Rally and Autocross on a Budget

One of the best activities that I ever involved myself in was rallycross and autocross, the first of which was my focus. Out of the two, it's probably a little more expensive as far as wear and tear on your car but also more fun in my opinion. So what are these events?

Well, it's a racing event. It is set up in time-attack style where everyone runs their lap solo. Based on the event and how many drivers show up, you should be able to run about 6-8 laps, more or less. The drivers are competing with everyone else there so the lineup can be varied enough to feature a modded STi, an old Ford Thunderbird, and a BMW 325iX - on a dirt course. Rallycross takes place on dirt while autocross takes place on asphalt. The two are very different.

Autocross seems to be the more popular one. The maintenance on your car ends up being cheaper because you're not racing on harsh dirt roads. The cars that people race in these events differ. For example, light all-wheel drive or front wheel drive cars are preferred for rally. In autocross, anything goes but of course you can actually get enough traction to compete with rear wheel drive cars.

As I mentioned, you get a varied field. You can bring whatever car you want as long as it passes a simple safety inspection so you will typically see some cars that are much faster than others but the thing is - you do this for fun. While some events may pay out a small amount of cash for a "podium" (there is no podium) finish, usually you only get a trophy. People at these events just want to test themselves and their car or just have fun so everyone is very nice to each other.

You need to make sure your car is in good condition before you do either event. If something is on its way out, it WILL go out when you race the car. Make sure your suspension is good, your battery is secured, your liquids are full, and the maintenance is up to date. If you get a solid car, it's not hard to rally and/or rallycross a car pretty cheap. The main thing you will be going through is tires but things will also occasionally break although I didn't have many problems because I made sure the car was in good running condition.

For rallycross, great starting cars include Dodge Neons (they actually do very well on dirt), Mitsubishi Eclipse GSXs (you can find the first gen cheap sometimes and it's all wheel drive/turbo), Mitsubishi Lancers or older Evos. You can be competitive with these cars and bring home trophies. Look for cheap AWD or FWD cars that have cheap parts preferrably. Remember, you will probably be beating this car up so you can strip it for weight reduction. Get rid of the flooring, back seats, etc. You can even resell some of this stuff.

For autocross, you may be able to use your rallycross car. I had good luck going out on asphalt with a 1989 BMW 325iX (AWD) where I was beating new Mini Coopers. But if this is your choice and you are looking to buy a cheap car to do it with, I would try to find an older Mustang GT, a Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX (they're really fast with higher boost and weight reduction), a Miata, an MR2, or maybe even a 3000GT if it was in very good condition although those cars are very heavy.

Preparing your car is pretty straightforward. If it can make a trip across the US without any problems and nothing breaks when you floor it, then it should be fine to race. That's a good gauge to go by. Unfortunately, things WILL eventually break but that is part of this hobby. To give you an idea, if you're willing to be patient, this is how cheap I was able to get in.

After looking for a couple months for a good deal, I saw this BMW 325iX a couple towns away. The guy wanted $2,000 which was out of my budget but he was moving and he had to get rid of the car so I told him I would give him $900 if he hasn't sold it and wants to do that. Sure enough, I got a call a week later to pick it up.

This car was definitely maintained which was a big plus. It can suck $400 out of your wallet just doing a good tune up and bringing the car up to date with maintenance. I actually had nothing break for about five or six races. Granted, I was lucky because something should have probably broke. Expect to spend maybe $500 for six races. I had to buy dirt tires aswell which was the only other cost other than gas.

Similarly, I bought a two door Dodge Neon with the DOHC engine and raced that a few times with very good results. The 160hp is quite good in that light car. It doesn't do well on asphalt at all but for rally, it's a sound investment.

When you're ready, there's places online for whatever area you're in dedicated to letting you know where the races are so Google that. When you get to a race, you pay an entry fee ($25-50 usually) and your car has to pass a safety inspection. All they do is make sure your tires aren't bald and that your battery is secured in place. That's a big one. If your battery is moving around, find a way to secure it well.

Rallying and asphalt racing is an adrenaline filled, fun sport that is gaining more popularity - slowly albeit. Drifting has also grown to be huge, helping to spread the word of rally/autocross. If you have the resources, I recommend you do it. Don't worry, you won't get hurt (by the way, you need a helmet). Your car might...

Go to an event and just spectate. See if you would like to try it out. Once you see a huge plume of dust following a racing-spec Evo 9 that is screaming, hauling ass past you, I think you will make your decision then.

My One Year Plus Experience with the LS400 - It's Been Amazing

As some of you may know, I bought this car crashed with about 220k miles on it. My acquaintance had driven it into something at a slow speed, damaging the grill, radiator, and hood. I gave him $250 for it planning on getting it running and flipping it.

It was no longer until I got it home - five minutes away - that I had fallen in love with the car and decided I was going to keep it. It was rear wheel drive, definitely had enough power for me, and was a beautiful luxury sedan - my personal choice of car.

To give you an idea of the condition it was in, let me put it this way. A month ago, I was driving and lost 85% power. I limped the car home and ended up finding out that the spark plugs were original. Remember, that's 220,000 miles on the same set of spark plugs. It's things like these that make me realize just how reliable this car is if it's been taken care of.

Mine definitely wasn't and I need to change the timing belt and water pump. I did a full tune-up after this last incident - new spark plugs, wires, and distributor rotor caps. The sound of the engine actually changed after this from a quiet V8 to one with a nice rumble! It was so drastic that I wondered at first if something is wrong. Maybe my exhaust? No, that's just how the engine is supposed to sound!

