New guy from SA

[mike86]

Hi all,

My name is Michael and I live in Adelaide. I went to the Tarawatta stages this past weekend and it made me finally decided to bite the bullet and use my Toyota AE86 Sprinter to build it as a dedicated rally car. At the moment it’s some what crashed as I introduced it to a guard rail earlier this year The car has a long way to go before it will be remotely ready to see any action. I joined up to hopefully learn more about rallying and building a rally car to perform properly. This is how the car is at the moment, as you can see i have a long way to go.





Cheers,
Michael

[flat04]

Hi Mike,

Welcome and great to hear you are going to build up a Sprinter.
It should be a total hoot to drive and will be great to see tearing around our forests.

Have you joined up a rally club yet? I suggest this is what you should do next. Plenty of experienced people to chat with at the meetings and events. There are three main rally clubs here in Adelaide:
Walkerville All Cars Club - Walky
RallySport Club - RallySport
Southern Districts - Southerns

Depending on where you live, you should be fairly close to one of these clubs. I wont tell you Walky is the best, you should be able to work that out for yourself.

Now get to work on your car, I can't wait to see it in action.

Andrew Gooley

[mike86]

Haha thanks mate, yea I’m a member of RallySport. Hopefully by the end of the year it will be ready to see some action

[Velocity Racing]

Hi Mike,

Looks like that will make a good fun rally car.

Glad to hear you enjoyed Tarrawatta, it was an awesome event.

Have you thourght about doing some of the walky park series in the car before you commit to building a full rally car out of it? Be a great way to get out and have some fun in it now, with out needing a cage etc.

cheers
lewis

[mike86]

Yea I have thought about doing some of the walky park series in my road car. Just for a bit of fun and to get some extra experience on the dirt. Only thing is you have to be a member right?

[Rally Angel]

Hi Mike - From memory*, you don't need to be a member to enter the individual events but if you wish to score points in the series, you will need to be a member.

There are also plenty of dirt khanacrosses and motorkhanas run by several clubs which will help hone in your skills. The VW club run great friendly weekends which I would recommend getting in on the action.

* I am sure some more current members will be along shortly to correct this if I am wrong.

[flat04]

Originally Posted by Rally Angel

Hi Mike - From memory*, you don't need to be a member to enter the individual events but if you wish to score points in the series, you will need to be a member.

Mike,

Lizi is right, you don't need to be a member to take part at Walky Park. All it means is that you can't actually "compete" in the series. You can do all the stages, sighting laps ect but your times wont be notes in the results.

Just check a CAMS calendar for locations and dates of all the motorkana and khanacross events, there are now a good number of series of these events all over the place so there will be something near you but doing a good mix of the rallysprints and khanas should be the best way to hone your skills.

Where abouts do you live?


Andrew

[Warps]

G'day and welcome, Mike.

Good advice from the others - don't launch into a full rally car build project as a means of "Getting into" rallying. I know several people who have done that, and some of them are still building their cars 8 years later.

Probably better to either buy a rally car - even a cheap one - just get started, or run your own car in standard-ish form to get started. Then you can either upgrade your car as you go, or buy a better car, or start the full build up (if you have another rally car). This way you won't tend to lose your enthusiasm after spending every spare minute in the shed for 6 months, with no end in sight on the project.

If you want to become a rally driver, then start driving. If you want to get into rally car preparation, then start building a rally car. Just remember, the two don't have to go hand in hand.

There are a few good threads about build vs buy a rally car. Have a bit of a search and a read, and go in with an open mind. Guaranteed you'll get the most out of this great sport if you take that attitude.

[mike86]

Thanks for all your advice guys greatly appreciated. The car needs work because of the damage so it has to be fixed. It isnt planned to be a extensive build first off I just want to get it to a basic stage where is able to compete in various events then continually improve the car.

[gavv69]

I agree with Warps. Building a rally car from the ground up is a very large task, even if you are doing it on a budget. i first started out in driving knanacross's in with just a standard road car. Enjoyed the events arun bu SDCC at Lanac Park and NDCC at Tailem Bend, then upgraded to the faster track at Walky Park. It was good fun. I was then going to update the car to compete in rally, then decided at the last minute it was easier to buy one already running and then fix up as required. Hope to see you out there soon .., Gav

[razoo]

Hi Mike
Yep it will be a long and arduous task to rebuild the Sprinter. But anyway looks like Dad will be some help! BTW thanks for the lend of the seat for the BP, I'll get it back to you next weekend.

cheers

Geoff

[flat04]

Mike, how's the car build coming along? Just noticed your user photo and wondered if it was your car now.

What have you got planned for this year?

Andrew Gooley

[mike86]

Originally Posted by flat04

Mike, how's the car build coming along? Just noticed your user photo and wondered if it was your car now.

What have you got planned for this year?

Andrew Gooley

Nah my user photo isn’t my car haha but I really should change it to my car now. The build is coming along quite well, starting to look like a rally car. We did a few local rally sprints and kahnacross's last year and they went really well. It’s finally powered by a 16v 4age and goes for a cage in late Feb. For 2009 we are planning to enter the clubman series in Adelaide as a step into the sport and a good shake down for the car, my co driver and myself. Cant wait

[razoo]

Originally Posted by mike86

It’s finally powered by a 16v 4age

and it runs too I hear from your Dad! Can't wait to hear it in person. Does help when your Dad has been racing Fiats since Adam was a bambino when you're building your first car

Geoff

[mike86]

Yep it runs taking it to streamline for an exhaust tomorow, i think we still need to tune out a few little gremlins tho. And yes it does help ALOT having dad working with me, couldnt have done much without him.