross group both the NA and Turbo people are on their 4th-5th engines.  The plus is the engines are easy to pull and swap. AWD rallycross is mostly subaru's so, they do work.

If you want a Subaru, that's cool (I had a 2009 WRX that rarely went off pavement), but also keep in mind that the majority of rally cars out there (or at least a good chunck of them) are actually RWD or FWD.....whether that be e30/e36, old Volvos, RX-7s, Fiestas, Civics, or whatever. They are just as much fun and do great offroad (make sure you have an LSD and good tires), plus easier on consumables and dont' blow up engines as often lol. Also a lot easier to find a big selection of manual transmission cars. 

that said, for Subies there's a lot of parts and resources already available out there in terms of rally equipment.

Check out the build forum on here, there are a number of GRMers that rally 2WD cars

Dan Downey

Kevin

me

and many more....

also hit up DIRALLY.com, which has a huge section talkign about what you need to make a Subaru rally car. 

MrChaos said:

In my local rallycross group both the NA and Turbo people are on their 4th-5th engines.  The plus is the engines are easy to pull and swap. AWD rallycross is mostly subaru's so, they do work.

AWD rallycross is mostly Subarus by sheer math, since the vast majority of small AWD cars are Subarus.  They saw fit to flood the market by making everything AWD after 1997.

DSMs used to be the drug of choice for Open class stage rally because of the bulletproof engines and transmissions, despite the low roofline making rollcages a pain.  They used to be pretty popular for SCCA rallycross too.  When was the last time you ever saw a 1st gen DSM of any flavor?

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

That reminds me, I was supposed to bribe you to find me a cheap clean E30.

My friend Alex is putting together a K24 engined E36, he is stuck at some clearance issues.  May need to pick your brain regarding BMW driveshafts since he is using the Getrag box but needs to move it all back so the engine can clear the steering rack without sitting it up real high.  

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

That reminds me, I was supposed to bribe you to find me a cheap clean E30.

 

My friend Alex is putting together a K24 engined E36, he is stuck at some clearance issues.  May need to pick your brain regarding BMW driveshafts since he is using the Getrag box but needs to move it all back so the engine can clear the steering rack without sitting it up real high.  

Tell him to look into a rear drive shaft from a 318 TI and the front drive shaft from a six-cylinder e36. That should give him the shortest combination

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

I think he is starting with a 318ti, now that you mention it.

Hmm.  Built K24 (I know few details other than the engine is serious enough to be dry sump) in a 318ti, sounds like a poor man's E30 M3.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

I think he is starting with a 318ti, now that you mention it.

 

Hmm.  Built K24 (I know few details other than the engine is serious enough to be dry sump) in a 318ti, sounds like a poor man's E30 M3.

Well if he gets the front  drive shaft from one of the six cylinder e36s, that should gain him an extra 12 inches or so over the 318 TI front drive shaft, since the six cylinder cars have longer transmissions. 

In reply to MrChaos :

thats good to know! very interesting, looks like a swap is a good thing for a subie then

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

thank you very much sir, i was reading articles about good rally cars and saw that many are 2wd, im just drawn to awd when i think rally and i wouldnt really want to do a fwd. i wouldn't be against rwd, i did think volvo 240 and they are cool as hell

HKV955 said:

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

thank you very much sir, i was reading articles about good rally cars and saw that many are 2wd, im just drawn to awd when i think rally and i wouldnt really want to do a fwd. i wouldn't be against rwd, i did think volvo 240 and they are cool as hell

There is a Volvo 240 rally car build thread going on right now in the build section. Should be on the first or second page.

HKV955 said:

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

 i did think volvo 240 and they are cool as hell

Probably should not look up the various SERIES they have in Finland and Sweden for Volvo 240s of varying levels of prep.  SwedishRally regularly posts videos on YouTube.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

That reminds me, I was supposed to bribe you to find me a cheap clean E30.

 

My friend Alex is putting together a K24 engined E36, he is stuck at some clearance issues.  May need to pick your brain regarding BMW driveshafts since he is using the Getrag box but needs to move it all back so the engine can clear the steering rack without sitting it up real high.  

Are there any stage rally rules about keeping engine swaps on the same family? Like I "think" there is something with that in autocross. 

Somebeach (Forum Supporter) said:

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

That reminds me, I was supposed to bribe you to find me a cheap clean E30.

 

My friend Alex is putting together a K24 engined E36, he is stuck at some clearance issues.  May need to pick your brain regarding BMW driveshafts since he is using the Getrag box but needs to move it all back so the engine can clear the steering rack without sitting it up real high.  

Are there any stage rally rules about keeping engine swaps on the same family? Like I "think" there is something with that in autocross. 

In mod class rallycross it just has to have the physical appearance of what you are entering it as.

Somebeach (Forum Supporter) said:

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

That reminds me, I was supposed to bribe you to find me a cheap clean E30.

 

My friend Alex is putting together a K24 engined E36, he is stuck at some clearance issues.  May need to pick your brain regarding BMW driveshafts since he is using the Getrag box but needs to move it all back so the engine can clear the steering rack without sitting it up real high.  

Are there any stage rally rules about keeping engine swaps on the same family? Like I "think" there is something with that in autocross. 

At some pioint there was, for at least one of the series (rally America maybe?) but I really have no idea if any of those rules are still in place. I swapped my car twice but still using a BMW engine so never really looked into it. I assume you are meaning the same make. Or by family do you mean can you swap a piston engine for a rotary?

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

Yeah I meant same make. Ie Toyota to Toyota. 

Somebeach (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

Yeah I meant same make. Ie Toyota to Toyota. 

Here's the rules for ARA, which is the primary rally organization these days:

https://www.americanrallyassociation.org/rulesandbulletins

have a good read :)