SVX gravel rally car...surely not? Absolutely...
 

At the request of some others, I thought I'd detail the work in progress which is the build of the SVX into a gravel rally car in Australia.

This is not intended to be a place where people tell me how this car is not suitable, or how it's not going to work...I'd rather assistance when I get stuck.

For a range of reasons, which if you search my user name you'll find the angles I'm coming from, I've decided that the SVX has the potential to be a great gravel rally car. With the potential for 300-350hp, AWD, Subaru swappability etc...it should be pretty easy to do.

The big hinderance has always been whether I can get the weight out, but spurred on by Benebob and Hocrest's racer (which is down to 2700lb's), I've set myself a target weight, fully prepared, of 3000lb's (lighter would be great). You guys are probably thinking that's too heavy, but it's consistent with a few cars around in the class, so it should be competitive.

So enjoy the ride!!!

Finding the right car

I didn't have an SVX, so the first thing I needed was to find one.

Because the car will be virtually destroyed (I'm sorry to some of you guys), the main goal was to get one for as cheap as possible.

I rang virtually every wrecker in Australia to see if they had any. Considered importing one from Japan (without a sunroof would have been great), but unfortunately, the rules and regulations of Australia meant that wasn't possible.

Most road going ones were in reasonable shape, but were asking about $10,000AUD ($7500USD) and more. That was too much, so I kept watching auction sites, and various other places where they come up cheap.

I just missed out Misanthropy's one which was traded for $6,000AUD ($4500USD) as it went too quickly through to the wholesalers.

When I was almost giving up hope, I happened across one that was for auction through one of the damaged vehicle auctions. Yay!!

The car was in Adelaide (about 1300miles) so it was challenging to "drop in" and have a look. The advertisement said it had "front right damage" and the photos showed virtually no damage whatsover...that was weird? So I rang the place and spoke to one of the guys who goes out into the yard and has a look at them for you. Just at that same time as I was ringing them, the ad was updated showing now that it had "significant underbody damage". Aaahhh...that would explain that the photos showed not much damage...so how bad can underbody damage be? I had worst case ideas that the entire chassis would be bent...or worse, that the engine or box had been hit by something?

The guy was helpful, he said there were no leaks from underneath (phew), but that the front right wheel was pointing at a really bad angle, and both rear wheels also seemed to be pointing at funny angles...hmmm, could be bad.

I asked him to check panel gaps around the car to see if it was really banana'd or something, but it came up clean.

So I figured, the most I had to lose was to bid on it and see where it got to.

The auction is a whole separate story (internet bidding was down on the day, so the lady said "bad luck, you'll miss out" aaaaghh!!) but suffice to say, that I got it finally as it was passed in. Ended up paying $3500 for the car, but then add in auction fees, GST etc, and then shipping to Brisbane and it landed for about $5000AUD ($3800USD).

Yay, so I now owned the car, but hadn't laid eyes on it, let alone driven it...what would the delivery truck give me...a pile of crap, or a great project???

Stay tuned

And the truck arrives...

Through the wonders of vehicle tracking on the internet, I knew when the car was due to arrive.

I left work early the day it was due and met the truck there.

First impressions were great...the car looked in reasonably condition. The wheels were exactly as the guy at the auction house had said...all sorts of funny angles.

And inside stank from years of cigarettes...blech.

However, it started, and was able to be driven into the garage (first drive!!!).

Then I got it up onto the jack to have a look at what was what.

The photos below show what I found.

In a nutshell, I had to replace the front RH strut and strut top, and the rear lateral arms on both sides.

It came on 3 alloy wheels, and the spare...so I tracked down some Nissan Skyline GTT wheels (17"x8") and got some new tyres.

After the repairs had been done, and I literally didn't touch anything else, I was able to get some licence plates onto it and finally drive it around.

I used it to get to and from work for a few weeks and thoroughly enjoyed the car. It felt great too when I got the SVX wave from a fellow owner!

However, all good things must come to an end, and I finally decided that I should pull it off the road to start converting it to the rally car.

Stay tuned....

