Building a real WRC style Rally Car

[cobrajetguy]

This is my 3rd Galant VR-4 and I can't count how many DSM's I own/have owned. My first Galant was a nice clean low mileage street car heavily built but still a complete car with a sunroof. I didn't have the heart to tear that car up so I sold it off and looked for a donor chassis to start my project. This car was parked in front of a friends house with a blown motor and a ton of miles on the chassis. It was a little rough but was basically exactly what I needed to start this project and the best part was the car didn't have a sunroof. The project starts with the stripping of the car and installation of an FIA legal rally cage.

Before shot of the old engine bay



And the car getting ready to go to the cage builder



Pulled all the sound deadening out



Starting to put tubes in



Seat Mounts



Door Bars



Roof Bars



Main X's



Reinforcing the front strut towers



Tied the front strut towers to the main cage



Welding in the harness bar



The new cage all cleaned up and painted



Stay tuned for more (It gets better /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devil.gif)

 

[cobrajetguy]

Next up was pulling out some excess wiring and gutting the rear doors





Then started making a panel to block off the rear seat area



Had to pull all the old stuff out of the engine bay



Rebuilt the pedal box and removed the steering lock



New bushings for everything in the front subframe



Pulled everything out of the rear, not much will be reused



Reinforced the rear control arms



Swapped in a DSM diff housing to delete the 4WS and installed a re-stacked EVO IX diff



Ready to go back in with new boost x bushings



Also installed a jay racing active toe elimination kit



Everything back in along with 4 bolt rear axles

 

[GSTwithPSI]

So much WIN. Thanks for sharing.

 

[cobrajetguy]

To keep with the WRC theme I decided to paint the car like the old Works team cars.

Started out by wet sanding the body



Then off to get a fresh coat of white paint





And then painted on the works stripes



Copies of the old decals for the body



The EVO III rear wing just spoke to me so I had to go for it



The rear bumper beam was rusting and heavy, weighing in around 40 lbs so I decided to make a new aluminum one





Finished product on the car



Scored a Fiberglass JDM Hood



Mocking up the ETS intercooler



Fitting the bumper over the new intercooler

 

[coyotes]

damb. I was partial to the marlboro graphics myself but this looks awesome

 

[ApexHunter]

Whoa

This is good.

 

[vr4hotness]

Nothing but win in here

 

[Jon]

Love it!

 

[minneSNOWta]

The livery is sick! If you don't mind me asking, how much for all the vinyl? Those control arms are cool too. I was just thinking the other day how sweet they would be if they were gusseted.

Curious, what grille will you be using? If you found an '89 grille and painted it white, that would look so sick with your USDM bumper.

 

[89Mirageman]

Awesome job so far, can't wait for more updates.

 

[cobrajetguy]

Graphics were made by these guys:

click

 

[Wookalar]

Nice work. This should be a sticky, How to Build a E39A Rally Car.

Great reference pictures for the next time someone asks how to remove rear subframe and 4ws.

 

[prove_it]

Looks too nice to race now. Very nice. Me likey

 

[MellowVR4]

F'N SWEET /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devil.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/worthy.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/applause.gif

 

[MellowVR4]

F'N SWEET /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devil.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/worthy.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/applause.gif

 

[matt92vr4]

Awesome! Great job.

 

[mistaVR4]

Very neat/professional work! Do you have more pics of the car? Finished exterior/interior?

 

[Drew84]

This looks great, are you going to stage rally it? You cant run Rally America events without prior turbo car experience.

 

[cobrajetguy]

I do plan to stage rally the car, the plan for this year is to hit local gravel hill climbs. I can run NASA events in the car as a novice and gain experience/coefficients. I have been rally crossing with the SCCA for the past few years and hold the regional championship and am second in the nation in my 1G.

Pic of the 1G for reference.

 

[cobrajetguy]

Here are a few shots of the motor that went into the car. It was originally the motor from my 1st 1G DSM that I rebuilt and then the car was wrecked shortly after. It was also in my green Galant before I sold it, neither car was driven much so the motor is still very fresh. Since it was built a while ago I freshened it up with a new timing belt and swapped some other parts out before it went into the rally car.

Checking the cam timing using BLE solid lifters



Coated hot parts



Valvetrain



Rebuilding the power steering pump so it doesn't cut out at high rpm



Ready to drop in



Shiny transmission



Finally in the car




Specs on the engine are as follows:

.020 over Ross Pistons, Crower I-beam rods, ACL bearings, stock crank, ARP main and head studs, Buschur underdrive dampened crank pulley, new oem front case, standard balance shaft delete, BJ's Cylinder Heads ported race head, bigger valves, dual valve springs, 3mm lifters, HKS 272 cams, Kiggly HLA regulator, extrude honed intake manifold, rebuilt 63mm throttle body, external cooler oil filter housing, '90 water pipe, FP exhast manifold, FP HTA68 turbo, FFWD triple layer ceramic coating on all hot side parts, ported EVO III O2 housing.

Transmission built by Jacks Transmissions:

EVO III 1st-5th , double syncros, US final drive, Speed Design 4 spider center diff, Cusco MZ front LSD, stock viscous center for now.