Probably the last rally car I had, which I "unrolled" myself. It was a 6+ month project of working on it before and after work. The previous owner had rolled it after owning it for two decades. 1982 Dodge Omni.
It's interesting because rally involves a large rule set for safety, and you also have to make the car survive harsh conditions.
Had to do body work, replaced and rebuilt a couple engines, and redid a lot of the wiring. I did it in a rented RV parking lot. I would take the engine hoist out of storage, assemble it at the lot, and then tear down everything at the end of the day and do it again.
Did a lot of rallycrosses, rally sprints, and a couple stage rallies that it DNFd due to mechanical failures on the last stage on both events. Very frustrating, but that's rally :)
At one point it did a stage with the temp gauge pegged at 400F. The co-driver and I were standing around in start control for the next stage while it idled, and I looked down at the temp gauge (mounted bottom center console) and saw the reading and was concerned - do I shut it off? Will it start back up? This was 12hrs into the event, so I was super tired.
The answer was surprisingly yes, and we fixed the cooling system for the next stage, but it broke halfway and eventually the freeze plugs blew out and we stopped due to concerns of hot steam coming into the cabin.
It drove off the trailer the next day! Headgasket blew across every cylinder.
New head and we entered in HDT. It did okay, but then the rear suspension fell out (!) On the last stage of 1st day. We spent so much time on the front it never occurred to us to check the rear suspension mounts...
When I entered that event I asked the co-driver what he thought and then tried to close his door, but it would not latch. Had to rebuild the mechanism before tech that morning. Foreshadowing at its best.
It's interesting because rally involves a large rule set for safety, and you also have to make the car survive harsh conditions.
Had to do body work, replaced and rebuilt a couple engines, and redid a lot of the wiring. I did it in a rented RV parking lot. I would take the engine hoist out of storage, assemble it at the lot, and then tear down everything at the end of the day and do it again.
Did a lot of rallycrosses, rally sprints, and a couple stage rallies that it DNFd due to mechanical failures on the last stage on both events. Very frustrating, but that's rally :)
At one point it did a stage with the temp gauge pegged at 400F. The co-driver and I were standing around in start control for the next stage while it idled, and I looked down at the temp gauge (mounted bottom center console) and saw the reading and was concerned - do I shut it off? Will it start back up? This was 12hrs into the event, so I was super tired.
The answer was surprisingly yes, and we fixed the cooling system for the next stage, but it broke halfway and eventually the freeze plugs blew out and we stopped due to concerns of hot steam coming into the cabin.
It drove off the trailer the next day! Headgasket blew across every cylinder.
New head and we entered in HDT. It did okay, but then the rear suspension fell out (!) On the last stage of 1st day. We spent so much time on the front it never occurred to us to check the rear suspension mounts...
When I entered that event I asked the co-driver what he thought and then tried to close his door, but it would not latch. Had to rebuild the mechanism before tech that morning. Foreshadowing at its best.
I think I'll stick to cars made in this century.