Cars Continued

So I've been reading... a lot. I've also perused the previous finishers for many of the races in the southwest in the last few years. I've learned the following things.

Rallying is about how good a driver and co-driver you are. To be the best in the open class (At least in the United States) you need an Evo or an STI but for almost every other class, IT DOESN"T MATTER WHAT YOU DRIVE! In fact, often times the open 4WD division doesn't even post the fastest finisher because none of the cars finished, or they were just out driven by someone who doesn't have a factory car. The performance stock class (our class) even posts some finishes in the top 5 or 10 overall. This is about finding a car that will do the job, engineering it to run as well as it possibly can, and then getting behind the wheel and learning how to drive it...fast. I re-read and re-re-read the class restrictions for the perf. stock class. We can have a fuel injected motor, just no turbo. And we can upgrade parts (engine, drivetrain, suspension and otherwise) so long as that model car came with those options at some point durring that body style. For example...if they came with disc brakes in 86 but not 85, we can put disk brakes on our 85 so long as the body style didn't change between those years.

People win in everything from, Nissan Sentras to Honda Civics to Ford Foci, Datsuns, BMWs and a variety of european cars I've never heard of that probably make awesome rally cars. There's even a Ford Ranger pickup that often makes a showing. Everything has drawbacks... some cars are weaker, some cars are "underpowered" etc... but we can deal with these kinds of problems with innovation. One thing that we cannot deal with in unavailability of parts. A sweet renault or citroen or a european escort would be sweet but if we break....excuse me...when we break something, we will need easy (cheap) access to parts. For that reason, I think we should pick a car that we see sitting around in junk piles A LOT. That way we can always scrounge parts.

The Civics, and Sentras are everywhere, cheap and parts will always be available because an entire generation of people are still using them.

I see a LOT of winning VWs, Golf, Rabbit, GTI etc... A LOT. A little harder to come by but we do have some VW experience...though not fuel injected (that I know of)

I think an Older Datsun would be cool, I just like the look of them, and they're rear wheel drive but they are carburated and probably a little harder to find parts for.

Mid 80s to early 90s BMW 3 series...VERY cool. Rear wheel drive, 5 speed, technically european and there are plenty tips out there on how to tune them for max BHP.

I think there might be a Volvo that will work and maybe even an early Saab but parts, parts, parts.

Should we just move up a class so we can get an early Subaru legacy or something that's 4WD and run the risk of getting stomped because we can't pay for the technology? On the other hand, if we tool ourselves for a Bimer or something, it's going to ba a tougher transition once we upgrade ourselves to a 4WD Jap Rally Rocket. We'll have to learn everyhting all over again... how to drive, how to work on it etc.

Thoughts?