A selection of cars for autocross...my word, the choices!

  • Thread starter JCE
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Simple answer... welding machine... one weekend, a six pack of beers, and a lot of seam-welding... :D

And do it again after every race. :lol: I know some guys who have to break out the welders between runs... :lol:
 
Cmon, when parts start falling off the body, you're doing good. You make other people run slower tryin' to avoid that, so you win the money!
 
If you can find an old Datsun 1600 coupe or 510, the possibilities are endless.

Also, crazy as it sounds, with a gas tank relocation, a Ford Pinto could be interesting...

As could a Vega.

There would be a load of fabrication involved in making any of these cars Auto-X worthy.
But, you'd be unique.
 
Finding a Datsun 510 is hard, I've looked quite a bit for one since I would love to own one as a project car. I think I've found two, one had no engine and was rusted pretty bad and the other was a full race prep one going for $9000.
 
The 1600 is the 510's "uglier little brother".
I knew a guy that had one back in the 80's
So, it might also be difficult to find that isn't rusted into the ground.
But drop in an SR20...
 
Yeah...for a car that old and with such a total lack of noteworthiness, that it about 4 times too much to be paying. He could buy quite a lot better of a car for $3500.
 
it's a trackday beater. it doesn't need to be shiny, new or powerful
Yeah, but $3500 can buy you a hell of a lot more car than a 26 year old Toyota subcompact famous for not being particularly good at anything. Especially not a subcompact car that probably has a 20 second 0-60 time. Hell, JCE could buy 4 Pontiac Fieros for that money and create a single working Fiero. Or maybe even a single MR2.
 
I wouldn't go for Fiero if there would be a single MR2 available for that price, since Fieros are known to turn into fireballs.. :crazy: MR2 would be better option, but didn't he specify that he wants a car that hasn't been done to death at autocross?
 
I believe that issue was recalled and rectified. Primarily happened on '84 models, with the 2.5. Besides, if you get a Fiero as a trackday car, don't you really want to do a 3800SC swap?

On the other hand, an AW11 would also be viable.
 
Awww, no love for the Fiero. They were quite the car by the time they were making their exit, something GM does far too often when developing a product. A late-model Fiero GT with a V6 would be sweet, but I'd be more impartial to anything with a 4 cyl. Especially if you could figure out a way to cram a newer Ecotec under the hood... er, trunk.
 
Fiero = win
Fiero GT = mega win
1st gen MR2 = super duper mega win
80's model Toyota for $3,500 that doesn't have "Celica" attached to it = fail

I'm definately not opposed to a Fiero--but like Toronado said its quite hard to find one in ok shape. Infact, its hard to find one at all these days.
 
It was just the Fiero fastback's bits and pieces inside of the uglier Fiero coupe.
800px-Fiero88.JPG
 
Too bad GM didn't get smart and stuff a truely massive engine in that thing and fix the suspension and steering. It COULD of been brilliant. Once again there's GM killing something that could of been absolutely great. *cough*T-Type, GN, GNX, GTA, Cyclone, Typhoon, etc etc etc.
 
They did fix the suspension and engine problems. They just did it in 1988.

Weren't Grand Nationals and T-Types sold for half a decade?
 
They did fix the suspension and engine problems. They just did it in 1988.

Weren't Grand Nationals and T-Types sold for half a decade?

Well, by the engine I literally meant a larger displacement engine. :D

5 years isn't enough for something just totally brilliant that were those Regals. Even today one of those stock is a monster. I'd rock one of those as an autocross car. ...infact...hmmmm I wonder what a regular Regal coupe of that gen would go for...
 
The Regal T-Types/Grand National were designed to go straight. They had special frames designed to go straight as fast as possible. You try and push them through a track that has sections which make you go left and right, and the result would be much like this:
car_crash_0164.jpg

It would be like trying to autocross a Lincoln Town Car.
 
The Regal T-Types/Grand National were designed to go straight. They had special frames designed to go straight as fast as possible. You try and push them through a track that has sections which make you go left and right, and the result would be much like this:
car_crash_0164.jpg

It would be like trying to autocross a Lincoln Town Car.

WTF--RIP. :( Mine handled quite well for being so heavy. :P But seriously, you can't throw on a good suspension+tires and drop some weight on the G-body Regal?
 
JCE
WTF--RIP. :( Mine handled quite well for being so heavy. :P But seriously, you can't throw on a good suspension+tires and drop some weight on the G-body Regal?

It was an 80's american muscle car. I don't think your budget is going to allow making it turn...
 
You do all that and you would still have a heavy car (you can't drop weight out of a chassis) with a ladder frame optimized for drag racing that simply wasn't designed to handle very well. Considering G-Body cars aren't cheap in the first place, it would probably be easier/cheaper just to buy a similar vintage Corvette if you need an 80s autocrosser rather than blow heaps of money to force a full size coupe to do the same thing.
 
As crazy as this sounds, another "off the wall" possibility is an old air-cooled VDub.
They can be made to handle quite nicely at the kind of speeds you'll see in AutoCrossing.
The rear engine "weight transfer dynamic, might also make things "interesting".
 
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