I had to change the original fuel filter aswell. That was actually the cause of my last problem. The engine was starving of fuel. If I gave it medium or more throttle, it would just bog down and barely accelerate. I had to baby it to get enough fuel to the engine.

The point I want to make with this article is just how durable this car is and how reliable it is. I also want to say that some people would think I'm stupid. I have easily spent another $2,000 on all of the parts I replaced since I've had this car. I changed out a good fifteen different things myself except the power steering pump which I paid someone else to install.

As far as I can remember, the following is a list of things I have done to bring life back to the car. This car was going to be junked and now it's being restored completely. It drives better than when I first got it and I am completely in love with it.

I did a lot to the interior aswell which I will show you later in this post.

The List:
-Power Steering Pump
-ACV Delete
-Changed out dry-rotted hoses
-Coolant Temp Sensor
-Engine Temp Sender (sends info to gauge)
-Hood; have to change hood hinge which I have
-Radiator; have to change out the radiator support which I have aswell
-Alternator
-Headlights
-All fluid change except transmission
-Front brake pads; also fixed a sticking caliper - rotors were new
-Rear brake pads and rotors
-Spark Plugs
-Spark Plug Wires; have distributor cap

The car is running good but it is way overdue for a timing belt change which I expect to be able to do soon. The passenger side hood hinge also needs to be changed. This is why the hood sits weird. Tie your hood down if it doesn't latch and you're going to drive! I thought I would be fine driving in the neighborhood just to test the car after I did something to it and a gust of wind caught the hood, sending it flying open to crack my windshield on my side and bend the hinge on the other side. Oh well, you live and you learn. It still makes me mad to this day - if not for a dumb mistake, the car would look okay! The average person looks at it and the first thing they thing is "Oh that car is f***ed up." I digress.

As far as my interior goes, I have it to where I really like it but it's far from what I want. When I first got the car, however, it looked extremely bad. Every seat was torn, the center console was torn, and it was just in bad condition.

The first thing I had to do was buy some seat covers. I went with black which goes real well with the tan interior. Next, I wrapped the original shifter in leather and stitched it myself. There is a tutorial for that on this website.

Next, I used vinyl paint to paint the floor matts black and I used an actual wrap to change the woodgrain in the center to a flat black. It was fading and didn't look right. I left the pop-out in the middle the same and replaced my old, breaking woodgrain panels that hold the power window buttons with new ones. I hung a pair of dice on the mirror with a cross aswell... Have to have the dice.

In today's money, the LS400 would cost $90,000 if it was new. You know the $3000 or so that I've spent on this car? What is that compared to $90k? The way I see this car is a little different from how people look at cars.

To most, a new car is a new car and an old car is on its way out and is probably not reliable. The reliability depends on the vehicle and the maintenance done to it but as far as the car being on its way out...

I'll put it this way. This is the car that I want. If the LS400 was $10k, I would still be working towards it. The fact that I got it so cheap just makes me feel really lucky.

Let me wrap that thought up. I bought a $90,000 car for $250, put another $2-3000 into it, and I'm a couple grand away from how I want it. And the best part? Most if not all of the components that have to be maintained or changed out, will be. This is as close as you can get to a new LS400.

I am keeping this car until I die if I can. I actually want my name engraved into the frame. It's actually a rebuilt title, bringing the value down more, so it's pointless for me to sell it anyway.

Guys and gals, if you have a dream car that sounds like this, set yourself a goal to get it.

One thing I have to talk about is that it was no cake-walk getting the car to this point. The reason was that it became my daily driver almost immediately and until recently, my wife was the only one working.

Intermittently, things would break and we would have to somehow come up with the money while living paycheck to paycheck in a hotel. There was a good 4-5 times that the car was dead (things like alternator, something had gotten in my throttle butterfly one time, etc.) and we would be forced to try to survive in a city where you need a car until we got it fixed. I was able to get it back on the road in less than a week every time.

Every time I had a problem, it was something minor (if you consider an alternator minor - I do, it's cheap to change yourself). There are no serious problems with either the motor or transmission and I'm hoping I get many more miles out of both. I think I will.

The plans for the future make me very excited. I am almost at "stage 1" of repairing the car. I gave myself goals which you should if you buy a car like this.

I want to get it to stage 1 of my build before I move on. What I wanted to do before stage 2, which includes modifying the looks to my tastes, is get the car running completely well. Like I said, it's almost there. Soon I will have the timing belt and water pump changed out and by that time, any other little sensors or anything that I may need to change out, I will.

I've been planning on fixing the hood hinge for months but other things kept popping up (no pun intended). I'm going to do it VERY soon and install hood pins which I think look badass.

A nice example of a VIP-style car, originating in Japan from the Yakuza who liked the big sedans because they were fast and comfortable.

VIP cars are my inspiration for this build. Those are lowered as much as possible and rock nice rims, possibly stanced. The interior looks like something that the CEO of Coca-Cola would hop into. This includes curtains on the windows and tables with cupholders for the passengers. The tables are kind of like the ones you get to use in airplanes.

I want to eventually have my interior black and the color? You will just have to wait and see.

This car will be show car status but daily driven. A new exhaust is in the books and I'm trying to get my hands on a few different things to customize the look aswell. Follow along if you are interested. When I get to stage 2, I will be giving you guys a breakdown of what I'm spending and definitely more tutorials.

I am in a much better position in life now so I am able to afford this stuff. I've also been very busy so I apologize for the late article.

If anyone wants a tutorial on changing the fuel filter on a 1995+ LS400, let me know. The ones I found are for 1990-94 which have the filter in a different position. It is located in front of the rear differential instead of above the splash guard. You need ramps or a good lift for this. Thanks for reading.