Why the Excel Series is a good thing (and some other rambling).

[Spac]

Here's the simple version in blue:

I briefly drove the completed Excel that did 00 at Oberon, as many of you know.
Now, I won't pretend that a few kms down a tar road and back was a comprehansive test or anything, but:

Performance is OK - definitely faster than a Gemini-class Gemini.
The car feels really well tied down (and looked like it when they went past our speccie point).
They're dirt cheap, and parts are everywhere.
Power steering is good!

I honestly reckon that if you were comparing it to (say) a 180B, that you'd need one as good as Bede's to be confident of being faster than an Excel (assuming equal drivers, of course).

There's also some interest from Hyundai Aust to do some sort of deal on spare parts for competitors (a la Subaru). I don't know where that's up to, but it sounds promising. In any case, the retail prices on parts like front bumper skins are damn good (like literally one eighth the price of an RX-7 bit...).

I'm not saying that I intend to sell the RX-7 and replace it with an Excel, but if anyone is looking for a cheap car to start (or finish) their involvement in the sport, then an Excel should allow you to be reasonably competitive without spending a bomb, or having to scrounge the countryside for old car parts.
Not to mention the competiton among the Excels...

As they'd say on E-Bay; "Highly Recommended"


OK, here's where my customary dribble comes into it. Read on at your own peril.

Ever watched "Rally 83" or "Rally 84" video, covering the ARC and the NSW state series from those years? The cars are predictable - Dattos galore, with a few Lancers, Galants, Corollas and Mazdas (and the occasional bit of whackyness, like Carr's Fiat).
But the big thing is that the oldest cars out there are Datto 1600s.
Fast-foward nearly twenty five years to today, and what are the oldest cars we see? Bloody Datto 1600s...

A closer look at what's in current rally fields, and you can basically divide the cars into three groups:
1. Old, 1970s era* cars - Think 1600s, 180Bs, RX-2s and 3, and the rest.
2. New AWDs - think Evorex.
3. The others - late RX-7s, the occasional newer FWD, and, Um... Kev Gavin's VY Commodore and not a real lot else.

Now, most people can't afford/justify an EVOREX, so we'll ignore that option for this discussion.

If you go for option 1, you know it is a safe option. These cars are cheap to buy, and "everyone" knows how to make them work as rally cars. And they're still competitive, as is regularly proven by people with names like King, Fitzgerald, Murray, and Ewing.
Fine.

BUT, and it's becoming an increasingly big "but", these cars and their parts are getting hard to find, and therefore expensive.
Assuming you decide to build a Datto 1600, you'll have to look long and hard for a decent shell, and you'll probably pay a fairly significant amount of money for it. Then - if you want to be remotely competitive - you'll be looking for a pair of Webers, a decent diff ratio, a decent engine , an electronic dizzy, some extractors and a good exhaust, at a minimum.
Then you've gotta look at brakes and suspension - nobody is doing anything other than wasting their time with 240K brakes nowdays... So budget on a minimum of $2000 on a moderate brake upgrade and a set of Bilsteins.

At that point, you've spent a fair whack of money and a fair bit of time building yourself a typical, decent old Datto (think of something like Fro's 180B, or the Sophia's 1600).

And, I'm here to tell you that an Excel series Excel will beat it, without the need for anything other than the exhaust and shocks.

Yes, yes, I know we all hate Excels because of those idiots with 17" chrome rims and over-sized "compensatory" stereos, but those things are in the Excel series regs! And besides, is your rally car some sort of ego-massager, or is it something you pound over goat-tracks and throw at trees?

And, unlike the vast majority of old cars, it will take very little effort to find another body-shell if you bounce it off a tree... Further, because bodyshells are cheap and easy, you don't "need" a welded-in roll-cage to protect the last good 1600 shell known to mankind, so a $800 bolt-in jobbie from Bond can be transfered into any number of disposable bodyshells...

Basically, what I'm trying to get at, is that we've all been far too obsessed with 1970s cars for far too long, and these cars have basically reached their use-by date - their performance is fundamentally flawed, they're getting hard to get, they're becoming collectable (!) and all the rest.
I'm not having a go a anyone for having an old car - I react as badly as anyone when I hear nonsense like "old cars are bad for the sport".
What I am trying to say, is that a newer car will go just as fast as most of our old Dattos and Mazdas, with a LOT less hassle, and that we need to look outside the little square we currently live in.

To put it another way, if you're in the position where you need a new rally car, or you're advising someone on what sort of car they should buy, seriously consider whether "Get a 180B" is actually good advice anymore.

We've lost those competitors who used to buy a cheap road car one weekend, and within a month of casual weekend work, have a rally car ready to go. They've gone for a whole heap of different reasons, but one of the big ones, is that now they need to spend at least six months finding and building a car, and that it's beyond the technical and financial abilites of many people.
A little more awareness of how effective a lot of newer cars actually are, and we can (slowly) get them back into the sport, and enjoying themselves.

