My First Proper Rally Car

[Turbo7379 3]

As posted elsewhere I spotted this car for sale.

http://cars.donedeal...llycars/2881388

 

I went to view the car & struck a deal. The car specs are-

msa logbooked

10 point omp cage

4 litre plumbed extinguisher system, 1 handheld extinguisher

Rallys seats & 5 point harness, not in date

Koni adjustable sport suspension

Std 1.9 GTI engine & gearbox

Alloy sump guard

Rear beam just overhauled

Automatic bonnet

 

That’s all I know so far as I haven’t checked the brakes yet. The shell is fairly sound, just a couple of small patches need welding on the sills. The rear floorpan is starting to rust & I’ll be cleaning & treating that. The sunroof was plated & quite a tidy job done but they were a bit mean with the filler so that needs some filling & painting. It’s a decent car , it just needs tidied. The car also came with literally a shed load of parts, which swung the deal. They are-

 

2 boot lids

1 bonnet

4 doors

3 wing mirrors

2 complete GTI back bumpers

4 tail lights

2 indicators

2 GTI wings

3 front grills

fuel cap & key

GTI petrol tank with pump

Complete steering column with key & leather GTI steering wheel

Front cross member with bottom arms, steering rack & polybushed 17mm arb

Pair of PTS fixed platform bilstein coilovers with 10” springs & spherical bearing mounts

Pair of gp n challenge spec front bilsteins with springs

3 gp n challenge spec rear bilsteins

2 std rear shocks

1 front 1.6 GTI calliper

2 rear GTI callipers

Set of new front & rear std Delphi pads

Rear brake disc

New hydraulic handbrake & all fittings for a 205 installation

Pair 1.6 GTI hubs with callipers

1 diesel front hub

Pair alloy rally seat mounts

 

Take a breath!

 

8 x 14” gtx/gentry alloys

14 x 15” GTI alloys

4 x 15” MI16 alloys

Pair 4mm wheel spacers

8 x 15” rally tyres, some new

3 gear linkages, 1 rose jointed

4 branch exhaust manifold

Complete exhaust system

New gates timing belt

2 new fan belts

2 alternators

1 reconditioned starter

Used paddle clutch plate

Used std clutch pressure plate

2 air flow meters for 1.6 GTI

1 ECU for 1.6 GTI

Throttle & clutch cables

GTI radiator

2 distributors

1 ignition amp

1 coil

1 complete standard 1.6 GTI engine & gearbox

1 x 1.6 GTI BE1 gearbox with 1.9 1^st gear & Quaife ATB diff

1 complete 1.9 GTI engine, originally built by Skip Brown in 1989 to group N spec with a paddle clutch & gp A bottom mount.

 

I’ve done a rough calculation & the spares alone are worth £3500 , so I reckon it was a good deal as I bought the whole lot for £1750! A bonus is that the car came with a cherished registration number which is worth over £200!

 

It turned out that the car was originally built by a guy I used to race against in stock cars – me in a 309 GTI & him in a 205 GTI.

My plans are to firstly tidy up the shell and repair/treat the rust. I’ll be moving the battery to the boot & replumbing the brakes for the hydraulic handbrake. The fuel lines will be moved inside the car & I might install a swirl pot.

 

Engine wise I’m not sure what to do. The Skip Brown 1.9 is supposed to be something special – the engine & box cost a previous owner £2000! Apparently it had so much power it kept wringing shafts & they had to fit pug sport ones. When Skip Brown built it to gp N spec they gained 15 bhp over standard just by blueprinting the engine. You can see evidence of gp N history as several of the bolts on the engine & box have been drilled for lockwiring. I’ll know more when I strip it down but I’m hoping to see a big valve head, uprated cam & maybe an overbore. If I’m lucky it may have a steel bottom end. It’s running std inlet but if I see uprated internals I’ll be ditching that & going for carbs.

 

My other option is to fit the alloy MI16 from my other car. It started out as a track car & developed into a semi rally car, though its not log booked. I plan to refit the original 1.9 GTI engine & sell that car on. The MI16 is all standard but has been rebuilt & goes quite well. The only problem with fitting it into a rally car is that it puts you into the 16v class & it would not be very competitive without spending a fortune.

