Fear not because you can buy one of these 3 cars for $500-1500. I'm going to go over them in no particular order and you can decide what you want to go for. Let's do this.
I'm probably going to be doing these for autocross and other events aswell so stay tuned.
You're gonna need a lot of these. Except dirt tires, not asphalt. It's not as much as drifting. By the way, I still need bigger rims (hint hint).
Before we start, I want to bring up a point that may help you save money. When you have a car purely for racing at these events, you don't necessarily need to register it. However you do have to register it, pay insurance, and all that good stuff if you don't have a trailer and a vehicle to pull it with. (Unless you live next to a track.)
If you have a truck and room to put a trailer, then that's your other option. You don't need a fancy one, either. Get one with no roof, nothing, just bare bones. Just enough to be able to get your car on there. Aside from saving you some money, towing your race car will save some wear and tear on the car, too. You can buy a trailer like this for $500.
People, my dear readers, today I am going off the dome as the kids say so my specs will not be completely accurate. I'm doing this because I have experience with all of these cars and the article will flow better like this.
I know nobody expected a Neon on this list unless they were into rallycross themselves. What I'm about to say is obvious. Front wheel drive and all wheel drive cars do best on dirt because they are able to grab the most traction. Especially if they are all wheel drive which I'm referring to as AWD from now on.
Now go look on Craigslist and see what the cheapest running Neon is going for. Let me just tell you. If you just wait, you can get the one with the better DOHC engine for $5-700. The one my pops bought was $500 and it won a couple rallycross events stock (podium finish).
Also, get the two-door one. And like I said, look for one with the better motor. I believe it's 2.2l compared to the SOHC version which is 2.0l? I could easily be wrong. But get that one even if you do have to spend $1-1500. That's fair for a running car that will compete with cars you wouldn't believe.
It tears Mini Coopers apart but those aren't really rally cars. What gets me is that my pops was doing 2-3 seconds slower than a modified Subaru WRX STi which is actually impressive when you consider the cars we're discussing. This was on a 50 second track, by the way. If it was twice as long, pops would have been twice as far behind but I have to give credit where credit is due and my dad is a really good driver. So was the other guy except it was an STi versus a 1996 Dodge Neon.
(Pops, even though he's a d!ck, was killing Mini Coopers in autocross with a 1989 BMW 325iX. Autocross so this is on tarmac. The body roll was so bad owing to the high rally suspension setup that the commentator was making jokes.)
Back to the Plymouth Neon. I mean Dodge.
It performs well because it's lightweight. It's front wheel drive so if you know what you're doing, you can cut a turn slowing down more doing so but conserving inertia and taking off out of the corner.
Let's talk about weight for a second since I brought it up. Since this is strictly a project car - one to have fun in - you can and should do whatever you want or need to it. I wouldn't take out the back seat of my daily driver to save weight but I would take it right out of the rally car!
It's amazing how much weight there is just sitting in every car, not being used at ALL if you're just racing. To give you an idea, we got about 5-600lbs of stuff just out of the back of a first gen Eclipse. Yeah, that's a small car, and this was just from the back! We didn't touch the front seats or anything although we did remove the door panels.
You guys really should thank me for these tips, like the one I'm about to give you. Sell the parts you took out that are good. That $500 will be $0.
You probably guessed by the picture above that the next car I recommend is a regular Mitsubishi Lancer. Actually, if you can find a WRX STi for under $3,000, grab that instead. I know some have sold that cheap but bring a mechanic in a case like that.
With the Lancer, you have the option of a $1000 regular one which still does great in local rallycross or the STi, of which the older models have dropped pretty low in price. Whenever you're purchasing a hot item like an STi, make sure it wasn't abused too much because sometimes they have been. There are exceptions but if the owner is under 20, well, you know what you did with your cars at that age! I'm guilty.
I'm gonna focus on the normal Lancer real quick. It's pretty light (especially if you strip it), has front wheel drive, and is very nimble like I mentioned in my review of the car. It's great for rallycross, pure and simple. It has just enough power to be able to put it down on dirt without spinning the wheels like crazy instead.
Before I move on to my favorite, there's also the Ralliart edition. Maybe look into older models of those. They came with more horsepower and possibly AWD (with a name like that, it has to be AWD).
This is my favorite one on the list. Out of the three, if you compare them to horses, this is that black horse that no one can tame but if you do, it's the fastest one. How's that for an intro?!
Twice in my life, I have found turbo first generation Eclipses for $500 each. The first one was a GSX while the other was a GS. The former was the family rally car and we never bought that GS although I think that was a mistake to not do so ($500 for a no-check-engine-light-turbo car?!).
Around this time, sadly (in retrospect) I was messing around while pops was working on that car. I should have stayed around and learned. This is the message I try to pass on to younger people.
This is why I made that horse metaphor. According to pops, sometimes the car just didn't want to run right and it could be extremely frustrating at times figuring out a problem. However, he said when it ran right, it was right. And it was.
Yes, I got to drive it and yes, that was the fastest car I have been in to this day. Well no, correction - the fastest I've driven. My father would switch between 8 psi for normal driving and 16 psi for racing. This is where we were at, a race. You may have read the sad ending to this story in another article but let me say.
I don't know if it was because the car was gutted or what but it would turn on a dime, the boost came on fast and strong, and is one of my family's favorite cars.
For the price I stated and even more, a first generation Mitsubishi Eclipse GS or GSX is a wonderful car and I would recommend it to anybody. The car was also sold as an Eagle Talon and Plymouth Laser so check Craigslist for those. Most people will only search for a Mitsubishi Eclipse - good for us.
I don't have to tell you guys what to look for in a car when buying it. You know. Just don't forget to check the suspension because that's important for rally. If there's a problem, it'll get worse quick.
Any of these cars can be bought for $1,000. Any of you can save that much, I don't care how long it takes. Go get you a turbo car!
- Rokas Kirvelis
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