The preparation begins...

The most important part of the rally car is its roll cage. In order to get the cage in properly, the car needs to be stripped back to a bare shell...literally everything has to come out or off.

So from the third picture above, there's a whole heap of work to get it stripped down. Hours and hours pulling apart everything that Mr Subaru spent putting together over 11 years ago!!

Lots of the stuff won't be going back into the car and other stuff will be upgraded.

It's amazing how much some of the car weighs though...for no apparent reason. So far, I reckon I've got about 350kg (800lbs) out of the car in various things...AC system, airbags, sound deadener, electric seats (:eek: ), carpets, hood lining, sunroof, 15 little ECU things etc...

For example, todays job was the crash structure behind the front bumper. From the factory it weighs about 30lbs...this is for very good reason to protect you...but I don't need it, so it has been hacked apart with an angle grinder and now weighs 8lbs. I expect the rear is the same, but I've killed my angle grinder, so it'll have to wait!

Benebob and Hocrest know exactly what I've been through (and am still going through)...it's a huge process.

The photos should show you what I mean. BTW, all panels etc will be going back on, they are just off for ease of access.

The interior sound deadener on the floor was easy to get off with some dry ice...never done that before, but it made such a difference.

It's now at the roll cage guy...waiting for him to finish. More updates in a few weeks.

Help from friends

I should add, about the time I was posting introducing myself and talking about building an SVX rally car, Desertrunner started emailing me and he was just as keen as me to see one of these cars out there.

We spent a long time discussing the potential of the car, mostly me learning from his experience, as he's got two of them, and we both agreed that the whole car has the potential to be a great rally car.

Being just as keen as I am, Tony is chipping in some dollars to help with the big items, which is a huge help, and his generosity will see the car getting out to its first rally sooner rather than later.

So, thanks Tony, for your help, here's to getting it out there ASAP so we can enjoy our work!!

Thanks again,
Matt

Matt,

You are a brave, brave man.. I wish i had the cajones to take some of the weight out of my car... Would have never thought to use dry ice. But after seeing the car with the new wheels on it , it sure looks sharp! .. On top of that, you were able to pick up the car at about what we get them in the states for , so congrats on that. I'm really excited to see how she turns out, thanks for sharing this story with us! :)

How dare you gut a beautiful car such as the SVX just to turn it into a racer :mad: :mad:

Oh wait... I mean nice job, you have the interior gutted more than we do. What are your plans for the wiring harness? Are you going to sort it out and replace bits and pieces? Or create somethig from scratch?

Did you happen to weigh all of the plastic crap from the interior floor? I'm curious what we have to save by pulling that up. I broke off a couple pieces and it seems light, I figured about 1 lb total, so I left the rest there...

Hocrest...plastic crap from the floor? Do you mean the tar using the dry ice?

I spoke to Benebob about it...30lb's mine was. It's double thickness on the front floors...it's worth getting rid of, but he reckons we should just have a pee before a race instead!!

Matt,
Nice job! Can't wait to see the cage in it. I'm with Dave on the wiring harness, are you just going to fabricate a "bare essentials" version with everything switch operated from a master panel near the steering wheel?
My hat is off to you and Dave and Ben and the SVReX gang for paving the way for a whole new SVX experience...I'm going to get around to it one of these days....just might take a new garage though:rolleyes: :cool:
-Bill

Good luck with the project. Great pics. Can't wait for some shots of the car in action.:cool:

Wiring harness...I'm in two minds. I could just fab a new one, but then, it's easier and quicker to just spend the time and modify the original one.

Completely rewiring is pretty expensive and time consuming. At this stage, I'm leaning towards reusing most bits, and hacking out the non essentials (and there's tons of that).

It's easier to have switches on the dash...probably where the factory AC stuff is. I'll need separate switches for ignition, fuel pumps, driving lights, etc...I'd actually prefer circuit breakers or relays.

I reckon the complete loom for the car, including all dash, fuse boxes etc, would weigh close to 50lbs. That's worth reducing.

Matt

Man that's awesome. Can't wait to see what you have in store for it.

