Rally Car Advice

I need to buy a new car pretty soon, and instead of having something i can just use to get to work with i think im going to buy something i can take rallying on the side.
The cars i like so far, honda civic, subaru legacy, or a FWD turbo dodge shadow.
Im leaving out GSX eclipses because i use to have one and it was too unreliable.

I dont really care if its fwd, rwd or awd since im not really racing anyone and just doing this for fun so Im leaning twords the civic or turbo dodge but i wanted to hear about the subaru too since the it was designed for rally.
I like turbo dodge since it can be made kinda quick for cheap and it would be the only car i would do any engine mods (cheap mods) to if i got it.
I like the civic because of its reliability and the subaru because there rally inspired in a way and awd.

Ide definently appreciat your opinions and suggestions on stuff like what suspension is the best and stuff like that.

Thanks

also, this car wouldnt be my only form of transpertation.

how about the celica alltrac. 200hp, awd, responds well to mods, and looks prettty sweet. cant go wtong there. rally racing is not a great idea in a fwd car.

how about the celica alltrac. 200hp, awd, responds well to mods, and looks prettty sweet. cant go wtong there. rally racing is not a great idea in a fwd car.

the celica alltrac turbo's are extremely rare and hard to find, so I would cross that off the list.

How about a Subaru WRX? You can get a used one pretty cheap, and with a few mods they can be pretty fast.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/CELICA-ALLTRAC-TURBO-gt-4-st185-3-sgte-3sgte_W0QQitemZ4603988380QQcategoryZ15288QQrdZ1QQc mdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1995-ST205-Celica-GT-Four-5-speed_W0QQitemZ4604516995QQcategoryZ15288QQrdZ1QQc mdZViewItem

Celica All Trac's...not so rare when in 2 mins I can find 2 on ebay. You can also check around on other sites like autobytel and others.

But one place to check is

http://www.rallyclassified.com/

Cars of note:

Mitsu Galant VR4's
Audi Coupe Quattro's
Mazda 323 GTX's (AWD)
and that's just the street cars on the first page...look around and see what you'd like

I also suggest you try rallycross and not rally.

Full-blown rally cars cannot be driven on the street as they need several thousand dollars of safety equipment and are generally unstreetable.

rally racing is not a great idea in a fwd car.

You do realize that there have been numerous successful FWD WRC cars (the Xsara comes to mind), and most of the AWD cars in it have a frontal drivetrain bias?

rally racing is not a great idea in a fwd car.


You have heard of F2 havn't you?
The WRX FWD class they had to change the rules on because the cars were bearing the AWD WRC Class cars on the tarmac stages.



By deffinition a Rally car has to be road legal, and has to be able to be driven on the road.
Its the whole idea behind rallying.


That said a fully kitted out comptetive rally car with proper suspension, cage, seats etc, is not a pleasant space to spend lots of time, and would be a very expensive to run as a daily driver.
They are noisy, loud, hard and unless you want to be changing wheels all the time run on very soft compound narrow tyres that are not good for tarmac use.



And don't think you can take a full weight road car and simply put a cage in it, give it some basic suspension mods, change the tyres and use it as a Rally car.
The abuse the car will suffer on even a mild rally stage will dislodge and destroy the interior, and you will break suspension parts.



You might want to consider something like a Honda Civic or MX5 or something cheap and light with a sporting history and lots of aftermarket surport so you can enter local Auto cross and other track events.
Its much easier to have a car usable for both track and daily driving.

Then if your still keen to get into rally save enough money to buy and run a dedicated Rally car.
Of course if you were genunily keen about getting into rallying you would have become involved in a local club, got to know some of the drivers, and spent at least a season crewing on a car and learning about whats needed to build and run a rally car.




One last note: Honda Civics do not make great rally cars, they do not have enough suspension travel, and are prone to bottoming out.

I like a lot of those cars you guys listed but there a bit more than what i can afford.
i was thinking something like a 1990 ford probe turbo? FWD, plenty of power good handling.

Actualy i might concider getting a 1st gen gsx, since they seem to be a pretty common beginner rally car.

Also i would probably be doing rally cross instead of pure rally since it is cheaper like drdisque said

Also i would probably be doing rally cross instead of pure rally since it is cheaper like drdisque said


If your going to rallying it on Gravel roads, then don't think about it being fun to drive on the raod.