 

Sorry the threads is so long, hope you haven’t dozed off. I’m currently stripping & scrapping 2 diesel 205s but after that I’ll be starting on the rally car. I’ll be updating my progress & adding pics as I go along so keep an eye on this thread

[samthornton1990 23]

I offcially hate you... not. but seriously... i payed 1100 for mine and didnt get anything like that. steal bud! good project to go on. hope it goes well

[welshpug 1,657]

heh, so its no 180 bhp then

[Turbo7379 3]

Took a few pics last night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The roof definately needs attention.

 

 

 

I like the blue/metallic silver colour scheme. Clever use of the red tape hides the edge joints. Might change the blue to a solid colour - it's currently base-lacquer, not east to do spot repairs and the lacquer is peeling on the doors where rally numbers were removed.

Edited March 17, 2012 by Turbo7379

[Turbo7379 3]

3 rust patches on the sills need repaired.

 

 

 

 

Luckily the rust hasn't spread to the b-post yet.

 

Hated this spoiler at first but it's starting to grow on me.

 

 

 

It's quite heavy though & not too well attached.

 

I've got one car cut up.

 

 

Saving these parts - bonnet, wings, doors, bootlid (may go on in place of spoilered one)

 

 

This car is next for the chop. Will cut sill repair sections from this.

 

 

 

 

Decided to strip down the PTS coilovers last night. I was worried when I split them & rusty water ran out.

 

 

Luckily the inserts were perfect & the bronze guides look ok too. Seals will need changed though. Inserts are 250/120, springs are 10", unknown spec.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

I really hope you ditch the spoiler!

 

Absolute steal though, how on earth did you bring all the spares back!

[Turbo7379 3]

heh, so its no 180 bhp then

 

I was talking to a guy at a rally today & he told me that his brother had a 1.9 on standard inlet producing 174 bhp! I nearly believed him until he said his own 205 was bored to 2.1 & producing 250 bhp. At that point I knew that he was quoting 'pitlane horsepower'.

 

Absolute steal though, how on earth did you bring all the spares back!

 

Luckily the car was only 30 miles from me. I brought the car back first trip, crammed with as much as possible - mainly the small valuable items like suspension and I went back & filled a large horsebox with the rest.

 

The car had been on sale for 2 weeks when I saw it & I was amazed it hadn't sold when I called. Guess it shows the state of the economy - 4 years ago that car would have sold overnight for twice the price.

 

The guy really needed it out of his way. He had bought a Honda Civic rally car & he was running out of room in a shipping container full of spares alone! We spent ages sorting out what was pug & what was honda. I was good on the pug stuff & he knew the honda bits. We came across a set of koni sport shocks which were neither but he gave them to me as they had came with the car when he bought it! Found out that they are for a suzuki swift & retail for over £120 each! Might appear on ebay methinks.

[arwel 43 2 Cars]

Cracking deal.. nice to see some more rally cars appearing here aswell.

[brumster 135 1 Cars]

Is the spoiler pictured on the logbook? If not, you may have some scrutineers ask you to remove it. Personally I'd ditch it anyway - why carry that weight around, it's not going to give you F1 downforce

 

Sounds like a bargain, all things considered. Does look a bit of a nail, but given the price, you can't grumble. 15bhp from blueprinting, though <guffaw>...! Treat it as a blank canvas, take nothing for granted, and you should be fine. Water coming out of the Billies smacks of no upkeep whatsoever and says volumes for how the car has been looked after - my experience says the rest of the car will follow a similar story, in which case, you'll be busy making it reliable. But hey, at £1750, I pat you on the back sir! Good find!

[matt.f 16]

Not bad for the price,looks a decent project for you.

15bhp from blueprinting,got to laugh.

[Turbo7379 3]

The water came out of the spare coilovers which were off a crashed rally car the guy bought & stripped, hence the reason I got practically a whole car in spares.

 

I called skip brown & quoted the sbc engine code off the block & they were able to give me the engine details. They were able to tell me when it was built, what spec & who the customer was - quite impressive to still keep that info after 23 years! It was them that told me that they gained 10-15 bhp by blueprinting the engine & they tested every engine before & after the work was done, so you can't say that it's just their rollers reading high.

[brumster 135 1 Cars]

I had a blueprinted SB 1.9 lump in my rally car initially, so I'm talking from a little experience - and it certainly didn't feel like it was up on power much, if at all. It was reliable, and a cracking engine, but it wasn't particularly pokey... mind you, it was several years old by the time it landed in my hands