Gosh time flies when you're waiting for people.

Finally got my baby back today with it's new roll cage fitted.

Updates will now be coming thick and fast as I get it ready for the next rally.

Awesome work.
 

I will be watching this closely and taking notes for my strip, you tease!

this project looks awesome! i have always wondered how a svx would do in a rally, and searching for a svx rally car all i could find was one picture and nothing more. good luck!

Matt,
Can you explain some of the triangularization in the cage? Maybe it's just the camera angle, but it looks like they pulled two of the top points back to a single point (triangle) on the passenger's side rear.
Nice welds!
-Bill

Bill,

First some definitions. These are commonly referred to cage part names.

Main Hoop - looks like a horseshoe, exactly in line with the B-pillar. Goes from the floor butted up to where the rear seat starts, following up the B-pillar to the roof, across the roof, then back down the other side.

Front legs - go from the top of the main hoop forward, along the roof line, then down to the front floor following the a-pillar line.

Rear legs - go from the top of the main hoop back to the rear strut towers usually in a straight line.

The cage is essentially a 6 point cage with extra bits. So there's the main hoop which goes behind my head goes from the floor up to the roof, across the roof, and back down to the floor. At the top going back, theres' two straight bars that go the rear strut towers. Then there's two front legs which follow the roof line, then come down following the windscreen pillar. There's also a bar that follows the top of the windscreen line joining these front two legs to box the roof.

The photo Cage 4 clearly shows the main hoop, running around the edge of the car, in line with the back of the door. It has a crossed diagonal in it. Looking like an X.

You can also see the roof diagonal which goes under the sunroof. This triangulates the box made by the top of the front legs, the top of the main hoop and the windscreen bar.

There's also a diagonal in the rear legs. These are the bars that go back from the top of the main hoop to the rear strut towers. These are kind of more visible in photo Cage 1 (but remember that's taken from the opposite side of the car just to confuse you).

There's also a rear bar going between the base of the rear strut towers. Kind of like a rear strut brace, but I'll loop the harnesses over that.

Then there's side intrusion bars which are a straight line running from the strut towers, down each side of the car, to the bottom of the front legs. These protect in a side impact.

He's also put some gussets between some of the 90 degree bends (they're the weakest).

Hope that helps. I can take more photos if it would explain it better.

Actually, here's a MS paint to try and explain. A 3 view, and then a 3D view...it's hard to do!

M

Here's the 3D...but I suck at MS Paint.

M

A manual tranny would kill some weight.. and be twice as cool. Looks like an awesome project, I can't wait to see the end results.

Matt,
It was the cross diagonal I was referring to. I was expecting a similar diagonal going to the passenger's side rear.

http://www.subaru-svx.net/photos/fil...Ride/39010.jpg

-Bill

Looks nice, we'll get some comparison shots up after we get ours in this winter ;)

Bill,

Yeah right, sorry. My rules say I only need one cross in EITHER the rear legs or the main hoop. So I decided to go for the ones in the main hoop.

It's quite common for the crossed diagonals to be both in the main hoop and the rear legs (in fact most WRC cars have that)...but I just went for the one diagonal in the rear legs. I figure in a roll-over, the main hoop is where my head is at...the rest is more dead weight.

Roll cage design is a funny thing. I went in there with a bunch of things that I thought I wanted, but after looking at a few things, we agreed this is a good balance of cost vs safety.

I also didn't want to have one of those cages where tubes go everywhere, like spaghetti...the old girl is heavy enough without them!!

M

:cool: :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool: :D
-Bill

Just pulled the rear bumper assembly off the car...50lbs :eek: ...why is this thing built so tough?

Hopefully I can gut the support a bit, like the front, and get about 25lbs out of it.

Also started painting the cage, and removed the factory rear muffler and towbar (good thing too, the bolts were loose from the installation, first tow with this and it would have ripped the bar out of the floor!)

M

Matt,
Towbar? Can you post some pics? You're only the second person I can remember posting any mention about being able to mount a hitch to the SVX.