I can keep going, but I suspect that everyone has fallen alseep by now.
New cars work while nearly stock, old cars don't.

[Jimbo]

OMG.




Somebody please pinch me, or hit me, ot wake me up.

Did i just see Spac write that? Or am i seriously dreaming? Has he finally seen the light. Maybe he now understands why i have gone to such a car - Basicly the same but more grunt, and wider track!

Well done Spac!

[Matt Dyne]

It's hurting me to write this, but that was a reasonably useful editorial.

Careful Spac...people might start to think you have something useful to say...that would really wreck your reputation!!

[tortfeaser]

Post in Spokes.

Or better yet, get a Camira. Cheaper than an Excel, with more style, class, elegance, and dodgy plastics.

[Jimbo]

And if you could let me have a bigger throttle body, that would be heaps great as well!

[Dave Ferris]

Yeah good post spac and I have to agree with you, you do realise they are front wheel drive don't you and not made by Mazda?

I recon a group of us in them would make for some interesting rallying and possible fun times.

[fro]

Originally Posted by tortfeaser

Or better yet, get a Camira. Cheaper than an Excel, with more style, class, elegance, and dodgy plastics.

And about 10 years older, with no control class, and no direct manufacturer parts. Try buying a brand new bumper for a Camira, or getting a guard without having to fish through a wreckers.

That's part of Spac's point, that your missing. It's not that they're front wheel drive.

It's that they're plentiful, cheap, parts are easily accessible and affordable, and its still got 10 years of engine/suspension/other development over a Camira.

[TK]

With costs spiralling, fields dwindling and even the "we have over 70 interested parties" Suby RS series with only 6 entries, you might find that the Excel series ends up being the one-make series of choice.

In fact, it could end up being the ARC series itself!

Quick...get your foot in the door now, get the experience early and you could become an Australian Champion!

Remember...you heard it here first....

[BEN]

it will be good to see how they go this weekend
as they have put all 3 of them together.

ben.

[global]

The excel at the Shakedown Rally Went pretty well.

Front wheel drive is not so dirty and wrong. You just need to be open minded about it. And adjust your driving to suit.

I have always had rwd and a turbo 4, but the age issue with one and the cost issue with the other prevented me from carrying on with them.

The Charade has been fun to drive, and its basically a grp N car.

I hope the Excel series grows. I wish them all well this weekend

[Spac]

Fro's pretty well nailed it - they're a good idea, and people should run them despite my moral objection to FWD... With PS, they're not even particularly torque steery.

[jem]

Karl... Where are the reputation points?

[Boris]

I do believe that Spac maybe onto something, for many years a peddled an old TA22 Celica and wished to be in something a little more up to date. I now find myself in the Trueno, and initially thought 'finally I made it' only to do the sums and realise that the Trueno is now, as old as the Celica was, when I started out. Have a look at most rally starting lists, except for the EVOREX's and the old pre 85's there is very little else in the field. I do realise that most of the 'eligable' post 85 cars are fwd, but, surely this is where the future of our sport is heading. I have even had a sponsor (just one) who told me plainly, get a newer car and I will support you more, he was reluctant to have his name splashed over a 30 year old car. We need to see some more modern cars out in the field, and ones that people at all levels of the sport can afford. Why is there no class for a non turboed 4wd? Surely these cars as they reach 10-15 years old would make decent rally cars, if they didn't have to compete with their turboed cousins. Just my thoughts, feel free to shoot me down.

Boris

[bert]

One make series are the best way to go rallying on a budget. They are fircely competetive and one of the best ways of finding out who is the quickest driver/nav combo. They are great 1st cars for anyone wanting to move up to more competitive things. Just look at some of the past Gemini winners: Rod Turnbull, Ian and Pete Menzies, Brett Wright(alright he finished 2nd!), Paul Pyvarra(won Aussie Cars in the ARC before running out of cash) and last years Gemini winner Paul Batten. If the Excels follow the Gemini theme of only allowing modifications that address the short comings of the std car, then they should be just as sucessful. Give it twelve months for a few more cars and few teething problems to be sorted and there will be some epic Excel battles.
Bean

[Shabby]

To give an example of cost to build and time required.
Car 1998 twin cam auto $850 (dings in every panel) 4 hours to remove trim and push out dings
Car went for roll cage on 30/3/04
Start work on car 3/4/04
Purchased -second hand Marsh seats , 1 Securon 3 inch harness,triangles/ first aid kit,Sump Guard (Automotive Gadgets), 4 new tyres, Struts, Bits and pieces, rally rego,steering wheel
Already had-harness,lights,tripmeter/intercom,helmet hammock.

Cost to get to first rally $6500
It will be Auto and have a standard exhaust but we will be there.

Shab.