I believe the front and rear bumpers are as heavy as they are due to the U.S.'s 5mph impact requirement....

-Bill

Bill, it's a Hayman Reese bar. Not sure if they are an Australian company.

I'll try and get some photo's tonight or tomorrow.

M

Awesome
 

Great Project! I am curious as to how you are going to extract more power? I'm also curious as to what you are going to do about your transmission. If you need any assistance let us know. I'm still working on my turbo project. Almost finished though.

Matt, I just saw this today.
Great project!:cool:


pm sent.

marked for further drooling

Same with me great project, but how do you plan on getting 300+ hp out the eg33?

Struts
 

One other thing. You should really consider doing the Koni/GC setup in this car. It really improves (transforms) the handling of the SVX. A good time to do it would have been when you had to replace one of the struts.

And a bigger all aluminum radiator.
Removal of the 5 fan relays alone is worth 1/3 of an ounce.:o



http://www.subaru-svx.net/photos/use...svxfiles|37228
;)

awsome job man. looks like this thing is really gonna kick sme butt. Good luck with everything and contact me when you are ready to convert to a 6mt;)

Tom

Thanks guys,

I'll try and answer the questions.

1) Transmission - the 6MT will be in my hot little hands next week.

2) Shocks - definitely getting upgraded. Using DMS which are upside down, 50mm Bilstein-based coilovers. Fully adjustable (16 clicks of bump and 4 clicks of rebound).

3) Engine - the maths I've done says the EG33, with cams, compression and an standalone ECU, should get past 300hp. With some aggressive porting and flow work and more revs (9000rpm) it would get closer to 350hp, maybe more. The engine has 240hp stock...that's a pretty big base to start from.

I worked out I can virtually remove the bumper support, and just run the inner liner...it might mean we shouldn't lean on the bumper too much, but it will be fine.

My last rally car, a Celica GT4 (all trac to you I think), had 200hp at all 4 wheels, and weighed more than 3000lbs. I won a few rallies with it, so if the SVX can get to 3000lbs in rally trim, and have more than 200hp at the wheels, we'll be on a winner.

M

It sounds like you are on the right track. I don't know what to tell you as far as better cams, but engine management and slightly more fuel will definitely brighten up the engine. If your going to go through all of that expensive engine work, you might want to just slap in a turbo instead. That is what most race folks are doing with this engine hear in the states. The dune buggy guy I spoke with said the engine held up very well.

As far as winning races, it sounds like you could do that with the stock engine and all the other mods. A lot of that is the driver. You will be suprized at how this car responds to some stiff struts and springs. Really transforms it. I have never cornered like I have with my SVX with the Konis turned all the way up. A little hard on the but though.

Keep us posted.

Chuck,

My rules don't allow turbos. I have to keep the stock manifolds, but virtually everything else is free. Thank goodness the SVX came with twin 60mm throttle bodies.

The shocks I've run in th past are pretty firm. You usually can't bounce the car when you lean on it, it's rock solid, but at 80mph on the dirt, between the trees, it rides like a sports car.

Matt

Na
 

Well in that case, it will be really interesting to see what you come up with. I think your goals are realistic.

Matt,
Is there a way to test if the brakes will stand the pain after you remove the dust plate. I will be real interested to see how much of the problems we get with SVX brakes are related to the cool.
Tony

We don't have any bumper supports on ours. It sags a bit but strap ties will hold it up. Besides it makes it easy to remove when you snag it. You'll be hard pressed to be under 3000 but maybe 3100 is a decent spot without a driver and co-driver.

As for the cams, every engine builder I've talked to says do that absolutely last, up the compression first.

Definately going the right way on struts. Don't waste your money on the koni's as they aren't a good set up for harsh punishment. Street and track days they're okay but they aren't for a race car let alone a rally car. How much did that cage end up costing you? Ours is set for this winter.

The people on this board seem to have some very good succses with getting diffrent cams to shift tghe power band up alittle, and getting the stage 2 ecutune ECU so the engine can aculy read the amount of air that is coming into it at those RPMs.